How Babar got Harmered in Rawalpindi

While Pakistan preferred to keep their lead left-arm spinner away from the left-handers during South Africa's last-wicket stand, the visitors had no such qualms about spinning the ball into the batter. With Pakistan having put up late resistance on the third evening after a bruising day, they began the fourth with Babar Azam, one shy of a half-century, along with Mohammad Rizwan in the middle. Faced with two right-handers , Aiden Markram gave the ball to offspinner Simon Harmer.

Harmer began the fourth morning with 996 first-class wickets. He'd bowled to just about everyone in every situation over his 16-year first-class career. That included Babar when he had a stint with Somerset in 2019, and remembered what had discomfited the Pakistan batter.

"I just felt it was probably more dangerous for him and made him less comfortable when I was bowling from around the wicket," Harmer said after South Africa's eight-wicket win in Rawalpindi.

There were more game-specific considerations, too. Pakistan had erased South Africa's lead by now, and were mindful of the value of runs. South Africa knew they could not pack the close field with more men. "In the subcontinent, as an offspinner to a right-hander, you've got a lot of turn from outside the line of the stumps," Harmer said. "So batters can easily take modes of dismissal away. We were obviously very mindful of the lead. We didn't want it to get away from us. We were trying to attack and not leak runs. So you can't carry extra catchers around the bat.

"I felt that the ball from that end specifically was spinning from straight. So if I came around the wicket and if they didn't want to score square, it kept the stumps in play, whereas from over the wicket they could get outside the line."

It also made it trickier for Babar to get himself onto the front foot off any length. Babar clipped the second ball of the day off the back foot into the onside to get to 50. But when Harmer pitched it slightly further up, he still went back. The ball kept low, hitting him beneath the knee roll.

With Harmer starting around off, there was enough room to land the ball on middle and spin away from Babar's bat without deviating too far out of the line of the stumps. Babar reviewed, but the DRS returned three reds. It was the 29th ball Harmer had bowled to Babar around the wicket this Test, conceding nearly a run fewer per over from that angle than from over the wicket.

Pakistan's offspinner Sajid Khan, meanwhile, does not enjoy the same comfort coming around the wicket to the right-hander. He had by far his most subdued series since Pakistan's turn to spin tracks, taking six wickets across the two Tests and just 1 for 134 in Rawalpindi. Against right-handers, he went around the wicket for just seven balls all Test, and 11 all series. Pitted against Harmer's experience, Sajid's ideas for creating opportunities looked rather pedestrian.

Babar's dismissal, though, was only the beginning of a near-perfect day for Harmer. He went on to take six in the innings, getting to 1000 first-class wickets along the way. But it was all unlocked thanks to a little memory holed away from a game in Chelmsford in the late English summer, deployed to clinical effect in the early Pakistani winter.