Consistency key to Keshav Maharaj's seven-for

Watching 39-year-old Noman Ali and his fellow veteran spin bowler Asif Afridi bowl in tandem for Pakistan gives Proteas premier spinner Keshav Maharaj hope that he can continue playing Test cricket still for a number of years.

Maharaj is, of course, four years the Pakistani duo’s junior at 35, but a nagging groin injury has seen the left-armer miss a couple of Tests recently, including the opening match of this on-going series in Lahore last week.

“Yeah, look, I think I'm taking one day at a time. I've always said that I'd like to play for as long as I can. We'll see how the body holds up,” Maharaj said after taking 7/102 - his 12th Test five-wicket haul - upon his return to the Proteas Test side in Rawalpindi on Tuesday.

“And you know, if Shuks (Proteas Test coach Shukri Conrad) still wants me around, he did make a funny joke earlier, but we'll keep that off air. But yeah, I'd like to go for as long as I can. 

“I'm still driven and motivated. I think the day that I wake up in the morning and I don't want to bowl and I lose that passion, I'll have to be true to the game and walk away. But for now, I love bowling overs and still have that passion.”

The Proteas will certainly be hoping that Maharaj will be seen in Proteas whites for some time for he was brilliant upon his return to the Test side, helping to limit Pakistan to 333 all out. 

There has never been anything complicated or mysterious about Maharaj, who sticks to the tried and trusted basics of left-arm spin. He delivers the ball with good flight, changes the pace of his deliveries and uses the width of the crease to outmanoeuvre the batters.

One of his major attributes is also his ability to read the surface and assess the conditions, which proved hugely beneficial in Rawalpindi. 

“I started off probably a little bit quicker than normal and I felt like it wasn't biting, so I tried to use the loop and the trajectories in the air, hence changing the pace and lowered my arm here and there to create a little bit of angle and found a little bit of turn at times with the slower pace,” Maharaj said.

“I was just trying to be deceptive through the air with a wicket that will spin as the game goes on, but for the first things, you have to rely on trajectory. 

“I think the one thing apart from the pace is the consistency. I rely heavily on my consistency because I believe that on a wicket that's not giving me much, I have to be consistent otherwise the batters find it easy to score. 

“I also do a lot of analysis work when I go back, so identifying areas where the batter scores and, with the consistency and identifying that I'm able to do what I want to do during the game situation.”

Maharaj claimed all five Pakistani wickets to fall on Tuesday, but it was the big scalp of former captain Babar Azam on the opening day that gave him the most pleasure due to the pre-match planning that went into achieving it. 

“We know Babar's very proactive against spin. I was fortunate enough to watch the whole of the previous Test match and saw how he went about his business on a really difficult wicket for batters,” he said.

“And so we came up with a couple of plans. I think the last time I bowled to Babar, I got him LBW, but he's obviously amended his gameplan to me. Look, we don't bowl for silly point catches, but maybe the trajectory in the air forced that.”

Tristan Stubbs and Tony de Zorzi led the Proteas' reply with half-centuries to push the visitors up to 185/4 when stumps were drawn on the second day. Stubbs remained unbeaten on 68.