The Second Test between South Africa and Pakistan in Cape Town is poised on a knife edge with Pakistan holding a 112-run lead with seven wickets in hand and two days remaining.
Pakistan has made most of the running in the Second Test at Newlands following a thumping loss to start the series in Johannesburg.
South African captain Graeme Smith won the toss on Thursday and sent the Pakistanis into bat first and it appeared a masterstroke of a move when the tourists crumbled to 4-33, reminiscent of their 49 performance in the first innings in Johannesburg.
However, both Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq got Pakistan into the contest with a 219-run partnership with each of them ending up scoring 111.
Pakistan ended up making a competitive 338 in its first innings and even though no South African batsman made a century in reply, the Proteas' got steady contributions right through their innings to end up just 12 runs short of the tourists total, making 326.
South Africa started the third day at 5-139 with AB de Villiers not out on 24 and Dean Elgar 11.
The pair added another 25 runs on Saturday before Elgar became off-spinner Saeed Ajmal's sixth victim of the innings. Elgar was out for 23 with South Africa 6-164.
De Villiers then teamed up for a solid stand of 46 with Robin Peterson before de Villiers became 7'1 giant debutant Mohammad Irfan's first Test victim for 61.
Vernon Philander then joined up with Peterson and helped make sure South Africa would have a narrow first innings deficit. The pair combined for 67 before Philander was out for 22.
Irfan had him caught by Nasir Jamshed and then had Dale Steyn caught behind for 10 before Mohammad Hafeez eventually brought Peterson's tremendous innings of 84 to an end to bowl out South Africa for 326.
Peterson's 84 from 106 deliveries with 15 fours was his highest international score for South Africa beating his previous high of 61 in Tests, and he has never passed 36 in limited overs cricket. He does have six first-class centuries to his name though.
Ajmal was the pick of Pakistan's bowlers finishing with 6-96 from 42 overs with Irfan impressing taking 3-86 with Hafeez the only other wicket-taker with 1-24.
That gave Pakistan a 12-run lead going into its second innings and after a horror start to its first innings, things didn’t improve too much with Hafeez and Jamshed both making ducks with the tourists slumping again to 2-7.
One of the first innings' centurions Khan then made just 14 before being bowled by Steyn and leaving Pakistan in trouble at 3-45.
However, that was the last wicket of the day to fall with captain Misbah-ul-Haq teaming up with Azhar Ali to safely guide Pakistan to 3-100 at stumps with an overall lead of 112 with seven wickets remaining.
Ali and Misbah have not been in any hurry and have been blocking machines with the odd big shot thrown in. Turning over the strike or looking for ones or two is not a feature of either man's batting, but they are both not out overnight with Ali on 45 and Misbah on 36.
Misbah was particularly savage any time Peterson didn’t quite get his length right, though, hitting him for three sixes.
Steyn has 2-24 for South Africa and Philander 1-26, but the Proteas are a bowler short with Morne Morkel trying to bowl through a tight hamstring. However, he only managed to do more damage with Jacques Kallis again being called upon to pick up his slack.