South Africa 615 (Rickelton, Bavuma 106, Verreynne 100, Abbas 3-94) and 61 not out (Bedingham 47*) batted Pakistan 194 (Babar 58, Rabada 3-55) and 478 (Masood 145, Babar 81, Rabada 3-115) with ten wickets

South Africa marked their qualification for the WTC finals in style, romping to a ten-wicket victory over Pakistan. It is their seventh Test win in a row and came after two-and-a-half days of toil with the ball before they finally priced Pakistan out for 478 in the third innings. A valiant century from Pakistan captain Shan Masood and several other contributions forced South Africa to strike again as the visitors overcame the second-highest first-innings deficit in Test history. However, the target – 58 – was little more than a formality and South Africa took 7.1 overs to knock it down.

But Pakistan made them wait for the win. When South Africa enforced the follow-on lead by 421 on Sunday afternoon, they did not expect to bowl another 122.1 overs. Masood, unbeaten overnight on 102, continued and looked to rebuild after a mammoth 205-run opening stand with Babar Azam. South Africa were frustrated for much of the day, especially during an 88-run stand between Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Agha in the afternoon. But Keshav Maharaj, denied for most of the day, found the breakthrough and regular wickets after that ensured a finish in the late evening sunshine.

Earlier in the day, Marco Jansen got night watchman Khurram Shahzad out early before Rabada cleaned up Kamran Ghulam. Maharaj more or less made it through the entire session, only interrupted when he switched ends at one point. His variations in pace and flight, as well as a ball that continued to spin, posed the main threat to the batsmen, but wickets came at pace.

Shahzad had done his job and never quite seemed able to continue for too long. When a length ball from Jansen got too big for him, he chipped it straight to Maharaj. Ghulam never seemed to settle down and he kept the batting cordon interested throughout his innings. He should have gone scoreless when, in the same over as Shahzad, he fell, chipped at a wide but it blasted through David Bedingham’s hands at first slip.

That wicket always came though. Rabada’s growing frustration with his wicketlessness and general indiscipline – he bowled another four no-balls this morning – was mounting. Just after he went over, he found a beauty that nibbled back off the seam into Ghulam and put his middle stump back. It was a brilliant way to bring up his 50th Test wicket at Newlands, with the roar that followed making it clear how much it meant to him.

Saud Shakeel and Masood continued to make South Africa work for each scalp and yet South Africa could have got one more before lunch. Kwena Maphaka squared up Shakeel with a lovely delivery that straightened as it hit the pad, only for South Africa to opt out for a review. As Shakeel received extensive treatment for the blow, Hawk-Eye showed that it hit the leg stump.

Masood’s stint at the crease ended in somewhat controversial circumstances. Maphaka got one to shape away from the seam that kept low before cannoning into the batter’s front pad. Umpire Nitin Menon felt it missed the stump, but when South Africa called, Hawk-Eye showed it hit. That prompted a furious response from Masood, whose protests continued all the way along his slow walk from the crease into the dressing room.

It made for a bright first hour after lunch for South Africa. Shakeel had been ruled out soon after play resumed in much the same way he fell in the first innings: he settled while driving in Rabada. When Masood departed, there was a danger that Pakistan might curl up in a heap, as they have tended to do of late.

But Agha and Rizwan rebuilt again. They lost the luster of the second new ball and kept the strike turning. There were only three fours in the first 55 runs of the partnership as Pakistan looked to milk the tiring bowlers, but when Mulder erred, Agha was quick to put him away for two fours in three balls.

The two continued as Pakistan wiped out the deficit, but soon Rizwan had Maharaj cut to short cover, exactly where Bavuma had placed a fielder for the shot, and South African nerves began to loosen again.

Agha, having been dismissed by DRS, fell quickly behind – two runs short of his half-century – when a Maharaj delivery ripped and bounced and pulled a sharp catch to Aiden Markram at slip. Mir Hamza came out and had some fun, including a heave back over the bowler’s head in the only six of the innings. But it wasn’t built to last. Aamer Jamal reversed swept Maharaj to slip before Rabada ended the innings and Bedingham and Markram sprinted off the field.

Six years ago, on this very ground, Pakistan’s third innings ended on the third night, with South Africa needing 41 to wrap up the series. Stumps were called and play ended on the fourth morning.

This time the South Africa openers did not let the match go into the next day. Bedingham gave a shot in the arm with an eye-catching little knock – unbeaten 47 off 30 – that ensured it took South Africa just 43 balls to secure a victory that, despite a very long wait in the field, was ultimately routine.