Here we go again. Just like on the first day in Lahore last week, Pakistan won the toss in Rawalpindi on Monday and - surprise, surprise; not - chose to bat. Also just like last week, South Africa took five wickets and dropped four catches.

But there are differences between the opening days of the first and second Tests, starting with the XIs.

The home side dispensed with Hasan Ali and gave Asif Afridi, a 38-year-old left-arm spinner, his debut. The visitors welcomed back Keshav Maharaj from a groin strain - he replaced Prenelan Subrayen. Wiaan Mulder, who scored 17 and nought in Lahore, made way. Tristan Stubbs was bumped up to No. 3, and Marco Jansen came in as a fast bowler who knows his way around the batting crease. Had David Bedingham been any good at bowling seam up he might have cracked the nod ahead of Jansen.

Importantly, perhaps, the home side are 54 runs behind where they were at this stage of last week's game. Also, the pitch is not as receptive to spin as it was on the first day in Lahore: a key factor, maybe the key factor, in Pakistan's 93-run win.

"The wicket didn't play like it did in Lahore," Maharaj told a press conference after stumps. "It didn't spin as much, so we tried to restrict the Pakistani batters."

That the conditions were dissimilar from the Gaddafi was apparent from the fourth ball of the match - bowled by Kagiso Rabada - which took the edge of Abdullah Shafique's dangling bat and flew to third slip, where Stubbs spilled the chance.

South Africa had turned to spin by the sixth over in Lahore. Jansen bowled the sixth over on Monday, and the fifth delivery, an inswinger, beat Shafique's drive and hit his off-stump. But not solidly enough to light up a bail.