Time stands still for South Africa, then hurtles for Pakistan

Is there a line between patience and pointlessness? If there is, how do we know when it is crossed, one way or the other? Or does one melt into the other, leaving only the fuzzy logic of time spent apparently not doing much but in fact accomplishing a great deal?

Questions like those grew in relevance in Karachi on Thursday as the dot balls mounted, the runs and wickets did not, and the shadows and a lot else took on the length and look of Salvador Dali's melting clocks. Surrealism was all around as Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen set themselves to bat. And bat and bat and bat,