South Africa made comfortable progress despite losing opener Alviro Petersen to move within 58 runs of Pakistan's first innings total in the second Test in Dubai after the legspinner Imran Tahir had run through Pakistan's batting order in the first three hours of the Test.

Desperate for wickets, Pakistan used two reviews early in the innings - once when Mohammad Irfan hit Graeme Smith on the pads and the next time when the slip cordon was convinced Petersen had gloved one to the keeper - but both were turned down. But Pakistan struck through Zulfiqar Babar, who beat Petersen with an arm-ball and picked up the wicket in his first over. Petersen belatedly asked for a review, but that call became the sixth review in the day to be turned down. The day, however, had belonged to Tahir.

Tahir announced his comeback into Test cricket with a maiden five-wicket haul that left Pakistan embarrassed. He had picked up three wickets in the last ten minutes of the first session and then added two more early in the second as Pakistan lasted just 36.4 overs.

Two of those wickets, including that of Misbah-ul-Haq, came in the last over before lunch after Dale Steyn had removed Younis Khan in the penultimate one, meaning Pakistan had all but frittered away the advantage of batting first on a pitch that is expected to deteriorate.

Tahir was introduced as early as the 12th over of the innings, but bowled too full in his first few overs. Azhar Ali and Shan Masood, who were slowly staging a recovery after the first-over blow, were both happy to push him straight down the ground for comfortable singles. But one such full delivery caught the inside edge of Masood's bat and hit the stumps after hitting his back leg.

The second wicket was the big one though as Tahir bowled a flighted googly to which Misbah played outside the line and was hit right in front of the middle. Misbah reviewed the decision, but there wasn't much of a case for him. The third one was off a quicker delivery that Adnan Akmal chose to play on the back foot, but it skidded past the inside edge on to the stumps to leave Pakistan in tatters.

Pakistan's first session ended poorly, but they had a bad start too. They lost their first wicket off the second delivery of the match, with Dale Steyn, who was deemed fit in the morning, producing an excellent outswinger that drew Khurram Manzoor into a loose drive to be caught at gully. But they were reduced from 52 for 2 to 60 for 6 in a matter of minutes as Tahir found the right length on the pitch.

Pakistan hopes for some resistance in the second session disappeared as soon as Saeed Ajmal was run out by a direct hit. Then, Tahir picked up two more wickets in an over - Asad Shafiq went for a slog and missed a straighter one while Irfan missed a googly. Babar played a few shots but despite a 23-run stand for the last wicket, he didn't stand in the way for Pakistan's second sub-100 score in Dubai. Steyn cleaned up Junaid Khan to collect his third wicket of the innings with a reverse-swinging full delivery.

However, Pakistan were dismissed for exactly the same score against the then No 1 side, England, the last time they played a Test in Dubai, but went on to win the match as Younis and Azhar scored big centuries in the second innings.