Summary Manzoor was on 41 and left-handed Masood on 36 as they guided Pakistan to 77 at lunch.
ABU DHABI (AP) - Khurram Manzoor and debutant Shan Masood grafted Pakistan's first half century opening stand in over a year after South Africa was bowled out for 249 on the second day of the first cricket test on Tuesday.
Manzoor was on 41 and left-handed Masood on 36 as they guided Pakistan to 77 without loss at lunch.
The new opening combination the sixth in the last seven tests finally came good for Pakistan, but Masood got a lucky escape on 9 when Jacques Kallis didn't bend enough at second slip to hold onto an edge off Dale Steyn.
Pakistan's last opening stand of over 50 runs was between Taufiq Umar and Mohammad Hafeez in June 2012 against Sri Lanka.
Masood, who also hit a half century in a warmup match against the Proteas last week, was off the mark off his first ball in test cricket when he played Steyn with soft hands to the third man boundary for a four.
South Africa bowled too short on a pitch which has no demons for the batsmen, and captain Graeme Smith used all of his six bowling options before lunch without any success.
Manzoor looked equally confident against pace and spin and took two boundaries in left-arm spinner Robin Petersen's last over before lunch.
Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 245-8, century-maker Hashim Amla edged lanky paceman Irfan (3-44) to Younis Khan at second slip off the second ball in the morning as the ball moved away from the right-hander.
Amla anchored the innings with a spirited 118 off 252 balls, hitting 13 fours as he occupied the crease almost throughout the first day while the rest of the specialist batsmen struggled.
Khan, playing in his 85th test, also equaled Javed Miandad's Pakistan record of 93 test catches.
Saeed Ajmal then had Steyn (15) stumped to finish with 2-59 while rookie left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar ended up with 3-89.
