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Skipper Fleming leads from the front with his 9th
Test hundred |
April 27, 2006 (Click to see the
Scorecard)
 Skipper
Stephen Fleming led from the front to score his
9th Test Century to take New Zealand to 265 for
6 at the close of Day 1. It was a keen contest
between bat and ball and at the end of the day
both teams looked to have done reasonably well.
South Africa have fought their way back after
the century stand from Fleming and Astle for the
4th wicket. Twelve overs were lost in the day’s
play due to a delayed start in the morning which
was because of a wet patch on the outfield. New
Zealand have the edge though with Fleming still
batting. The New Zealand Skipper who is on 114
can walk in fresh tomorrow morning and gather as
many runs as possible with his bowling all
rounders.
South African Skipper might be asking himself
several times whether he had done the right
thing in electing to field first after winning
the toss. History says that this was the first
occasion since 1928 that a Captain winning the
toss has put the opposition in at Newlands. Well
it was a bold decision from Smith but there was
enough dampness in the wicket this morning to
support Graeme Smith’s decision. Dale Steyn was
particularly unlucky in not getting any wickets
in the first hour as he bowled plenty of magic
deliveries that pitched on the middle stump and
left the right handers. The two Kiwi openers
Peter Fulton and Michael Papps hung in there and
somehow managed to survive the good deliveries
from the seamers and they even took the score
past 50 runs. Andre Nel who had replaced Shaun
Pollock in this match got the breakthrough with
Papps shouldering arms to his inswinger and
getting clean bowled. New Zealand went in at
lunch losing just the wicket of Papps and that
was considered to be a job well done with the
wicket aiding the seamers totally.
After Lunch, Dale Steyn removed Fulton with an
away swinger and then Scott Styris, who was hit
by a nasty bouncer from Ntini on his cheek bone
gave his wicket away to Ntini. Styris was indeed
rattled by the short stuff from Ntini and the
batsman wasn’t even daring to come behind the
ball and play and one of those short ones from
Ntini was fended to the 1st slip meekly by
Styris. South Africa with these two wickets
looked to have got back in the game but Fleming
and Astle rallied together to put on a 100-run
partnership. Infact the partnership was 99 runs
when Tea was called and the pair added up 9 more
runs in the last session before Astle was out
lbw to Ntini. Astle was out for exactly 50 with
Ntini bowling from the edge of the crease, got
the ball to swing back sharply and wrap Astle
infront of the stumps. The ball might have gone
down the leg stump with the angle created by
Ntini but the same batsman was lucky when he got
away after getting a faint edge to a ball that
held its line from Andre Nel.
After Astle’s fall, Jacob Oram was the new man
in who was giving good company to his skipper
but he was gone through a needless run out.
Fleming who was in the 90s wanted the strike and
took off from the non striker’s end without
looking at his partner as Oram played a short
delivery from Boje behind square on the onside
and in the end Oram sacrificed his wicket by
running in vain to the non striker’s end.
Stephen Fleming got to his 9th test century soon
with a miscued shot over mid off with Graeme
Smith bowling a full toss. Ntini then got
another lbw decision in his favour and this time
he caught McCullum playing in his crease on the
backfoot with a sharp inswinger that skidded off
the track from the short of good length area.
It has been a good knock from Fleming and its
rather surprising that he has just hit the 9
centuries in his career considering the fact
that he is playing his 101st Test Match. He has
played all the shots in the book today and was
well in control in playing each and every
bowler. Fleming has hardly done anything wrong
today except for that Oram dismissal and he
looks good for more. As far as the wicket is
concerned, it has eased out with the moisture
drying off once the sun got in. There is plenty
of turn though but Nicky Boje doesn’t look the
world class bowler who can make use of that to
bundle out sides. Daniel Vettori would surely
use it to his advantage and the South Africans
will have a tough task in handling him on this
dry track. New Zealand are playing the
additional spinner in Jeetan Patel who is making
his Test Match Debut. Another change that NZ had
to make was that of Michael Papps who has come
in place of Hamish Marshall who has injured his
ribs to a snorter from Ntini in the last test.
South Africa have also made two changes getting
in Hashim Amla for the out of form Herschelle
Gibbs and Andre Nel in place of Shaun Pollock
who had pulled out this morning due to a back
strain.
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