|
Fleming goes on
to score a marathon 262 as NZ take control of
the 2nd Test |
April 28, 2006 (Click to see the
Scorecard)
 Yesterday’s
centurion Stephen Fleming carried on from where
he had left on Day 1 and batted on and on to
score a marathon 262 before falling to Ashwell
Prince in what became the last ball of today’s
play. The New Zealand Skipper got solid support
from another left hander James Franklin who
worked his way to remain unbeaten on 93.
Franklin who is more known for his bowling had
shown excellent defence to the good balls to
stand as a rock at one end and Fleming at the
other end went onto play shots in different
directions of the ground. The New Zealand
Skipper eventually got out after he dragged his
drive onto his stumps and with the light being
offered to the Proteas, NZ closed at a mammoth
535 for 8.
Today’s play was also curtailed and this morning
it was the dense fog that kept the players back
in the dressing room. New Zealand have done
incredibly well after being put to bat first on
Day 1 as the conditions then were tough for the
batsmen to even put bat on ball in the first
hour. This morning saw a bit of overcast
conditions and the pair of Fleming and Franklin
showed good technique to counter the friendly
bowling conditions. Once the sun came out, the
two New Zealand left handers started to make
glory as the pitch flattened out and encouraged
strokeplay. Fleming went hammer and tongs with
his free flowing drives and cuts and pulls and
raced away to a glorious double century.
Interestingly Fleming brought up his double
century with a four and his century also had
come through a boundary. The boundary which got
him to 200 was through a pull shot off Andre Nel.
South Africa thought they had begun Day 2 on a
promising note by picking up the wicket of
Daniel Vettori in the 3rd over of the day but
little did they know that they were in for a
long leather hunt for the rest of the day.
Vettori was out miscuing his pull shot to mid on
as Makhaya Ntini bowled a short one which was
seaming away. This 256 runs stand between
Fleming and Franklin was also helped by the fact
that few catches had been put down by the
fielders today and the South African bowling
attack looked completely pedestrian once the
pitch eased out.
New Zealand might be declaring their innings
after Franklin completes his maiden Test Match
century tomorrow morning. The Black Caps would
then be looking for their two spinners Daniel
Vettori and debutant off spinner Jeetan Patel to
do the damage on this dry wicket. One thing is
for sure that the South African Skipper Graeme
Smith would be having few sleepless nights on
why he had put New Zealand to bat first after
winning the toss yesterday. It looks that the
South African batsmen will have to spend lots of
time in the middle to save this Test Match and
for New Zealand, they have the runs on the board
to put men in catching positions. The visitors
would be hoping to square the series at Newlands
but for that they would have to bowl out South
Africa as quickly as possible in their first
innings.
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