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South Africa provide tough resistance in reply
to NZ’s 593 |
April 29, 2006 (Click to see the
Scorecard)
New Zealand’s chances of squaring the series at
Cape Town are starting to look remote as they
ended up picking just two wickets so far in the
South African 1st Innings. Once again bad light
conditions robbed more than 10 overs of the
cricket. The pitch has been extremely flat for
the seamers and the only chance of getting any
wickets lies in the hands of the spinners. South
Africa had a mountain to climb once New Zealand
declared their innings at 593. The pace duo of
Chris Martin and James Franklin were ordinary on
this track and the South African openers Skipper
Graeme Smith and Boeta Dippenaar negotiated them
comfortably. Fleming had to then bring on his
two spinners Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel who
started to build up the pressure on the Proteas
by bowling a tight line and length. Debutant
Patel went onto take the wickets of both the
openers but New Zealand could not press on
further to put SA in trouble as they came up
against some strong defensive show from Hashim
Amla and Jacques Kallis.
The South Africans’ intentions in this match
seem to be very clear and they are concentrating
in playing time and ensure that they go to the
3rd Test with the 1-0 lead. Fleming brought up
spin in just the 10th over in form of Daniel
Vettori and with his medium pacers looking flat;
he also got in the off spinner in the attack
soon. Jeetan Patel, who is into his Test Debut
struck before lunch as Graeme Smith, who was
looking to turn him on the onside patted the
flighted delivery straight to the bowler. Smith
had stood his ground as he was thinking that he
had hit it on the bounce, but the TV Umpire came
in play and ruled him out. After lunch, Vettori
and Jeetan Patel combined well to make the South
African batsmen work hard to negotiate them.
Patel tasted success with just the third ball he
had bowled after being introduced into the
attack in just the 13th over. After Smith’s
exit, in came the bearded Hashim Amla coming in
at a pressure situation with South Africa at 36
for 1.
Amla who has come in the South African line up
in the place of the out of form Herschelle Gibbs
is just playing his 4th Test Match and before
this match he has the experience of scoring only
25 runs in the 6 innings that he had played
prior to this. The right hander had joined Boeta
Dippenaar and the two batsmen battled for
survival against the two Kiwi spinners. Vettori
got plenty of balls to turn from the middle
stump but was unlucky not to get the nicks.
Dippenaar was out in the 40th over of the South
African innings with Dippenaar trying to cut
against the turn got a bottom edge which crashed
onto his stumps. Jeetan Patel was the bowler who
took this wicket and that was the last wicket
New Zealand could get on Day 3. With light being
offered in the 62nd over, the two South African
batsmen walked off the ground and stumps were
called with South Africa doing well at 155 for
2. Hashim Amla is unbeaten on exactly 50, which
is his maiden Test fifty and he has already
played 146 balls. Kallis has a similar strike
rate to that of Amla in his unbeaten knock of
25.
In the first hour, New Zealand resumed their
innings with James Franklin on 93 along with the
new batsman Jeetan Patel. Fleming did not
declare after Franklin’s maiden Test hundred and
the NZ skipper finally declared at 593 for 8
with Franklin unbeaten on 122 and Patel making a
brisk 27. The Kiwis had played 13 overs today.
Time is slowly running out of this Test Match
and for New Zealand to take 18 more wickets, it
looks really tough as the only way it looks they
can take is through Vettori and Jeetan Patel.
The manner in which the South Africans handled
the two spinners today, one can say that they
have enough resources to survive a long time in
their 1st Innings.
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