Boucher 95 drives SA declaration
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Mark Boucher missed out on a richly deserved century, but his belligerent 95 from 118 balls was South Africa's driving force as they pushed on from their overnight 208 for 2 to declare on 423 for 7 in the second hour after tea, according to website cricinfo.
Their overall lead was a sizeable 243 with a maximum of six-and-a-half sessions of the match remaining, but with further bad weather forecast for the remainder of the match, the onus was on their seam attack, led by Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, to make swift incisions with the new ball.
Boucher's innings was a supremely paced affair, as he met his team's requirements to perfection and kept the scoreboard ticking in a 64-run stand for the seventh wicket with Ryan McLaren, who overcame a stodgy start to finish unbeaten on 33 from 56 balls. In the course of his innings, Boucher went past 5000 Test runs, and was on the brink of his fifth Test hundred when he top-edged a sweep from the first ball of a new spell from Graeme Swann, and was well caught by a tumbling Jonathan Trott at square leg.
For the second day running, a violent thunderstorm swept across the Wanderers to bring the afternoon session to a swift and truncated end, and leave South Africa's cricketers facing an anxious race against time if they are to force the victory that their efforts deserve, and that they so desperately need to square the series in the fourth and final Test. By tea on the third day, South Africa had pushed along to 382 for 6, a lead of 202, thanks to a forceful sixth-wicket stand of 120 between AB de Villiers and Mark Boucher.
South Africa 423 for 7 (Boucher 95) lead England 180 (Collingwood 47, Steyn 5-51) by 243 runs.
Their overall lead was a sizeable 243 with a maximum of six-and-a-half sessions of the match remaining, but with further bad weather forecast for the remainder of the match, the onus was on their seam attack, led by Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, to make swift incisions with the new ball.
Boucher's innings was a supremely paced affair, as he met his team's requirements to perfection and kept the scoreboard ticking in a 64-run stand for the seventh wicket with Ryan McLaren, who overcame a stodgy start to finish unbeaten on 33 from 56 balls. In the course of his innings, Boucher went past 5000 Test runs, and was on the brink of his fifth Test hundred when he top-edged a sweep from the first ball of a new spell from Graeme Swann, and was well caught by a tumbling Jonathan Trott at square leg.
For the second day running, a violent thunderstorm swept across the Wanderers to bring the afternoon session to a swift and truncated end, and leave South Africa's cricketers facing an anxious race against time if they are to force the victory that their efforts deserve, and that they so desperately need to square the series in the fourth and final Test. By tea on the third day, South Africa had pushed along to 382 for 6, a lead of 202, thanks to a forceful sixth-wicket stand of 120 between AB de Villiers and Mark Boucher.
South Africa 423 for 7 (Boucher 95) lead England 180 (Collingwood 47, Steyn 5-51) by 243 runs.