Smith and Kallis revive South Africa
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis dominated the second session at Kingsmead with a third-wicket stand of 141, as South Africa recovered from a dicey first hour of the Boxing Day Test to reach tea well placed on 151 for 2 after winning the toss in humid conditions, according to website cricinfo.
On a wicket offering plenty assistance to the seamers, and hindered by a damp outfield that deprived them of full value for their shots, both batsman found the going extremely tough indeed - not least Smith, who received a painful blow to his left index finger from James Anderson early on in his innings, and required regular treatment from the physio. But neither man could be dislodged, to leave England frustrated after they had claimed two vital scalps inside the first ten overs of the match.
Just as Andrew Strauss had regretted winning the toss and choosing to field on a misleadingly green wicket at Centurion, so Smith had been left harbouring plenty doubts about the wisdom of his own decision this time around. With lively bounce allied to prodigious swing through the air, South Africa grafted their way to 67 for 2 at lunch, having at one stage been faltering at 10 for 2, but in the afternoon session - aided by a softening ball and a tiring four-man attack to which Jonathan Trott's medium-pacers offered scant variation - they found a more commanding tempo, with both men registering vital half-centuries.
Of the pair, Kallis was the more fluent. He scored the first boundaries of South Africa's innings in the 16th over, when a brace of short balls from Stuart Broad were cut and pulled to the fence, and reached his half-century from 94 deliveries with a rare false shot through a yawning gap in the slips as Trott induced an unlikely edge. In between whiles he was caused some bother by the spin of Graeme Swann, who lured him into an ugly heave over midwicket in his first over, but by and large his authority was absolute, as he built on his first-Test hundred with an innings containing four further fours.
Smith, on the other hand, relied on his unyielding determination, not least to negotiate a traumatic period against the new ball, during which time Anderson and Graham Onions proved to be an accurate and incisive pairing. He had two lucky escapes, first on 45 - when Swann shaved his outside edge with a well-flighted offbreak, but Paul Collingwood at slip couldn't quite get his fingers underneath a low chance - and then on 53, when he sized up an ambitious sweep to be rapped on the pad plumb in front of middle. England opted not to go for the review, and it seemed at first to be an erroneous decision, although later replays suggested there might have been a thick inside-edge.
Swann was his usual threatening self, but the seamers ought to have provided a bigger source of wickets, especially after the start they enjoyed. Anderson took the first over from Shaun Pollock's favoured Umgeni End, and the reputed extra bounce available to bowlers from that end paid dividends after seven deliveries when Ashwell Prince was pushed onto the back foot by an off-stump lifter, and Swann at third slip pouched a regulation spliced edge.
South Africa 1st innings:
GC Smith run
out (Cook) 75
AG Prince c Swann
b Anderson 2
HM Amla lbw
b Broad 2
JH Kallis c Collingwood
b Swann 75
AB de Villiers not out 4
Extras: (lb 8) 8
Total: (4 wickets; 58.2
overs) 166
On a wicket offering plenty assistance to the seamers, and hindered by a damp outfield that deprived them of full value for their shots, both batsman found the going extremely tough indeed - not least Smith, who received a painful blow to his left index finger from James Anderson early on in his innings, and required regular treatment from the physio. But neither man could be dislodged, to leave England frustrated after they had claimed two vital scalps inside the first ten overs of the match.
Just as Andrew Strauss had regretted winning the toss and choosing to field on a misleadingly green wicket at Centurion, so Smith had been left harbouring plenty doubts about the wisdom of his own decision this time around. With lively bounce allied to prodigious swing through the air, South Africa grafted their way to 67 for 2 at lunch, having at one stage been faltering at 10 for 2, but in the afternoon session - aided by a softening ball and a tiring four-man attack to which Jonathan Trott's medium-pacers offered scant variation - they found a more commanding tempo, with both men registering vital half-centuries.
Of the pair, Kallis was the more fluent. He scored the first boundaries of South Africa's innings in the 16th over, when a brace of short balls from Stuart Broad were cut and pulled to the fence, and reached his half-century from 94 deliveries with a rare false shot through a yawning gap in the slips as Trott induced an unlikely edge. In between whiles he was caused some bother by the spin of Graeme Swann, who lured him into an ugly heave over midwicket in his first over, but by and large his authority was absolute, as he built on his first-Test hundred with an innings containing four further fours.
Smith, on the other hand, relied on his unyielding determination, not least to negotiate a traumatic period against the new ball, during which time Anderson and Graham Onions proved to be an accurate and incisive pairing. He had two lucky escapes, first on 45 - when Swann shaved his outside edge with a well-flighted offbreak, but Paul Collingwood at slip couldn't quite get his fingers underneath a low chance - and then on 53, when he sized up an ambitious sweep to be rapped on the pad plumb in front of middle. England opted not to go for the review, and it seemed at first to be an erroneous decision, although later replays suggested there might have been a thick inside-edge.
Swann was his usual threatening self, but the seamers ought to have provided a bigger source of wickets, especially after the start they enjoyed. Anderson took the first over from Shaun Pollock's favoured Umgeni End, and the reputed extra bounce available to bowlers from that end paid dividends after seven deliveries when Ashwell Prince was pushed onto the back foot by an off-stump lifter, and Swann at third slip pouched a regulation spliced edge.
South Africa 1st innings:
GC Smith run
out (Cook) 75
AG Prince c Swann
b Anderson 2
HM Amla lbw
b Broad 2
JH Kallis c Collingwood
b Swann 75
AB de Villiers not out 4
Extras: (lb 8) 8
Total: (4 wickets; 58.2
overs) 166