Morne Morkel continued to impress as South Africa restricted West Indies to a three-run first innings lead in the second Test on Monday.
Morkel finished with four wickets for 116 runs from 34.1 overs, as West Indies were dismissed for 546 about 45 minutes before the rescheduled close, replying to the South Africans’ first innings total of 543 for six declared. Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen batted the Proteas to 23 without loss at the close on the fourth day at Warner Park.
Morkel had removed the first two West Indies wickets, and then returned to mop-up the tail, removing Ravi Rampaul, caught behind for 31 to give wicketkeeper Mark Boucher his 500th victim in Tests, and Sulieman Benn caught at second slip for 26.
Rampaul and Benn had put on 59 for the ninth wicket to frustrate South Africa.
Before lunch, the South Africans were made to endure the slow grind from Chanderpaul and Bravo, which was interrupted by a 16-minute break for rain.
The Proteas’ bowlers toiled in vain, as West Indies reached 463 for four at lunch, after they continued from their overnight total of 424 for four.
South Africa’s bowlers were hamstrung by the docile pitch, and Chanderpaul and Bravo showed no great urgency in gathering runs.
The closest the South Africans came to grabbing a wicket came in the first half-hour, when Bravo edged a delivery from Dale Steyn between slip and gully for his second boundary.
But the Proteas snared four wickets — two to left-arm spinner Paul Harris — to bring the Test back to life before tea.
Harris struck, when he held a return catch to dismiss Shivnarine Chanderpaul for 166, then had Bravo caught behind for 53 to finish with two for 165 from 62 overs.
This was a purple patch for the South Africans, as West Indies slipped from 471 for four to 486 for eight.
Chanderpaul, whose innings included 10 fours and one six from 357 balls in just over eight hours, and Bravo added an even 100 from 330 balls for the fifth wicket.
In between Harris’ two wickets, Lonwabo Tsotsobe allowed Bravo the luxury of his fourth boundary with a back-foot square drive to reach his 50 from 176 balls, and gained the scalp of Denesh Ramdin caught at backward point for one. Jacques Kallis then had Shane Shillingford caught at second slip for seven.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier