South Africa captain Graeme Smith made a belligerent 37 before he was out in the last over before tea as South Africa set out in pursuit of a victory target of 303 runs on the third day of the second Test against India at Kingsmead yesterday.
South Africa were 70 for one at tea, with Alviro Petersen unbeaten on 24.
Smith made 37 off 38 balls in an opening stand of 63 with Petersen before he top-edged an attempted pull against Sree Sreesanth, sending the ball high in the air to enable wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to run to square-leg to hold an easy catch.
V.V.S. Laxman was mainly responsible for South Africa having to chase more than 300, making a polished 96 before he was last man out, caught behind off Dale Steyn as he tried to keep the strike. India lost their last three wickets for 10 runs in 8.5 overs after lunch.
South Africa’s hopes of chasing a relatively small target rose when Morne Morkel bowled Cheteshwar Pujara with the sixth ball of the day, but Laxman remained unruffled and shared stands of 48 for the sixth wicket with Dhoni (21) and 70 for the eighth wicket with Zaheer Khan (27).
Only one run had been added to the overnight 92 for four when Pujara fended a sharply lifting delivery from Morkel into his stumps. Dhoni batted aggressively before he was caught behind off Lonwabo Tsotsobe, while Harbhajan Singh made only 4 before he was caught at second slip off Morkel.
Khan missed wild swings against both Tsotsobe and Morkel before settling down to provide valuable support to Laxman.
Khan was lucky to survive an LBW appeal by Dale Steyn when he had 10 and the total was on 181, with umpire Steve Davis ruling the ball had hit his bat, a decision which was contradicted by television replays. No umpire review system is in place for the series, however, and South Africa were unable to challenge the decision.
Tsotsobe took three for 43, while Morkel took three for 47.
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