South Africa shrugged off a ground evacuation because of a fire alarm to reach 38-1 in the first Test against New Zealand yesterday, a lead of five runs.
With the game evenly poised after an absorbing first three days, both sides were hoping looming rain over the weekend would not dictate the outcome.
“It does seem pretty even, but we don’t know what the weather holds... Hopefully, we can make a game of it, it’s always nice to get a result,” South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj said.
Photo: AFP
Maharaj claimed his first five-wicket haul to halt the New Zealand innings at 341, with a Kane Williamson century and the heroics of an injury-hit Ross Taylor giving them a 33-run first-innings lead.
B.J. Watling, who contributed to New Zealand’s total with 50, believed a result is still possible with “one crazy session” that could change the balance.
“We’ve just got to [take] each session at a time and see what that leaves us with,” Watling said. “You can’t play a game of cricket expecting it to rain because sometimes it doesn’t and you get caught out. It’s just the nature of the beast.”
South Africa lost opener Stephen Cook for a duck in the first over of their second innings and, despite a 20-minute delay when Dunedin’s University Oval was evacuated after a fire alarm in the main grandstand, they survived without further loss until bad light stopped play.
SRI LANKA V BANGLADESH
Reuters
Sri Lanka opener Upul Tharanga struck his third Test century to help his team set Bangladesh a mammoth 457-run victory target on the penultimate day of the first Test yesterday.
Tharanga made 115 and Dinesh Chandimal scored 50 not out before Sri Lanka, who had taken a 182-run first-innings lead, declared their second on 274-6 at the Galle International Stadium.
Bangladesh were 67-0 when bad light forced an early close with the tourists still needing 390 runs for an improbable win at a ground where no team has scored more than 300 in the fourth innings.
Soumya Sarkar was unbeaten on 53, his second half-century of the match, with Tamim Iqbal on 13.
WEST INDIES V ENGLAND
AFP, BRIDGETOWN, Barbados
Centuries by Alex Hales and Joe Root powered England to a crushing 186-run victory over the hapless West Indies in the third and final one-day international in Bridgetown, Barbados, on Thursday.
Replying to the tourists’ total of 328 all out off 50 overs, the hosts were bundled out for just 142 off 39.2 overs, suffering their worst margin of defeat ever against England.
Sidelined for almost two months by a hand injury sustained in India, Hales belted 110 on his return, while Root followed up his assured match-winning 90 not out in the second game in Antigua with 101.
“This innings was really special because I wanted to get back into the thick of things,” man-of-the-match Hales said. “It was frustrating being on the sidelines and I was desperately keen to perform.”
“This is extremely frustrating, we just didn’t compete in this match,” said disconsolate West Indies skipper Jason Holder in reflecting on another embarrassing setback for his team. “I thought we committed too many errors in the field and didn’t bowl consistently well. We can only go forward from this.”
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