Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs continued their flourishing opening partnership yesterday to give South Africa control of the second test against New Zealand at Eden Park.
The pair put on 177 -- the fourth-highest of their six century stands -- as South Africa mocked New Zealand's decision to bowl on winning the toss.
PHOTO: AFP
Smith made 88 and Gibbs 80 as they batted South Africa into a commanding position before their wickets fell at the same score either side of tea.
Gibbs fell to the last ball before the interval, bowled by Chris Cairns, and Smith fell to the first ball of the final session, trapped lbw by recalled medium pacer Chris Martin.
The dismissals, and South Africa's slow scoring rate between tea and stumps, allowed New Zealand to partially redeem a poor bowling performance.
South Africa labored to 231-2 at stumps, adding only 54 in the last two hours.
Jacques Rudolph had batted 134 minutes for 14 runs and Jacques Kallis, trying to equal Sir Donald Bradman's record of six centuries in consecutive tests, had made careful progress to 39.
The day belonged to Smith and Gibbs who, in reaching their sixth century stand in 32 innings together, equaled the South African record held by Trevor Goddard and Eddie Barlow.
The pair has scored more than 300 on three occasions and Thursday's stand stood behind only those massive contributions of 368, 338 and 301.
"We get on well, we know each other's game well, we talk to each other a lot," Smith said.
"I know when he's struggling and vice versa and we work through it. We stress partnerships a lot in our team in the top six and I think we've formed a really good partnership. We complement each other well and we've been lucky."
New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming acknowledged, "231-2 was not what we were looking for, certainly."
"I'm disappointed and surprised we weren't able to extract from the pitch what we thought we should have," Fleming said. "We really bowled two lengths and two lines and that was not what the plan required."
Fleming's decision to put in South Africa was unsurprising after the teams examined a faintly green temporary pitch, dropped into the Eden Park surface for this match.
The pitch provided consistent bounce, good pace and slight seam movement but New Zealand's performance with the first new ball failed to exploit the conditions.
Smith and Gibbs were allowed to settle at the wicket and when they did so they set a steady scoring pace, putting on 82 runs before lunch and 95 in the second session.
Gibbs batted 239 minutes for his 80, hitting 13 fours and a six, flat-batted down the ground off Cairns. Cairns had his revenge when he caused a ball to tweak back at the right-hander, striking the top of his off stump.
Smith batted only one minute longer than Gibbs, though their dismissals were separated by the 20-minute tea interval. He misjudged the line of a full delivery from the right-armer Martin and was trapped on the crease and in front of his stumps.
Martin was recalled after a two-year absence from test cricket, preferred ahead of Ian Butler for his ability to move the ball both into and away from the left-handers.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
Erling Haaland on Sunday scored twice to propel Manchester City up to second in the English Premier League with a 3-1 win over AFC Bournemouth. The Cherries started the day in second thanks to the longest unbeaten run in the English top flight, but Andoni Iraola’s side were undone by the scintillating form of the Norwegian striker, who took his tally to 13 Premier League goals in 10 games. Haaland’s relentless streak is maintaining City’s title challenge as they reduced the gap to leaders Arsenal back to six points and edged one point ahead of Liverpool, who they face at the weekend. “Important
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
RSS