New Zealand's Scott Styris shone with the bat and Chris Martin with the ball as the home side dominated the second day of the second test to trail South Africa by just 95 runs with seven wickets remaining yesterday.
Styris blasted an unbeaten 118 as New Zealand ended the day on 201 for three wickets after recalled medium-fast bowler Martin had ripped through South Africa's batting, taking five of his six-wicket haul to help dismiss the Proteas for 296.
Craig McMillan was the other not out batsman on 31 when stumps were drawn, with the pair adding 64 runs for the fourth wicket in a little over 11 overs.
The New Zealand reply began shakily when they lost Michael Papps and skipper Stephen Fleming cheaply to be struggling at 12 for two when Styris joined Mark Richardson.
Papps's wicket was a significant one for Shaun Pollock, who overtook Alan Donald as South Africa's leading wicket taker in tests with 331.
The belligerent Styris and the methodical Richardson hauled the home side out of trouble with a record third wicket partnership of 125, beating the 50-year-old mark against South Africa of 94 set by Matt Poore and Bert Sutcliffe in Cape Town.
As the partnership progressed, Styris provided the big hits and Richardson the deft touches, although the left-handed opener went out to an aggressive shot.
He had hit Jacques Kallis off the back foot through the covers for four and off the next ball attempted the same shot, but slashed the ball straight to Herschelle Gibbs in the gulley to be out for 45.
Styris went on to score his third test century off 121 balls in 173 minutes and hit 16 fours and two sixes.
Resuming in a strong position at 231 for two, the tourists were unable to gain any sort of momentum and lost eight wickets for 65 runs in a dramatic collapse.
Playing in his 12th test and almost two years after his last appearance, Martin claimed his second wicket of the match in his second over of the day when he induced an edge from overnight batsman Jacques Rudolph (17) to Papps at third slip.
He was soon followed by Gary Kirsten, who marked his 100th test appearance by being bowled for one by Jacob Oram with a ball that swung through the gap between bat and pad.
Seeking to score his sixth century in six tests, Jacques Kallis was next to go, edging a Martin delivery to Brendon McCullum after adding just a single to his overnight score of 39.
Mark Boucher became Martin's next victim when he got a thick edge to an attempted drive and was caught by McMillan and South Africa had lost four wickets for just 15 runs.
A partnership of 27 between Neil McKenzie and Pollock, temporarily stopped the rot, but the latter was bowled by Daryl Tuffey for 10 shortly before the interval, taken with South Africa reeling on 277 for seven.
Revived by the break, Martin removed McKenzie and Ntini in his second over after lunch before Oram finished off the tail, trapping David Terbrugge leg before without scoring.
The three-match series is tied at 0-0 after the sides battled out a draw in Hamilton last week.
Australia vs Sri lanka
Jason Gillespie bagged three big wickets as Australia survived a Sanath Jayasuriya blitz to keep alive their hopes of winning the second Test and the series against Sri Lanka here yesterday.
Fast bowler Gillespie removed a free-stroking Jayasuriya just when the Sri Lankan batsman looked set to put his team in a winning position with his blistering 145-ball 131 which included two sixes and 17 fours.
Sri Lanka struggled a bit after Jayasuriya's dismissal as they reached 301-7 at stumps on the fourth day, chasing a record 352-run target. Chaminda Vaas was batting on 30 with Kaushal Lokuarachchi (13).
Sri Lanka, not yet out of the match, now need 51 more runs to square the three-match series with three wickets in hand.
Damien Martyn had earlier slammed a career-best 161 to help Australia post 442 in the second innings despite off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan's 42nd haul of five or more wickets in a Test innings.
BOUNCE BACK: Curry scored 46 points in the Warriors’ victory over the Spurs, after ‘everybody stepped up’ following Tuesday’s blowout loss to Oklahoma City Nikola Jokic scoring 50 or more points had never been enough for the Denver Nuggets to win — until now. Jokic on Wednesday night tied the highest-scoring performance in the NBA this season with 55 points, as the Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers 130-116 for their sixth straight victory. The Nuggets were 0-4 in his previous 50-point outbursts. “It’s a good feeling,” the three-time NBA Most Valuable Player said. He equaled Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 55 in a double-overtime game at the Indiana Pacers on Oct. 23. Jokic has been on a roll during Denver’s winning streak. He is the
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
LIKE FINE WINE: Thirty-eight-year-old Djokovic won his 101st title of his career in Athens, becoming the oldest tournament winner since Ken Roswell, 44, in 1977 Elena Rybakina on Saturday clinched her biggest title since Wimbledon in 2022, defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (7/0) at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. The world No. 6 put on yet another serving masterclass and was at her returning best as she became the first Kazakh and the first player representing an Asian country to lift the WTA Finals singles trophy. Having gone 3-0 in round-robin play, Rybakina earned a record US$5.235 million and would finish the year ranked No. 5 in the world. “It’s been an incredible week, I honestly didn’t expect any result, and to go so far,
The tri-nation Twenty20 international series featuring hosts Pakistan, as well as Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, is to be played entirely in Rawalpindi from Tuesday next week, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said yesterday, after this week’s suicide bombing in the capital, Islamabad. The change came after at least eight Sri Lankan players asked to leave over security fears following Tuesday’s bombing that killed 12 people and wounded 27. Their country’s cricket board issued a stern directive to the team to stay put or face consequences. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said the decision to stay was taken after “close consultations” with hosts Pakistan who
RSS