Graeme Smith hit a pugnacious century as South Africa took control before heavy rain stopped play on the second day of the fourth and final Test against England at the Wanderers Stadium yesterday.
Smith was out for 105 shortly before a thunderstorm flooded the ground an hour before the scheduled tea break. South Africa were 208 for two at the stoppage, a lead of 28 runs after England were bowled out for 180 on the first day.
Smith and Hashim Amla (71 not out) put on 165 for the second wicket. The batsmen had to negotiate some hostile bowling at the start of an extended morning’s play, with the ball swinging and moving off the pitch, but gradually got on top of the bowlers.
PHOTO: EPA
Smith followed up his 183 in the second innings of the drawn third Test in Cape Town with his 20th Test century and his sixth against England.
It took him 105 balls to reach his half-century, but with Amla providing reliable support, he picked up his scoring rate as he moved to a century off 182 balls when he cut Ryan Sidebottom for his 16th boundary of the innings.
He got a good ball from Sidebottom five balls later, however, edging a seaming ball from the left-armer to Andrew Strauss at first slip. Two overs later rain started to fall and within minutes there were large pools of water on the ground, halting South Africa’s push for the win they need to square the series.
Smith survived a confident appeal for a catch behind when he was on 15 in the fourth over of the day. He chased a wide delivery from Sidebottom and the slips cordon went up in unison as wicketkeeper Matt Prior caught the ball, but the South Africa captain was given not out by umpire Tony Hill.
England asked for a review, but third umpire Daryl Harper could not find a reason to overturn Hill’s decision.
Ashwell Prince was out in the next over, caught at second slip by Graeme Swann off Stuart Broad, but England could not make another breakthrough.
Close of play on the second day of the third Test in Hobart, Australia:
• Australia 519-8 dec., Pakistan 94-4
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
‘GLOBAL PRESSURE’: LA’s Dave Roberts said that it was difficult to appreciate the ‘pressure on a global scale’ his starter was under ‘pitching for his country’ The Los Angeles Dodgers shelled out US$1 billion for Japanese talent in the off-season and it is paying off in the MLB playoffs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Friday outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic post-season matchup of Japanese-born starters, while the Dodgers got home runs from Kike Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 and advance to the National League Championship Series. “It’s pretty sweet,” a smiling Freddie Freeman said. Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the win, getting pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals who were meeting in a
RSS