Half-centuries by Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers and Ashwell Prince trumped a penetrative, marathon spell of spin bowling from Sulieman Benn to put South Africa in a favorable position in the opening Test against West Indies on Friday.
Boucher missed most of the preceding limited-overs matches, but he got his groove back in the top score of 69, de Villiers supported with 68 and Prince made 57, as the South Africans were dismissed for 352 in their first innings about 10 minutes before the scheduled close on the second day at Queen’s Park Oval.
“I think we played pretty well,” de Villiers said. “We realized after the first day, the pitch was taking a lot of turn, and quite slow, and it was not easy batting in the first session.”
“I am really proud of our effort. We strung good partnerships together, and we got the team out of trouble,” he said. “All in all, it was a good day for us. We would have been happy with 300, but we got 352, and so we will need to come on the third day and pick up some early wickets to put West Indies under pressure.”
The Proteas’ batsmen battled hard to get on top of the West Indies’ spin bowlers in particular, but Benn, gaining generous turn and bounce from the pitch, was the pick of the home team’s bowlers with five wickets for 120 runs from 47 overs.
Test newcomer Shane Shillingford supported Benn, when he collected three for 96 from 34 overs with his off-spin.
“It is nice to be playing Test cricket again, and this is my first Test at Queen’s Park Oval, which has a reputation of being home of spin bowling in the Caribbean,” Benn said. “It is nice to know that I was able to perform here. The pitch started out really ideal for spin bowling, but it flattened out, so you had to put in some extra work. I guess being patient, and bowling good lines and lengths, paid off for me in the end.”
Boucher made five fours and one six from 146 balls in his knock to beef-up the visitors’ total, after their innings appeared at the cross roads at 238 for seven.
He reached his 50 from 102 balls with a single to point, and added a valuable 86 for the eighth wicket with Dale Steyn either side of tea to tilt the balance back in favor of South Africa.
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