South Africa’s batsmen, led by Jacques Kallis, took the time to have a glorified net session as the second Test against West Indies meandered to an inevitable draw on Tuesday.
Kallis finished with an unbeaten 62, to follow-up his first innings hundred, as the South Africans declared on 235 for three in their second innings to effectively end the match about an hour after tea on the fifth and final day at Warner Park.
The result meant that the Proteas continue to lead the three-Test series 1-0, after winning the opening Test in Trinidad.
South Africa captain Graeme Smith said he found West Indies’ tactics on the fourth day perplexing, when their batsmen crawled through the morning session, only scoring 39 runs from 26 overs.
“Our tactics [on the fourth day] were that West Indies had batted themselves into a position, and being 0-1 down, we felt they had an opportunity to make a play,” he said.
“They didn’t make the play, and they were defensive, which played into our hands, so we had to bat out [this] day, and we head to Barbados still up 1-0,” Smith said.
Kallis and A.B. de Villiers (31 not out) batted through the final three hours to add an unbroken 104 for the fourth wicket.
“I am very happy with the result,” said West Indies captain Chris Gayle. “Our batting has been struggling, and to get over 500 runs is a great achievement.”
Gayle defended his side’s go-slow tactics on the penultimate day, and he noted that they have not been batting well in recent matches, so they wanted to make the most of the opportunity.
“I am satisfied because our plan was to bat out the day, and when you looked at the way they bowled at us it was always going to be difficult for us to score, so we just tried to bat as many overs as possible,” he said.
Before lunch, two wickets in the final half-hour rocked the Proteas.
South Africa, resuming from their overnight total of 23 without loss, made a positive start with Smith and Petersen taking them safely past 50.
Smith was caught behind off Shillingford for 46, after sharing an opening stand of 74 with Petersen.
Amla joined Petersen, and they proceeded to play circumspectly.
Shillingford had Amla caught at leg gully for 41 in the penultimate over before the interval. Petersen was then bowled by Dwayne Bravo to spur roar the match back to life. After lunch, Kallis and de Villiers dug-in, taking South Africa to 214 for three at tea.
After the break, the passage of play was a mere formality, as the two teams accepted a result was highly improbable.
■ENGLAND V AUSTRALIA
AFP, SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND
Eoin Morgan’s unbeaten 103 saw England to a come from behind four-wicket win over Australia in the first one-day international at the Rose Bowl on Tuesday.
England, chasing 268 for victory, were in dire straits at 97 for four but former Ireland batsman Morgan’s second one-day hundred for his adopted country turned the tide and gave England a 1-0 lead in the five match series.
He ended the match and went to his hundred in the process by crashing paceman Ryan Harris down the ground for four, having faced 85 balls as England won with exactly four overs to spare.
Australia arrived in England without injured quicks Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus but having made 267 for seven, featuring vice-captain Michael Clarke’s unbeaten 87, it seemed they would make light of their inexperienced attack.
However, a fifth-wicket stand of 95 in 92 balls between Morgan and Luke Wright swung the match back England’s way before the latter was lbw for 36 to Harris.
England were now 192 for five but the required rate was less than a run-a-ball.
Tim Bresnan (27) then helped Morgan take England to the brink of victory.
■ASIA CUP
REUTERS, COLOMBO
Farveez Maharoof claimed a hat-trick as Sri Lanka beat India by seven wickets in the final round-robin match of the Asia Cup on Tuesday.
Both teams had already qualified to play each other in today’s final of the four-nation competition.
India were well placed at 189 for four before they crumbled to 209 all out from 42.3 overs, losing their last six wickets for 20 runs as Maharoof performed his hat-trick.
The pace bowler trapped Ravindra Jadeja lbw, bowled Praveen Kumar, and had Zaheer Khan caught off successive deliveries in the 39th over.
Maharoof was named man-of-the-match with figures of five for 42 from 10 overs.
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