The soft outfield in Durban abandoned three days of play of first Test between South Africa and New Zealand. That eventually lead to draw, despite both teams eager to prove their mettle. Both the teams were extremely disappointed and frustrated after playing our four out of 15 sessions. But both stressed on the safety of players after the match ended in draw. No play took place after rain fell during the lunch break on the second day on Saturday, when New Zealand were on 15 for two in reply to South Africa’s first innings total of 263. Rain continued throughout the rest of Saturday and into early Sunday morning. The weather cleared and there was no further rain but the outfield conditions did not improve sufficiently for play to resume. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: South Africa vs New Zealand, 1st Test at Durban
Du Plessis spoke post match draw and said, “It’s up to the umpires to make an assessment of whether the ground is safe or not. As cricketers or sportsmen, we generally don’t look at all the factors, we just want to get out there. From our perspective, we wanted to play but the general feeling was that the ground was unsafe. There were quite a few areas that were a bit muddy and a bit loose on the foot. They were very worried that if you were to sprint or make sudden movements on it, you could get badly injured. The message was pretty clear from the umpires that player safety was their main concern and we respect that.”
On the wet outfield, Kiwi coach Hesson said, “From the time we arrived at this Test match, we knew that the outfield was in a poor state and obviously it just didn’t cope with the rain.” The covers on the ground brought the difference where the conditions could have permitted some play to take place. Du Plessis even admitted he would have been happy to field close-in, but it was the outlying areas that posed a danger. He added, “I wouldn’t have minded standing in the slips because there wasn’t much happening there but the areas of concern were the boundaries. If you fielded at fine leg and had sprint around or you have to dive for a ball at mid-off, take a catch or something like that, that was a concern.” ALSO READ: SA vs NZ: Kingsmead shame leads 1st Test into draw
He also said, “As a player, when a ball is going in one direction, I am going to run and dive and try and stop it. I don’t think of what’s happening on the outfield. It’s the umpires’ job to think of those things. I am there to try and win a game of cricket for my country. The modern game of cricket allows the umpires to make the decision to make sure player safety is important.”
Du Plessis also admitted, he did not want any of the players to be injured in the process of wet outfield, “If we had got on the field and a bad injury happened, both teams would have been pretty upset. From a captain’s point of view, if one of your strike bowlers ran around the boundary and hurt himself by doing it, you would be upset.” ALSO READ: SA vs NZ: How Kingsmead’s wet outfield spoiled a promising Day 3
The seamers had good run in the middle as the conditions favoured them that provided them reasons to smile. Dale Steyn was the spearhead with two wickets nabbing opening batsmen Tom Latham and martin Guptill on Day Two. Earlier, South Africa were bowled out for 262, thanks to Trent Boult and Neil Wagner rattling the Proteas. Du Plessis ended the conversation saying, “We were dying to get out there because we had them in a spot of bother and on that wicket, there was still a lot of assistance. It was a great cricket wicket. There was a bit of movement for bowlers, a bit of swing and if you knuckled down and you were prepared to bat for time, you could score some runs on it. I think it would have been a really good Test match.”
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