Published: Mar 11, 2017, 06:41 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 11, 2017, 06:41 AM (IST)
South Africa finished at 100 for 2 against New Zealand on Day Four at end of the first session at Dunedin. In the rain-delayed start of the fourth day of this riveting encounter, South Africa lost the only wicket of Hashim Amla (24) early on who added a single to his overnight total. But since then, opener Dean Elgar (40*) and JP Duminy (32*) have steadied the Protea ship, stitching a vital partnership of 61runs for the third wicket. It is due to this cautious partnership, South Africa are now lead New Zealand by 67 runs with a good amount of batting yet to come in the oncoming sessions. LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD, New Zealand vs South Africa, 1st Test at Dunedin
This session turned out from excellent to frustrating for New Zealand as the overs went by. The game was supposed to start 9 minutes early due to early stumps on Day Three due to bad light. But with a fair amount of consistent drizzle since the morning, the start was delayed by around 30-35 minutes. Neil Wagner and Trent Boult started off the day’s proceedings and as usual very bang on target receiving enough bounce and swing off the seam.
Due to the drizzle, the wicket had become a little slower and that affected the batting for Amla and Elgar. But both persisted and took some time to settle in. The first for South Africa came on the 16th delivery of the day when Amla took a single.
But Wagner banged came in hard and got the very important wicket of Amla. It was a back of length delivery around the off stump line from Wagner, which slowed down after pitching. Amla tried to flick but was undone by the late and popped up an easy catch to substitute fielder Tim Southee at short midwicket.
Since then Duminy and Elgar have batted well. Elgar has looked impressive in his unbeaten 40, whereas Duminy has ridden on luck twice. New Zealand bowlers gave all of their efforts but were on the unlucky side. It started with Tom Latham dropping a Duminy’s sitter of Boult’s bowling. Later the hosts also lost one of the reviews on a caught behind appeal off Boult’s bowling. The ball had hit the pads and not the bat.
Jeetan Patel was introduced as the second bowling change instead of Wagner conceded 7 runs in his first five deliveries and had trapped Duminy only to be turned down by on-field umpire Kumar Dharmasena. Duminy was plumb there but surprisingly, New Zealand didn’t opt for a review then.
Few deliveries later, Duminy inside-edged the ball as it crashed on his pads. But New Zealand went for the review losing both their reviews.
With 100 runs on the board, South Africa have definitely won the first session having scored 62 runs losing just 1 wicket. Moreover, they also have both their reviews left and good batsmen like Faf du Plessis, Temba Bavuma and wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock still to come in.
Brief scores:
South Africa 308 & 100 for 2 (Dean Elgar 40*, JP Duminy 32*; Trent Boult 1 for 24, Neil 1 for 21) lead New Zealand 341 (Jeet Raval 52, Kane Williamson 130, BJ Watling 50; Keshav Maharaj 5 for 94) by 67 runs.
