South Africa suffered a few late dismissals after Stephen Cook (115) and Hashim Amla (109) propelled them to a position of command, finishing on a score of 329 for five at stumps on Day 1 of the fourth Test against England at Centurion. Amla brought up his 25th Test ton, while Cook became the 100th batsman to score a 100 on Test debut. Temba Bavuma (32 not out) and Quinton de Kock (25 not out) were batting at the time of the close of play, with the hosts losing a quick few wickets in the third session after resuming from a commanding score of 224 for one. Moeen Ali finished as the pick among the English bowlers at the end of the day, taking two wickets for 53 runs from 17 overs, getting the wickets of Dean Elgar (20) and JP Duminy (16), while Ben Stokes, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes took a wicket each for 57, 65 and 74 runs respectively. SCORECARD: South Africa vs England 2015-16, 4th Test at Centurion, Day 1
The day began with Cook dispatching James Anderson for a boundary towards square-leg off the first ball of his international career. This was in stark contrast to his father Jimmy, who was dismissed for a golden duck in his debut Test against India in Durban in 1992. The opening combination of Cook and Elgar got off to a good start, before the latter was caught brilliantly by James Taylor once again at short-leg. South Africa lost their first wicket with 20 runs on board as a result of Taylor’s quick reflexes. Cook however, kept sending the ball all towards the fence at regular intervals to race to the 40s, with Amla following suit at the other end with his impressive drives. UPDATES: South Africa vs England 2015-16, 4th Test at Centurion, Day 1
Cook and Amla were lucky on more than one occasion during their innings. The former was dropped by England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow off an outside edge on 47, while England captain Alastair Cook let down an opportunity to dismiss Amla on 5, thanks to his slow reflexes at the slips. The drops would prove costly for England later in the innings as the pair would go on to add 202 runs for the second wicket aside from bringing up their respective centuries. At a score of 224 for 1 at tea, they looked well-set to easily guide the hosts to a score in excess of 350 by the end of the day.
Cook’s innings turned out to be noteworthy, as he became the 100th batsman in the history of the sport to hit a century on Test debut. The 33-year-old is also the fourth-oldest to achieve the feat, as well as the sixth South African. The Lions opening batsman got to his milestone shortly after the dismissal of Amla for 109, with the latter playing a Stokes delivery onto his stumps. Skipper AB de Villiers disappointed with the bat once again, edging a Broad delivery outside off towards Joe Root in the slips to depart for a two-ball duck. Cook eventually brought up the milestone with a shot towards midwicket to get a couple of runs off his 187th delivery. He was ultimately dismissed for 119, dragging a short-pitched Woakes delivery outside off onto his leg-stump.
All the promise that the hosts had shown during the majestic Cook-Amla stand was starting to fade away with a mini-collapse, which heightened after JP Duminy’s dismissal for 16. The left-handed all-rounder, who was picked at the expense of the out-of-form Faf du Plessis, got trapped lbw off Ali while attempting a slog over midwicket. South Africa had lost their fifth wicket with 273 on board, and suddenly Proteas were beginning to get flashes of the spectacular crumble at the Wanderers.
It took a quickfire 56-run stand between de Kock, who took up the wicketkeeping duties over from Dane Vilas, and Bavuma to ultimately bring the hosts back in charge at the end of the day. The pair hit as many as nine boundaries in an aggressive display, and their stand will be crucial for South Africa if they are to target a score of 500 on the second day.
South Africa earlier won their second-consecutive toss of the series, with skipper de Villiers opting to bat. South Africa made as many as five changes — with Cook, de Kock, Duminy, Dane Piedt and Kyle Abbott replacing van Zyl, Vilas, du Plessis, Chris Morris and Hardus Viljoen. England, on the other hand, made the only change of replacing the injured Steven Finn with Woakes. Among the other major developments of the day was the inclusion of Stuart Broad in the England One-Day International (ODI) squad in place of the injured Liam Plunkett.
Brief scores:
South Africa 329 for 5 (Stephen Cook 115, Hashim Amla 109, Temba Bavuma 32*, Quinton de Kock 25*; Moeen Ali 2 for 53) vs England.
(Amit Banerjee, a reporter at CricketCountry, takes keen interest in photography, travelling, technology, automobiles, food and, of course, cricket. He can be followed on Twitter via his handle@akb287)
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