South African cricket captain Graeme Smith was taken to hospital for X-rays after being hit on the head during fielding practice before the start of play on the fourth day of the fourth Castle Lager/MTN Test against England on Sunday.
Smith was bending down to pick up a ball, and was hit on the head by coach Ray Jennings, who was hitting balls to the players.
He was dazed and was helped off the field.
Media spokesperson Gerald de Kock said there was some swelling on Smith’s temple, and it was decided that he should have X-rays as a precautionary measure.
Meanwhile, England cricket captain Michael Vaughan was fined 100% of his match fee at a disciplinary hearing on Saturday.
The match referee for the fourth Test between South Africa and England, Clive Lloyd, had summoned Vaughan to the disciplinary hearing after comments he made on Friday about the umpires in the Test, Steve Bucknor of the West Indies and Aleem Dar of Pakistan.
Vaughan had been commenting at the news conference after close of play on Friday on the decision by the umpires to call play off for the day because of bad light on the second day of the match.
He said he had not been happy with the decision, and had not thought the umpires had been consistent regarding when the light was good enough for play.
”All we ask for is consistency — for both teams — and they weren’t consistent today,” said Vaughan.
The International Cricket Council is expected to issue a statement on the incident.
Gibbs leads fight
On Saturday, reports Jane Bramley, a sparkling century by Herschelle Gibbs led South Africa’s fight back on the third day of the Test.
At close of play, South Africa had 306 for six wickets, and trailed England by 105 runs.
A damp patch on the infield caused a 20-minute delay to the start of play.
At that stage, the weather was very overcast, and Michael Vaughan decided to give his bowlers the advantage of the atmospheric conditions, and declared the innings closed on the overnight score of 411 for eight.
Matthew Hoggard responded to the challenge with four wickets, but the sun came out after about 40 minutes, and two out-of-favour players — Gibbs and Mark Boucher — showed the value of their experience by taking the attack to England.
Graeme Smith and Gibbs got off to the best start for South Africa in the current series, with a first-innings partnership of 64 before Smith was given out lbw to Hoggard for 29. Hoggard struck again half an hour later, when Jacques Rudolph was caught by Ashley Giles for four.
In taking the catch, Giles dislocated his right thumb, and had to go to hospital for X-rays, but later returned to the field.
Gibbs and Jacques Kallis enjoyed a third-wicket partnership of 63, before Kallis was bowled by a brilliant delivery from Hoggard, where the ball nipped back to remove his middle and leg stumps. Kallis had made 33.
Boeta Dippenaar never looked comfortable, but was possibly unlucky to be given out to a low slip catch by Marcus Trescothick off Andrew Flintoff for a duck. AB de Villiers made 19 before he was caught on the boundary by Giles off Hoggard.
His departure brought recalled wicketkeeper Mark Boucher to the crease. He justified his recall by putting on a partnership of 120 runs with Gibbs, in which he was the dominant partner.
He helped Gibbs to his 14th century, and also assisted the opener by taking a lot of the pressure off him when Gibbs went through a bad patch soon after reaching his hundred.
Boucher went out shortly before stumps, when he was caught by Andrew Strauss off James Anderson for 64. Both Boucher and Gibbs showed their class, and the flagging England attack battled to contain them. Their partnership — the highest for South Africa in the current series — included 17 boundaries.
Gibbs, who last scored a century against the West Indies at Centurion in January 2004, played some sublime shots, and put to rest the arguments that he should be dropped down the order. He was not out on 136, and Shaun Pollock had yet to score.
Confident of win
Gibbs said at the press conference afterwards that he believes South Africa can go on to win the match.
”There’s a lot in that wicket — it’s picked up a bit more pace, and there’s some swing. Our first task is to knock off the deficit, and then have a crack at them.”
He was delighted that he was still there at the end of the day.
”We’ve got a big task ahead of us, and it’s nice to have someone who’s batted the whole day, and knows the wicket. But I’ll have to start from scratch tomorrow and play myself in again, but I will try to bat around someone.”
He said he had enjoyed batting with Boucher.
”Bouch is the sort of guy, that if the ball’s there to be hit, he’ll hit it,” he said. ”He’s a gutsy sort of player and he bats with a lot of intensity. I think in the context of the game our partnership was crucial.”
Hoggard said England also believe they can still win the Test.
”The match is quite evenly poised at the moment,” he said. ”If South Africa can get past our score, it’s going to be a dogfight for the last innings, but hopefully we can get a few quick wickets and then put the pressure back on them.”
He said there is still something in the wicket for the bowlers.
”If you get the ball in the right areas, then there’s always something in it. When the sun comes out it doesn’t do as much as when there’s cloud cover, so we’ll be praying for a cloudy half an hour to knock them off, and then the sun can come out, like it did today,” he said. — Sapa