Two late wickets by Makhaya Ntini gave South Africa a slight advantage when bad light stopped play 23 minutes early on the first day of the second Castle Lager Test against New Zealand at Newlands on Thursday.
However, an undefeated 114 by Black Caps skipper Stephen Fleming kept the visitors very much in the game, with New Zealand on 265 for the loss of six wickets.
Graeme Smith won the toss and elected to field first — the first time since 1928 that the side winning the toss have chosen to bowl first in a Test at Newlands. The start of play was delayed by half an hour because of heavy dew on the outfield.
”We took a bit of a gamble,” said Smith. ”We thought it would be moist, and that we could run through their top order as we did in Centurion. It didn’t really work for us, although we created lots of opportunities, especially in the morning session. But I’m very happy to have them six wickets down.”
He added that South Africa backed themselves to be able to bat against two spinners in the fourth innings. ”There is turn, but it’s slow,” he said. ”But our first innings is going to be crucial — we need to get some really big runs.”
Openers Michael Papps and Peter Fulton put on 50 for the first wicket. Their partnership ended when Papps left a delivery from Andre Nel, which nipped back and sent his off stump cartwheeling.
Papps, playing his first Test since June 2004, made 22, and his wicket was the only one to fall before lunch.
Dale Steyn made an early breakthrough after lunch, when Fulton was brilliantly caught behind by Mark Boucher off the eighth ball after the break, for 36. There was more drama in the next over when Scott Styris ducked into a delivery from Makhaya Ntini and received a nasty blow on his cheekbone. Although he responded by hitting Ntini for four, he appeared unsettled, and Ntini finally got his man when Styris edged the ball to Boeta Dippenaar at first slip for 11.
His departure brought Fleming and Nathan Astle together, and the two senior players began to up the tempo with a fourth-wicket partnership of 106. Astle was lucky to survive a confident caught-behind appeal when he was on nine. He stood his ground, and umpire Mark Benson remained unmoved, and Astle went on to make 50 — his 24th Test half-century and third against South Africa.
Two balls later, he was given out leg before wicket to Ntini without adding to his score.
Fleming and Jacob Oram put on 49 together before a terrible mix-up saw Oram run out for 13. Fleming called for the run, but Oram was slow to respond, giving fielder Ashwell Prince time to toss the ball to bowler Smith, who whipped off the bails.
Brendon McCullum lasted just 22 minutes before he was out lbw to Ntini for five, although the ball appeared to be quite high.
As the shadows crept across the ground, Fleming reached his ninth Test century, and his first against South Africa. It took him a little more than four hours and came off 190 deliveries, and included 16 boundaries.
Of the two teams, South Africa will probably be the happier at the end of the day, but Fleming and Daniel Vettori, who was not out on one when the players left the field, could still pose a few problems for the South African bowlers.
Fleming said after the day’s play that he is pretty satisfied with New Zealand’s position although they lost more wickets than they would have liked, and he is happy to have scored his first century against South Africa.
”I haven’t been able to convert enough 50s into 100s, so it feels very good to have done it this time,” he said.
He said New Zealand are pleased with what they saw in the pitch, because it is already offering a bit of turn, and he expects his two spin-bowlers to be able to exploit that later in the match.
”The new ball didn’t do too much,” he said. ”We were far more interested in what was happening later in the day.”
Fleming said he hopes to get through the first hour of play — which will see the introduction of the new ball — without losing a wicket. ”If we can get through that first hour undamaged, then we want to kick on and make 350 to 400. With players like Daniel Vettori and James Franklin, I’m sure we can do it.”
Play is scheduled to start 23 minutes early on Friday, at 9.37am. — Sapa