Mark Smit
20 November 2008
Bloemfontein — SA's Test cricket opening partnership continues to go from strength to strength, with Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie passing the 50-run mark for the 10th Test in succession -world record - on the first day of the first cricket Test against Bangladesh yesterday.
While McKenzie fell relatively early, for 42, Smith went on to his 17th Test century, finishing not out on 138 as SA reached the end of a rain-interrupted day one 299/1.
Smith also raised his run tally for the 2008 calendar year to 1317, taking the South African record from Jacques Kallis, who made 1288 in 2003. Smith now lies 21st on the all-time list for runs in a calendar year.
The South African captain has wasted little time making his presence felt in the national squad after returning from an injury he suffered in the last Test against England four months ago.
In his first innings back after his lay-off -- the third one-day international against Bangladesh at Willowmoore Park in Benoni 10 days ago -- he made 65.
Yesterday he pounded his way in typically aggressive fashion to 50 off 92 balls and 100 off 177 balls with 13 fours.
In the process Smith became the second-most prolific run-scorer among captains in Test history. Of his 5761 career runs, Smith has scored 5161 as captain. Only legendary Australian Alan Border has scored more runs as captain.
The muscular nature of Smith's innings offered a stark contrast on a stormy afternoon to the silky skills of Hashim Amla, who had stroked his way with the finesse of an artist to 73 not out when rain again interrupted play.
Amla has had a phenomenal run rate since the one-day series in England, growing in stature with each innings. Yesterday he was again sublime, driving, cutting and flicking through mid-wicket with the mastery of a batsman brought up o n the sub-continent.
The rain interruption, though disrupted Amla's rhythm; he seemed a different player when he returned. The artistry had gone, his timing had deserted him and he looked as awkward as he had looked polished. He survived nevertheless, ending the day on 103 not out when play was called off eight overs early for bad light.
It takes no great feat of understanding to see that it was a grim day for the Bangladesh bowlers on a pitch that Smith certainly had trouble reading on Tuesday.
They had been asked to bowl first by their captain, Mohammad Ashraful, after he won the toss, a decision that took almost everyone by surprise. There was a general feeling that the best chance the tourists would have of winning the game would be to bowl last on what could be a worn pitch set up for their spinners.
However, for reasons best known to himself, Ashraful decided his bowlers would have their best chance of making inroads if they bowled first.
He said after the day's play that, even faced with the evidence, he did not think he had made the wrong decision. "The ball moved throughout the day and if we had taken the two catches (off Amla and Smith) we could have been in a good position. I would have liked our bowlers to have attacked the stumps a little more."
McKenzie, who was caught at backward point playing a flashing square drive, thought the Bangladesh captain might have been deceived by the amount of green grass on the pitch into thinking it would do more than it did. "It was not a wicket to drive on. The shot I went out to would have succeeded on every other day. But the ball seemed to stop on me a bit. There was a bit of variation in the way the ball bounced and came onto the bat," he said.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Business Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
