Openers give Proteas solid start

A hastily assembled opening combination provided South Africa with a solid start to the second Sunfoil Test against New Zealand at SuperSport Park.

A hastily assembled opening combination provided South Africa with a solid start to the second Sunfoil Test against New Zealand at SuperSport Park.

Published Aug 27, 2016

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A hastily assembled opening combination provided South Africa with a solid start to the second Sunfoil Test against New Zealand at SuperSport Park Saturday, ensuring the hosts went to lunch at 100 without loss.

Stephen Cook and Quinton de Kock know each other well from their days together at the Highveld Lions, but they’d never opened the innings together before Saturday. The pair were thrown together after Dean Elgar was forced out of the match after injuring his right ankle in a “freak accident” during the team’s training session on Friday.

Elgar was replaced by Stiaan van Zyl, with De Kock, shifting up the order to open alongside Cook. “(Elgar) rolled his right ankle over the boundary rope during training on Friday. He received treatment to the sprain overnight but showed no signs of improvement this morning and has been subsequently ruled out of the match,” said the SA team’s manager Mohammed Moosajee.

It was the first time in 51 years that South Africa had opened the innings with a designated wicket-keeper - on that occasion Denis Lindsay donned the gloves against England at The Oval.

New Zealand won the toss and on a pitch with fair covering of grass, their skipper Kane Williamson chose to field.

Though there were good opening spells for New Zealand from Tim Southee and Trent Boult, the South African openers were largely untroubled through the first hour. The odd ball did seam - and one delivery from Southee zipped past De Kock’s edge and narrowly missed his off-stump. Another from Trent Boult swung late into Cook, but the inside edge of his bat saved him after New Zealand had referred umpire Paul Reiffel’s ‘not out’ decision.

There was more good fortune for De Kock when on 28, he toe-ended a pull over the slips off Doug Bracewell, whose spell from the West Lane End was a lot better than his figures of 6-1-26-0 suggest. He was dropped a short while later with his score on 42 by wicket-keeper BJ Watling off the same bowler - a difficult chance off the inside edge, forcing the ‘keeper to change direction and dive late to his right, and though Watling got a glove to it, the chance was gone.

De Kock brought up his third Test half century 10 minutes before the interval with a punishing square drive off Boult. He’d faced 73 balls and struck 10 fours.

Cook was not out on 40 at lunch, with De Kock looking ominous on 58*

Unlike KIngsmead last week, where the match was called off due to a wet outfield caused by a day of rain, SuperSport Park was bathed in sunshine. The forecast for the remainder of the Test is for similar weather. - Independent Media

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