PLAYS OF THE DAY
Day 1
SO MANY DEBUTANTS
Beuran Hendricks became the fifth player to make his Test debut for South Africa in this series. In fact dishing out caps has become easier for the South African cricket team, than scoring runs. In South Africa’s last 10 Tests - dating back to the third and final Test against Pakistan at the Wanderers a year ago - 11 players have been capped for the first time.
INEXPERIENCE
TV cameras picked up Kagiso Rabada, elegantly attired, looking cool as a cucumber mixing it with the high and not-so mighty of SA cricket’s administration in the Long Room here at the Wanderers. Everyone would have preferred him in ‘whites’ and the Proteas certainly missed him. For the first session of play that lack of experience was evident. Not enough balls were bowled consistently in areas to challenge the England openers. Philander, playing his 64th and final Test here, has seven times more caps than the other bowlers South Africa are starting in this Test.
BALL
The home team’s bowlers did show huge improvement after tea, extracting extra bounce which played a big role in the dismissals of both England openers. The ball of the day though wasn’t one that bounced sharply, rather it shaped away after angling into Joe Denly, finding the edge and going to first slip. Dane Paterson appeared to give himself a pat on the shoulders - it was deserved.
CATCHES
Van der Dussen struggled at Centurion in the first Test, missing a couple of simple chances there. He wasn’t helped by De Kock diving in front of him a couple of times. The pair seem to have resolved those issues and Van der Dussen took a couple of excellent catches here, the best of which was to finish off Stokes - the ball arrived at him quickly to his left and he took it cleanly.
OBSCURE STAT
When England reached 186 yesterday, they became the first Test team to notch up 500 000 runs in the five-day format. To be fair, they do play more Test cricket than anyone else - with this match at the Wanderers being their 1022nd. The next highest is Australia with 830. South Africa are playing their 440th Test.
QUOTE
“Say that to me outside the ground, you four-eyed c#$&.” -
Ben Stokes to a young Wanderers ‘patron’ after being dismissed. To be fair to Stokes his conduct was restrained. Merv Hughes swung his bat at a couple of folks who had the temerity to question his talent here in 1994.
CONDITIONS
Most of the day’s play took place under sunny skies after the morning session had been washed out. The pitch - as has been the case with the Wanderers lately - was slower, which appeared to flummox the South African bowlers initially. Depending on how much sun it gets today, it will harden
up and get quicker. Also the
indentations will harden too, which will make for inconsistent bounce
@shockerhess
Saturday Star
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