LIVE – South Africa v Australia: 1st Test – Graeme http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Smith-c90598 reached fifty – Match Update
South Africa’s skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in the first Test of the two match series at the Newlands, Cape Town in South Africa on Friday, November 11, 2011.
The hosts needed 236 runs for victory after the opposition was bowled out for just 47 runs in their second innings.
Although the target looked pretty much achievable, the pitch conditions were in favour of the bowlers, which was a good sign for the Aussies.
However, the Proteas captain led from the front, scoring a solid half-century for his side. He opened the innings alongside http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Jacques-Rudolph-c1619, who was making a comeback to Test cricket after five years.
Rudolph looked promising in both his outings in the match, but failed to convert his starts into something significant. He scored 18 runs in his first outing and was sent back to the pavilion after contributing 14 runs to the total in his second innings.
When the stylish left-handed batsman got out, his side was in a spot of bother with a wicket down for just 27 runs on the board. The team had an almost similar start to their first innings as well and the middle-order collapsed.
This resulted in South Africa all out for 96 runs, conceding a first innings lead of 188 runs.
At that stage of the match, the Aussies looked as favourites to win. However, they failed miserably with the bat and were dismissed below 50 in their second outing.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Vernon-Philander-c2753, who was making his debut in this match, used the conditions exceptionally well. He finished with eight wickets in the match including a five-for in the second innings.
From then onwards, the home team was in control of the match. They did lose one wicket early, but Smith and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/HM-Amla-c1557 rescued the team from trouble with a solid half-century stand for the second wicket partnership.
The pair ended day two of the match on 81/1 and continued their resistance at the start of day three.
South Africa are in a comfortable position at the moment with Smith unbeaten on 54 whereas http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hamisi-Abdallah-c61368 batting on 41. They have guided the team’s total to 112 and will now be confident of winning the match comfortably.
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