Cape Town - Imran Tahir prevented fellow Protea Jacques Rudolph from notching up his 43th first-class century when he dismissed him on 99 on the opening day of the Division Two County Championship match between Yorkshire and Hampshire at Southampton.

Playing his 200th first-class match Rudolph was caught by veteran England international Dominic Cork after facing 211 balls and hitting 11 fours and a six.

It was Rudolph’s second first-class match for Yorkshire this season after joining them following South Africa A’s participation in the triangular tournament in Zimbabwe in July.

Yorkshire won the toss on a perfect batting surface and Imran’s figures of 2/89 in 31 overs were outstanding in the circumstances as Yorkshire went past 300 for the loss of only 3 wickets.

Alviro Petersen was in even better form for Glamorgan against Essex in Division Two. He made up for the disappointment of losing the toss at Cardiff to score a fluent 133 off 228 balls with 18 boundaries. It was his 21st first-class century and his second for Glamorgan in the four-day competition this season.

There was further good news for the Proteas in that Wayne Parnell has recovered from injury and turned out for Sussex in their Division One clash against Somerset at Taunton.

Meanwhile, the South African Emerging Players continue to do well in their quadrangular tournament in Australia. Having won two of their three T20 matches as well as their one-off 50 overs clash against New Zealand A, they finished even with India A after two days of their opening three-day match.

Stiaan van Zyl has been a star performer, being run out for 97 in the first innings and unbeaten on 64 in the second. At the close of the second day they led by 112 runs with 9 wickets in hand.

The squad has done exceptionally well as they are vastly less experienced than the virtual national second XIs from India and New Zealand they are facing.