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St Kitts - Regardless of what happens on the final day of the second Test between the Proteas and the West Indies at Warner Park, St. Kitts, the match will go down in Cricket South Africa’s history for a succession of significant career landmarks.
LIVE SCORING
These include two of the most notable achievements in the history of the game with Jacques Kallis recording his 11 000th Test run on Saturday’s second day and then Mark Boucher becoming the first wicketkeeper in the history of the game to take 500 Test match dismissals on Monday’s fourth day.
It completes the unique double of 500 dismissals and 5 000 runs in the game’s purest form. There is no other current player remotely in a position to do the same which suggests this record will stand for decades to come.
Earlier in the match there had also been important career moments for Graeme Smith (7 000 runs) and AB de Villiers (4 000 runs). Not to be outdone by the rest, Kallis, in fact, achieved two landmark statistics in the same match as his dismissal of Shane Shillingford, caught by De Villiers at second slip, was his 50th dismissal against the West Indies.
If one really wanted to stretch statistics then one can point to De Villiers, a fielder, taking two catches which matches the combined total of both wicketkeepers so far in the match!
Umpire Asad Rauf might also like to point to the fact that he has had to wait until the second session on day four to answer his first leg before wicket appeal in the match! This is a personal record.
Major landmarks such as those achieved by Kallis and Boucher are moments both to reflect on the past and to look for the future and the good news for South African cricket is neither is thinking of retirement any time soon.
“I have kept wicket to some fantastic bowlers and also on wickets that at times have been friendly to bowlers,” commented Boucher.
“It has been a hard month for me,” he added in a reference to his omission from most of the limited overs tour matches, “and it is nice for me to have something to smile about.
“Once you have played international cricket for as long as I have done you tend to look back on what you have done and also to look to the future. I would like to carry on playing Test cricket for a while now. I also have goals on the one-day front and I will keep working on my game to become a better cricketer both for myself and for South Africa.”
The fourth day’s play had little to recommend it as an advert for Test cricket although the Proteas’ bowlers deserve praise for their effective game plans that prevented the West Indies from building up any kind of lead that might put them in a position to level the series.
Paul Harris, bowling over the wicket at the right-hander’s leg-stump, took the lead and, even though it cost him a few wides, the tactic was undeniably successful.
The left-handed Shivnarine Chanderpaul got bogged down to such an extent that he only added 15 runs to his overnight 151 in two-and-a-half hours before becoming one of Harris’ two victims. The other was Dwayne Bravo after the pair had added exactly 100 for the fifth wicket but had taken 55 overs.
Between the start of play and the tea interval the West Indies scored just 78 runs for the loss of four wickets off 55 overs.
It took two dropped catches and some spirited hitting for the ninth wicket by Sulieman Benn and Ravi Rampaul to give the West Indies a lead of just three runs and the Proteas could feel that it was a job well done in taking six wickets for 122 runs in the day.
Morne Morkel finished with four wickets to give him 10 in the series to date, one ahead of Dale Steyn among the South African bowlers.
Benn has so far taken nine for the West Indies.
By the close Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen had taken the South African lead to 20 and the Proteas will need to bat two sessions to make sure they go to Barbados one up for the final Test match.
The man of the match award is likely to be contested by the five first innings centurions (there may be more to come in the second innings). Chanderpaul has the highest score in the match although the strike rates of Brendan Nash (77 percent) and De Villiers (80) provided the more entertaining cricket.
LIVE SCORING
These include two of the most notable achievements in the history of the game with Jacques Kallis recording his 11 000th Test run on Saturday’s second day and then Mark Boucher becoming the first wicketkeeper in the history of the game to take 500 Test match dismissals on Monday’s fourth day.
It completes the unique double of 500 dismissals and 5 000 runs in the game’s purest form. There is no other current player remotely in a position to do the same which suggests this record will stand for decades to come.
Earlier in the match there had also been important career moments for Graeme Smith (7 000 runs) and AB de Villiers (4 000 runs). Not to be outdone by the rest, Kallis, in fact, achieved two landmark statistics in the same match as his dismissal of Shane Shillingford, caught by De Villiers at second slip, was his 50th dismissal against the West Indies.
If one really wanted to stretch statistics then one can point to De Villiers, a fielder, taking two catches which matches the combined total of both wicketkeepers so far in the match!
Umpire Asad Rauf might also like to point to the fact that he has had to wait until the second session on day four to answer his first leg before wicket appeal in the match! This is a personal record.
Major landmarks such as those achieved by Kallis and Boucher are moments both to reflect on the past and to look for the future and the good news for South African cricket is neither is thinking of retirement any time soon.
“I have kept wicket to some fantastic bowlers and also on wickets that at times have been friendly to bowlers,” commented Boucher.
“It has been a hard month for me,” he added in a reference to his omission from most of the limited overs tour matches, “and it is nice for me to have something to smile about.
“Once you have played international cricket for as long as I have done you tend to look back on what you have done and also to look to the future. I would like to carry on playing Test cricket for a while now. I also have goals on the one-day front and I will keep working on my game to become a better cricketer both for myself and for South Africa.”
The fourth day’s play had little to recommend it as an advert for Test cricket although the Proteas’ bowlers deserve praise for their effective game plans that prevented the West Indies from building up any kind of lead that might put them in a position to level the series.
Paul Harris, bowling over the wicket at the right-hander’s leg-stump, took the lead and, even though it cost him a few wides, the tactic was undeniably successful.
The left-handed Shivnarine Chanderpaul got bogged down to such an extent that he only added 15 runs to his overnight 151 in two-and-a-half hours before becoming one of Harris’ two victims. The other was Dwayne Bravo after the pair had added exactly 100 for the fifth wicket but had taken 55 overs.
Between the start of play and the tea interval the West Indies scored just 78 runs for the loss of four wickets off 55 overs.
It took two dropped catches and some spirited hitting for the ninth wicket by Sulieman Benn and Ravi Rampaul to give the West Indies a lead of just three runs and the Proteas could feel that it was a job well done in taking six wickets for 122 runs in the day.
Morne Morkel finished with four wickets to give him 10 in the series to date, one ahead of Dale Steyn among the South African bowlers.
Benn has so far taken nine for the West Indies.
By the close Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen had taken the South African lead to 20 and the Proteas will need to bat two sessions to make sure they go to Barbados one up for the final Test match.
The man of the match award is likely to be contested by the five first innings centurions (there may be more to come in the second innings). Chanderpaul has the highest score in the match although the strike rates of Brendan Nash (77 percent) and De Villiers (80) provided the more entertaining cricket.
