South Africa v New Zealand, 2nd Test, Centurion, Day 1 - Good day for the Proteas with the bat

I loved the passage of play from the 62nd to 70th over. Hashim Amla was beautifully poised at the crease and to watch him bat was a world of joy. From back lift to foot work to timing to caressing the ball through the gaps with an absolute surgical precision, Amla was at his sublime best.

Kane Williamson engaged Neil Wagner to introduce his brute force – barrage of short pitch bowling – to dismantle Amla. Wagner banged in short in the middle and leg stump line with a leg slip and leg gully in position. Mitchell Santner was supporting him from the other end, whereas, I thought, Doug Bracewell would have been better. But Wagner continued his rib-cage-bowling.

Amla was not ready to get jolted by such, but got on top of the bounce due to his tidy foot work and bisected the offside field against Wagner, but Wagner still persisted with the short of a length rib-cage-bowling and in the second ball of 70th over, he delivered the ball of the day from round the wicket to baffle Amla with the angle. The ball held its line after pitching, went into the middle and leg and suddenly changed its trajectory towards off in the last second and outclassed Amla.

What a peach of a delivery it was! Amla was waiting for another middle and leg stump line from a short of a length towards the rib cage, but Wagner produced a Wasim Akram like skill to dismiss Amla.

The battle between Amla and Wagner was enjoyable to watch.

Trent Boult and Tim Southee brought the ball back in and swung it away without enough effect. I think, the track was slowish and lacked bounce to let the edge fly towards the slip cordon and for which many of the jaffas bowled the New Zealand pacers didn’t produce better results. I appreciate the idea of short pitch bowling when the line-and-length type stuffs, middle-and-leg stump attack, fuller length or bowling straight fails, just go for the rib cage. But, on such a track with slow and low bounce, the late inswingers do work better.

The caution taken by Quinton de Kock earlier and then JP Duminy later on, deserves praise. In Test cricket, leaving the ball is a must and the way De Kock and Duminy did it, was a lesson for the youngsters. Faf du Plessis, exhibited his patience as well. Especially, the way he dropped his wrists down against the short pitch stuffs and left some juicy half volleys outside off, hinted, South Africa are here to play Test cricket.       

Thank You

Faisal Caesar