Tour Match: South Africa 'A' v Australians at Potchefstroom, 17-19 Feb 2002 CricInfo Live Report

Tour Match: South Africa 'A' v Australians at Potchefstroom, 17-19 Feb 2002
Peter Robinson

Australians 1st innings: Day 1 - Lunch, Day 1 - Tea, Day 1 - Rain stops play,
Pre-game: Toss,

RAIN SHORTENS AUSTRALIA'S FIRST DAY IN SOUTH AFRICA
Rain, which started falling during the tea interval, washed out play on the first day of Australia’s three-day match against a South African ‘A’ team in Potchefstroom on Sunday after the tourists had reached 218 for three off 60 overs in their first innings.

Bad light had forced the players off the field five minutes before the scheduled tea break, but after the captains had agreed to continue play with the floodlights turned on, a steady drizzle began to fall and at 5.10pm it was decided that no further play was possible.

At the adjournment, Ricky Ponting was not out on 93 with captain Steve Waugh on 18.

Play will resume on Monday’s second day at 9.45am with 112 overs scheduled to be bowled during the day.

PONTING NEARS CENTURY AS AUSTRALIA SPEED UP IN POTCHEFSTROOM
Ricky Ponting celebrated his ascension to his country’s one-day captaincy by closing in on the first century of Australia’s tour of South Africa on the first day of the three-day match against South Africa ‘A’ at Potchefstroom on Sunday. Ponting was 93 not out at tea as his side made up for an unusually slow start to reach 218 for three at the interval.

The tourists had struggled through the opening session, losing Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden as they reached 74 for two at lunch. After the first interval, however, Ponting and Mark Waugh resumed normal service for the Australians with a 125-run partnership for the third wicket, scoring a slightly better than a run-a-minute.

Medium pacer Andrew Hall had made the early breakthroughs for the home team, but he came in for severe punishment after lunch, conceding 35 off four overs as Ponting and Waugh hit him out of the attack. Hall, though, was a shade unfortunate not to pick up his third wicket during this onslaught.

He seemed to have found the edge of Ponting’s bat, with the Australian on 27, but despite a confident appeal from the home side for a catch at the wicket, umpire Rudi Koerzten was unmoved.

The South African team were clearly a seamer short of a full attack, a point emphasised by captain Dale Benkenstein when he used himself immediately after the interval and with left-arm spinner Claude Henderson dropping at least one ball short an over, Ponting and Waugh wrenched the initiative back towards Australia.

It was, however, Henderson who finally broke the partnership when Waugh essayed a cut at another short, wide one but failed to get on top of the ball, hitting straight to Ashwell Prince at backward point.

Waugh was out for 62 made in just over two hours and he had hit 10 boundaries as Australia’s total moved to 177 for three.

As tea approached the skies closed in, and although there seemed no immediate threat of rain, the light had deteriorated noticeable. It came as no surprise, then, that Steve Waugh and Ponting accepted an offer to take an early tea five minutes before the scheduled interval. Waugh, at this point, had 18 not out.

SLOW GOING FOR AUSTRALIA IN POTCHEFSTROOM
Faced with an underprepared pitch and overhead conditions conducive to swing bowling, Australia were made to work through the first session of their South African tour, reaching 74 for two at lunch on the first day of their three-day game against an SA ‘A’ team at Potchefstroom on Sunday.

The Australians, who opted to bat first after Steve Waugh had won the toss, found the going difficult on a pitch that had patches of green grass interspersed with a number of cracks. The result was that the SA ‘A’ bowlers obtained both sideways movement and uneven bounce and with the ball also swinging, batting proved a hazardous occupation.

In a sense, the home team was not properly equipped to take full advantage of the conditions. The new ball was entrusted to Andre Nel and Charl Langeveldt, but the only other seam option available to captain Dale Benkenstein was Andrew Hall, who has bowled fewer than 40 overs for South Africa in 18 One-Day Internationals.

It was Hall, though, who took both Australian wickets to fall after Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden had put on 39 for the first wicket. Hayden had made 18 when Hall got one to straighten down the line to the left-hander and after a long hesitation, umpire Ian Howell gave Hayden out lbw.

Hall then struck with the first ball of his next over, bowling Langer off the bottom edge as the batsman tried to pull a short one. Langer was out for 12 at 52 for two.

In between the two wickets, Ricky Ponting, Australia’s new one-day captain, had hit three successive boundaries off Langeveldt, all through the off-field.,

Langeveldt gave way to Nel after this onslaught and Nel worried both Ponting and new batsman Mark Waugh with a number of sharply lifting deliveries, but there were no further wickets before the lunch interval.

At the break Ponting had 22 with Waugh on 12.

AUSTRALIA BAT FIRST IN TOUR MATCH AGAINST SA 'A'
Australian captain Steve Waugh won the toss and elected to bat in the three-day match against South Africa A at the North-West Stadium in Potchefstroom on Sunday.

The match is the Australians’ only warm-up game ahead of the first Test match which starts at the Wanderers on Friday.

As expected, the Australians chose a Test-strength team for their first outing on South African soil, bringing back Jason Gillespie for Stuart MacGill in the only change to the side which played South Africa in the third Test match in Sydney at the New Year.

On a cool overcast morning, one of the foci of attention for the home team was the performance of Daryll Cullinan who missed South Africa’s tour of Australia. Cullinan, South Africa’s leading batsmen throughout the 1990s, has a poor record against Australia, but fine late-season form has again brought him into the reckoning for the Test side.

Teams

South Africa A: Dale Benkenstein (KZN captain), Gulam Bodi (KZN), Daryll Cullinan (Gauteng), Andrew Hall (Easterns), Claude Henderson (WP), Charl Langeveldt (Boland), Andre Nel (Easterns), Ashwell Prince (WP), Jacques Rudolph (WP), Graeme Smith (WP), Thami Tsolekile (WP).

Australia: Steve Waugh (capt), Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Glenn McGrath.