Randjesfontein (South Africa) - It was pretty obvious to see, the way he batted yesterday, what former Test opening batsman Adam Bacher did during the winter months while his former teammates were at the World Cup. One of those culled by the national selectors from the squad of South Africa contracted players Bacher had worked on sorting out his game, getting more side on and learning to move his feet again. The result was a tidy, compact performance and an innings of 62 in a Gauteng total of 359 for seven at the close at the Openheimer Oval in the four-day friendly against Northerns.

It was one of four half centuries in the Gauteng innings against steady Northerns Titans bowling on a pitch which was as firm and as flat as the near by M1, although the outfield was far from easy with top dressing making it difficult for fieldsmen to stop a number of boundaries by sliding around the outfield.

With temperatures in the upper 20s and batting conditions as ideal as you are going to get, it was a good pre-season run for both sides, although Peter Kirsten, the Northerns coach would have preferred a better bowling performance.

While Bacher batted for 154 minutes and took advantage of some occasional loose bowling to pick up eight fours and a six, they way he used his feet was impressive enough. There were several classy straight drives which showed how he has reorganised his game and Ken Rutherford with 72 off only 75 balls showed encouraging early form. The way he took on Dirkie de Vos was a good example of clean hitting as he took 17 runs off the over,

Richard Snell with a wristy 82 and Andre Seymore also passed the half century mark although Snell could have been undone several times early in his innings by the Northerns left-arm quick Greg Smith who deserved a better return than one for 55 in 16 overs. He had a good call for an lbw decision against the former New Zealand captain Rutherford, but the ball must have clipped the edge of the bat.

Steve Elworthy also bowled well in patches and the outing will no doubt help sharpen his game for the South African visit to Kenya later in the month where they involved in a quadrangular series.

He bowled fair line and there were times when he had the batsmen in trouble and Rudi Bryson gave a steady performance despite bruising a big toenail in the morning session. Generally there was some lollypop stuff which did not help the bowling figures and because of the top-dressing the ball quickly lost its shine and seam as well, which does not help the bowlers that much.