da blaze casino： South Africa plodded through the fourth day of the Bulawayo Test againstZimbabwe to finish with 300 on the board for the loss of just two wickets
John Ward17-Sep-2001South Africa plodded through the fourth day of the Bulawayo Test againstZimbabwe to finish with 300 on the board for the loss of just two wickets.A toothless attack on a placid pitch was met by ponderous batting, andalthough South Africa’s first four batsmen all scored fifties, they stillfinished the day 119 runs behind Zimbabwe in a match almost certainly doomedto be the dullest of draws.It was a day without pressure for either side: Zimbabwe’s bowlers wereunable to exert any real pressure on the South African batsmen, who in turnwere content to take things as they came rather than attempt to pressurizethe home side.Heath Streak’s tactics at the start of play were open to question, as hechose to begin with the seamers of himself and Travis Friend. Streak oncurrent form is no longer a great bowler, and on this benign pitch both werepredictably innocuous.Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten appearedcompletely at ease and had certainly played themselves in well by the timeStreak finally resorted to left-arm spinner Raymond Price at one end. Withthe ball often turning sharply, many felt there should have been spin fromat least one end from the start.Gibbs ran to his fifty, off 91 balls, with three boundaries in an over offthe wayward Friend, together with four leg-byes. This finally persuadedStreak to resort to Paul Strang, whom many had considered to be his trumpcard, for the 20th over of the day.With his second ball Strang made agallant effort to catch a ferocious straight drive by Gibbs and damaged afinger so badly that he had to leave the field, unable to grip the ball.Fortunately it was no more than badly bruised and he returned to the fieldjust before lunch.Gibbs brought up the hundred for South Africa with a drive for six offPrice; he was scoring at about twice the rate of his partner. The pairadded 117 before Gibbs (74) played forward to a turning ball from Price andedged a catch to the keeper. To his credit, he walked without waiting forthe umpire’s decision.Kirsten batted with such skill and apparent ease that it came as a surprisewhen he was dismissed for 65 after lunch. He moved down the pitch to Pricewho, perhaps seeing him coming, tossed the ball wider and Andy Flower easilystumped him. South Africa were 162 for two.The scoring rate slowed to about two an over as Neil McKenzie joined Kallis.Strang was unable to bowl much with his sore finger, and Price kept thebatsmen wary with the occasional dangerous ball. Throughout the match itwas clear that the older the ball became, the harder it was for the batsmento score.Kallis reached a rather laborious fifty off 158 balls shortly after tea,immediately after the token target to save the follow-on had been reached.McKenzie was a little faster, but there appeared to be no effort to win thematch, which was still possible for South Africa had they scored quickly andput Zimbabwe in again in the hope that they would collapse – as Australiawould probably have done.Long dull spells were broken by occasional quality strokes, and both batsmenwere unbeaten by the close, Kallis with 81 and McKenzie 74. Perhaps a tokenattempt will be made to liven up the match on the final day, but it seemsthat everybody has by now understandably lost interest.