Ken Borland

The Knights batsmen are being hampered by the weather in Johannesburg as they dominated the Highveld Lions on the second day of their domestic four-day series match at the Wanderers on Friday.

Having seen the entire first day lost due to a wet pitch, play only started at 12.20pm on Friday with the Knights being sent in to bat.

They cruised to 193 for two before bad light stopped play at 4.50pm with 20.2 overs still scheduled to be bowled on the second day.

The Lions attack are being punished for wayward bowling as the Knights put together solid partnerships of 58, 88 and 47 runs unbeaten, to grab control of the clash between the teams that are second and third on the log.

Opener Reeza Hendricks made 62 before he drove a Hardus Viljoen half-volley straight to extra cover and Rilee Rossouw rammed home the Knights’ advantage in the late afternoon with 67 not out off 130 balls.

Medium-pacer Brett Pelser made the other breakthrough for the Lions on a disappointing day for them, ending an opening stand of 58 between Hendricks and Gihahn Cloete by having the latter caught behind for 33.

Rudi Second is with Rossouw at the crease on 28 not out and the pair have added 47 runs for the third wicket in 77 minutes.

The Dolphins are in control of their match against the Warriors in East London after bowling the home side out for 240.

The Dolphins made 339 in their first innings for a lead of 99 runs, which they stretched to 133 by stumps as they reached 34 for one in their second innings.

Unorthodox left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, brought in for his first match of the campaign, was the chief destroyer for the Dolphins, claiming five for 68 in 21 overs, while young Daryn Dupavillon took three for 43.

The Warriors innings started solidly with Michael Price (28) and the in-form David White (35) adding 54 for the first wicket.

But White was then bowled by the orthodox left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj and the Warriors only had one other partnership of significance as captain Ashwell Prince (36) and Colin Ingram (54*) added 65 for the fourth wicket.

But Shamsi made the breakthrough and then he and Dupavillon ran through the lower-order, leaving Ingram as the last man standing.

The Titans were kept afloat in their first innings of their match against the Cape Cobras at Boland Park in Paarl by Graeme van Buuren, the diminutive 23-year-old scoring 83 not out to lead them to 183 for four at stumps.

Replying to the Cobras’ first innings of 429, the Titans were in early trouble as they slipped to 21 for two, but Van Buuren united with skipper Henry Davids (41) and then Qaasim Adams (32) to dig the visitors out of trouble.

The Titans bowlers had been in all sorts of states of disarray on the first day, as shown by the 43 extras they conceded as the Cobras reached 345 for five, but they fought back well on Friday to claim the last five wickets for 84 runs.

Junior Dala rebounded well from a horrible first day as he took two wickets, and leg-spinner Shaun von Berg ran through the tail to take four for 102 in 30 overs.

The highly-rated Vincent Moore took three for 67, knocking over three of the top four batsmen.

Dane Vilas (77) and Justin Kemp (42) took their overnight stand to 53 on Friday morning, but the Cobras would have wanted more runs from the lower-order.

Rory Kleinveldt asked plenty of questions with the ball for the Cobras and Heino Kuhn, bowled for a duck by the fifth ball of the innings, and Davids, trapped lbw, did not have the answers.

The Cobras have picked up 6.08 bonus points so far, stretching their lead on the log to nearly 10 points over the Knights.

The Cobras are on 81.10 points, the Knights on 71.22 and the third-placed Dolphins are on 66.86 points.

http://www.iol.co.za/sport/cricket/domestic/weather-hampers-dominant-knights-1.1658235

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Bowlers continued to have a party on a lively Wanderers pitch yesterday as 11 wickets fell on the second day of the Sunfoil Series match, but the poor efforts of the Unlimited Titans batsmen has left them facing the gloomiest of prospects in terms of the match situation against the Highveld Lions.

The Titans staggered to 62 for five in their second innings at stumps, still three runs behind with only five wickets in hand.

The Titans began their second innings 65 runs in arrears after a reasonable bowling performance, but their batsmen were deep in trouble again almost from the outset as Heino Kuhn was run out by the swift Dominic Hendricks for just a single.

The poor footwork that seems like an epidemic in their top-order then saw Cobus Pienaar trapped leg-before by Lonwabo Tsotsobe for 11 and when left-arm swing bowler Cliffe Deacon picked up two wickets in three balls, removing Francois le Clus (12) and Henry Davids (0), the Titans were deep in the mire.

Brett Pelser is no more than medium-pace but is posing a huge threat to the flatfooted Titans batsmen as shown by his figures of four for 28 in the first innings, and he struck in his second over yesterday, taking a fine return catch as Qaasim Adams (5) punched firmly down the ground.

Farhaan Behardien is still at the crease on 28 not out and is due some runs, while Mangaliso Mosehle, averaging just 16.28 in the Sunfoil Series this season, is on one not out.

The Titans lower-order is going to have to produce something spectacular for the visitors to post a threatening target for the Lions, even though the pitch is one on which batsmen never feel in.

While the Titans batsmen are being regularly rolled over – as a unit they have collected just one century and 15 fifties in 69 innings this season – their bowlers continue to make progress and they did well to dismiss the Lions for 212 an hour after lunch.

Although the pressure on the batsmen was periodically being released by a loose delivery, the Titans attack restricted the Lions to a lead that should have been manageable given that the home side is going to have to bat last on a pitch of uneven bounce.

The Lions resumed on 109 for four and although Thami Tsolekile was quickly removed by David Wiese for 7, the Titans were held up by veteran Neil McKenzie and all-rounder Pelser, who added 57 in two hours.

The Lions held the initiative on 173 for five at lunch, but two balls into the second session, McKenzie (48) pushed firmly at a Wiese delivery that shaped away and wicketkeeper Mosehle claimed the catch.

Pelser was sent on his way for 35 in the next over, edging CJ de Villiers into the slips, and Wiese and leg-spinner Shaun von Berg then wrapped up the tail.

Wiese was the best Titans bowler on show, taking three for 46 in 22 overs, while 19-year-old left-armer Vincent Moore suggested that he can be a bowler to rely on in the future with three for 41.

But the Titans were on the back foot just three overs into their second innings as Kuhn pushed Tsotsobe away on the off side and hesitated over a single, fatally as Hendricks was on target with his throw.

Deacon and Tsotsobe then blew away the rest of the top-order to have the Titans on their knees heading into the third day.

South Africa’s cricketers were able to survive a close encounter with a lion during their trip to Hoedspruit to support Mark Boucher’s rhino conservation efforts, but Mitchell Johnson proved an entirely more ferocious beast at SuperSport Park on Thursday to leave the Proteas in tatters at the end of the second day of the first Test against Australia.

Johnson claimed four wickets, three of them in a sensational opening burst of four overs, to send South Africa limping to stumps on 140 for six, still needing 57 just to avoid the follow-on.

How to play Johnson is probably the most common question in international changerooms these days as the left-armer took his record in his last six Tests to a phenomenal 38 wickets at an average of just 14.15.

While one should praise the South African batsmen’s efforts to get into line against the most fearsome fast bowler in the game, technically they were far too eager to get bat to ball when Johnson dug the ball in short.

Barry Richards, Peter Kirsten and Kepler Wessels were all prolific run-scorers in county cricket, where they faced the best generation of fast bowlers – the West Indians – day in and day out. Wessels also played eight Tests against the Caribbean dominators (seven for Australia) and averaged a highly-creditable 44.66 against them. So that trio of great South African batsmen certainly know a thing or two about playing fast bowling and their advice had a common theme of either getting out of the way or making sure you drop the hands.

“It’s about handling the intimidation and the pace, around 147km/h, and you’ve also got to look out for the in-swinger. The key is keeping your balance, keeping your head still and don’t get your right foot too far across.

“The batsmen also need to get their hands down quicker and bob and weave more. You’ve got to choose the right time to pull, but they were good balls to Smith and Du Plessis,” Kirsten, a diminutive batsman but high-quality player of pace, said yesterday.

Richards said the key was not getting yourself in a bad position.

“There wasn’t a lot of swing out there, so it was all about the bounce, the short ball. You need to get out of the way, make sure you don’t get caught in a bad position. Like Graeme Smith did – he’s a tall and imposing batsmen and he tried to ride with the bounce, but it got big on him and he had nowhere to go.

“It’s not easy, but if the ball is short, you’ve got to sway or duck out of the way,” Richards said.

The former Hampshire opening batsman had many epic tussles with fellow South African Mike Procter, another awkward fast bowler with an unusual action.

“Proccie had this big in-swinging bouncer that used to follow you. So you had to go the other way, but it’s not easy to duck your head towards where the ball is coming from!” Richards said.

Wessels, who has served as a batting consultant for the South Africans in the past, said accepting that getting hit was likely was an important part of successfully playing fast bowling.

“You have to get in line and drop the hands and if you’re going to take it on the body then just accept that you’re going to get hit,” Wessels said.

It takes bundles of courage to face truly fast bowling like Johnson’s, but Wessels said it was important to still remain positive.

“You need to have one back-foot scoring stroke and just evade the other balls. The West Indies had four guys of Johnson’s pace and initially I just tried to survive. But then after two hours you’d just have 15, so I decided to attack them.”

The South African batsmen have also obviously not faced someone as fast as Johnson for some time, which Wessels said meant they would need some time to adjust.

Proteas coach Russell Domingo said no matter how well prepared they were, “you can never replicate the pressure and intensity of Test cricket like that”.

“It’s what we expected of him, but the challenge is with his action, you don’t know which ones to leave. He’s skiddy, which makes him so dangerous, whereas someone like Morne Morkel has a high arm action and gets more consistent bounce,” Domingo said.

Johnson admitted that the inconsistent bounce of the Centurion pitch had him licking his lips.

“There are a few cracks and I felt when I was batting that there was something there, just back-of-a-length. Smith’s dismissal was one of those good balls that took off and the ball to Faf took off a bit as well. It surprised him and it surprised me too. I do enjoy bowling on these sort of pitches,” Johnson said.

Spectators enjoy watching Johnson in action and the way he went about his business on Thursday was much like a lion kill. The South African batsmen were probably feeling a bit like the unfortunate impala last night.

South Africa enjoyed a position of complete dominance on 207 for three, leading by 411, after the second day of the first Test against Pakistan at the Wanderers on Saturday, set up by Dale Steyn’s astonishing bowling earlier in the day.

Steyn took six for eight in 8.1 overs as Pakistan were shot out for just 49, the lowest total in their Test history, worse than the 53 they scored against Australia in Sharjah in 2002/3.

It was the third time South Africa had dismissed a team for less than 50 in the last two seasons. Only England, against Australia in 1887/88 and twice versus South Africa in 1888/89, have done this before.

South Africa bowled Australia out for 47 at Newlands in November 2011 and New Zealand for 45 at the same venue last month.

Pakistan’s 49 is also the lowest ever Test score at the Wanderers, the previous worst being 72 by South Africa against England in 1956/57.

Steyn’s magnificent swing bowling, backed by two wickets apiece from Jacques Kallis and Vernon Philander, gave South Africa a 204-run first-innings lead and, after declining to enforce the follow-on, they cruised to 207 for three in 53 overs before stumps.

Coming into bat soon after lunch, Steyn taking the last three Pakistan wickets without conceding a run, openers Graeme Smith (52) and Alviro Petersen (27) were quickly into their stride as they compiled an opening stand of 82 in 21 overs.

Umar Gul removed both openers just four overs into the post-tea session and South Africa then slipped to 99 for three when Jacques Kallis (7) skied an attempted sweep off Saeed Ajmal into the hands of Asad Shafiq at deep midwicket.

But Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers attacked to great effect as they added 108 off 159 balls before stumps, both completing unbeaten half-centuries.

Pakistan had begun the second day on six without loss after making a fine start to the series on day one, but their first innings was a procession of batsmen as Steyn took advantage of their lack of footwork in bowler-friendly conditions.

He ripped through the top-order with ease, having Mohammad Hafeez (6) caught behind off a superb away-swinger, trapping Nasir Jamshed (2) lbw and then having veteran Younis Khan caught in the slips for a duck in his first two overs.

Kallis then removed Azhar Ali (13) and Pakistan captain Misbah ul-Haq (12) with aggressive short-pitched bowling, before an incisive two-wicket burst just before lunch by Philander reduced the visitors to 40 for seven at the break.

Steyn then made an impressive return after lunch, having Saeed Ajmal caught behind off a precise away-swinger and then snaring Sarfraz Ahmed in his next over, wicketkeeper AB de Villiers again taking the catch.

Rahat Ali was then caught at fourth slip by Faf du Plessis for a duck off Steyn to complete a top-class catching display behind the wicket by South Africa, wicketkeeper De Villiers finishing with six catches, a career-best that equalled the national record shared by Denis Lindsay and Mark Boucher (four times).