da apostebet： Durban: Natal battled to 136 for five on a rain-marred first day oftheir four-day match against the English tourists at Kingsmead onFriday, with John Kent and Ross Veenstra keeping them afloat when playwas called off at 3.30 pm
da jogodeouro： Ken Borland05-Dec-1999Durban: Natal battled to 136 for five on a rain-marred first day oftheir four-day match against the English tourists at Kingsmead onFriday, with John Kent and Ross Veenstra keeping them afloat when playwas called off at 3.30 pm.With rain delaying the start of play by an hour and Natal fielding anunder-strength side, the few fans that braved a murky Kingsmead didnot have much to enthuse about. The highlight of the day was the74-run fourth-wicket partnership either side of lunch between captainand Test hopeful Dale Benkenstein and the highly promising former SAunder-19 star, Kent.With Andy Caddick producing the same quality bowling that went cruellyunrewarded in the first Test, England were always in control, althoughthe stand between Benkenstein and Kent, which came off just 124 balls,threatened to change that.Benkenstein, after a shaky start, had gone fluently to 45 before theerratic Alex Tudor won an lbw decision from umpire Wilf Diederickswhen he cut a short delivery back into the home captain’s pads. It wasleft to the 20-year-old Kent to soldier on to the close, reaching his50 two balls before an early tea, from which the players neverreturned, was taken.After electing to bat first, Natal had earlier had their top-orderblown away in the first nine overs with just 23 runs on theboard. Mark Bruyns and Doug Watson, such a successful openingpartnership this season, were separated in Caddick’s second over, thein-form Bruyns’s defensive stroke sending a steep lifter from Caddickto third slip.Ahmed Amla (4) lasted just seven balls before he edged Tudor to firstslip and Caddick then removed Watson (12), shouldering arms on length,to go into lunch with the excellent figures of two for five from sevenovers.Benkenstein and Kent took Natal into the break on 44 for three and thehour after lunch saw the elegant pairing on top. With the pitchoffering bounce and pace, the England bowlers tended to overdo theshort-pitched delivery and Benkenstein capitalised by pulling andhooking very well, his innings including seven fours.After the captain’s dismissal, Caddick returned to the attack and hadyoung Hashim Amla caught low at second slip, giving the tall pacemanthe day’s best figures of three for 25 from 16 quality overs.Kent, who drove handsomely, and Veenstra had added 26 before theclose, but with wicketkeeper Duncan Brown and spinner Kevin Pietersen,both playing their first four-day games for Natal A, all that is leftin terms of reasonable batting skill, they will need to extend that bysome way on Saturday if they are to prevent England from celebrating asuccessful warm-up for next week’s second Test.Natal have omitted inexperienced paceman Jomo Mbili from theirstarting line-up in favour of wrist-spinner Goolam Bodi, leaving theirseam attack rather thin and no doubt influencing Benkenstein’sdecision to bat first when overhead conditions certainly favoured thebowlers.Even though the first day was limited to just 50 overs, thisimbalanced Natal team already find themselves with their backs to thewall.
