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Wickets tumble on the opening day’s play at Jo’burg

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As many as 12 wickets fell down in the opening day’s play the Wanderers in Johannesburg of the first Test between South Africa and New Zealand. At Stumps, New Zealand were reduced to 41 for 2 in reply to the hosts’ 226.

South Africa opted to bat first on a spicy wicket which was expected to play worst as the game progressed. After a couple of early jolts, SA seemed to have revived through a cautious partnership between Herschelle Gibbs and Kallis. New Zealand made sure that SA couldn’t turn their partnerships into big ones by constantly chipping away at the wickets. It took just 74.3 overs to wipe off the South African batting. Herschelle Gibbs’ 125-ball 63 with 13 boundaries provided the respectability to the total. Kallis with 29, AB de Villiers with 33 and Mark Boucher with 43 were the other significant contributors. For the Kiwis, the opening bowlers – Shane Bond with 4 for 73 in 17 overs and Chris Martin with 3 for 67 in 17.3 overs were the chief destroyers. Skipper Daniel Vettori got a couple of wickets.

The Proteas had a smile towards the end of the day’s play as they could make inroads in the New Zealand batting. By the close they got rid of the two opening batsmen – Michael Papps and Craig Cumming. Ntini and Steyn were the wicket takers. At Stumps, Stephen Fleming on 22 has survived along with night watchman Shane Bond.