Date-stamped : 22 Mar94 - 10:25 Aus v RSA, T2, Newlands, Cape Town, 17-21 Mar 94 ====> Day 1, 17 Mar 94 Andrew Hudson celebrated his 29th birthday with a stylish century as South Africa reached 237-5 on the first day against Australia. A fourth wicket partnership of 89 between Hudson and Peter Kir- sten (62) steadied the ship after the home side slipped to 100-3. Hudson kept calm and reached his second Test century in just under four hours, including 13 fours. Merv Hughes and Craig McDermott were wayward early on but the tourists snapped up three wickets in quick sucession. Contributed by goo-chie (jdw5@*.ukc.ac.uk) ====> Day 1, MORE Honours were fairly even at the end of the first day although South Africa must be kicking themselves over two needless run outs. Wessels won the toss and had no hesitation in deciding to bat first. As in the first test Andrew Hudson and Gary Kirsten got South Africa off to a rollicking start, aided by some wayward bowling by McDermott and Hughes. Both batsmen punished the loose deliveries and McDermott was taken off after only three overs. South Africa batted at over 4 runs per over for the first hour but then Gary Kirsten took a quick single and was caught out of his ground when Michael Slater broke the stumps with a direct hit from an underarm throw. A needless run out considering this was day 1 of a 5 day test and there was no need to take risky singles. Hansie Cronje came in, faced eleven balls and then chopped a ball from McGrath onto his stumps after scoring only two runs. Cronje was the big fish and Australia were jubilant at getting him out so cheaply. Wessels joined Hudson and the two of them saw South Africa through to lunch without further loss. After lunch Wessels didn`t last too long. He tried to turn a ball from McDermott onto the leg side, the ball hit the shoulder of the bat and looped to 2nd slip. So, South Africa had slipped from 70/0 to 100/3 and most of the good work done by the openers had been undone. Hudson, meanwhile, was looking good and was playing some superb shots off both the back foot and front foot. He went to his second test century shortly before tea and in so doing gave himself the best birthday present he could have hoped for! At the other end Peter Kirsten had his usual tantative start and became more confident the longer he was out there. It is good to see him moving his feet again. For some strange reason Glenn McGrath didn`t have a bowl between lunch and tea. This surprised me as he was probably the best of the Australian fast bowlers. Hudson and Kirsten were still together at tea and South Africa must have been reasonably happy with the post-lunch session. Two wickets fell soon after the tea interval. First of all, Hudson somehow contrived to run himself. He sauntered through for what he thought was an easy single only to find that Warne(?) had dived to stop the ball, picked it up and then thrown down the stumps all in one quick motion. In an interview afterwards Hudson said he hadn`t been able to see Warne field the ball because there was another fielder obscuring his view. Nevertheless it was sloppy running between the wickets for a test batsman. Anyway, Hudson had batted extremely well for his 102 and together with Kirsten had put on 89 runs for the 4th wicket. Jonty Rhodes didn`t last long before falling lbw to McGrath. Not much doubt about that decision and Rhodes was walking almost before the umpire had raised his finger. The two quick wickets after tea brought a complete change in the South African batting as they seemed to go into laager mode. Brian McMillan in particular treated Shane Warne as if he was bowling live hand grenades and didn`t even attempt to score runs off him. It doesn`t look as if McMillan can read all of Warne`s deliveries very well and he played the ball with his pad more often than with his bat. He batted for almost 90 minutes before he reached double figures. At the other end Peter Kirsten had scored his 2nd consecutive half century against Australia and was a lot more comfortable against the leg spin of Warne than McMillan was. Australia took the new ball when it was due, giving it to McGrath and McDermott. South Africa cautiously edged towards the close of play without losing anymore wickets. So, Australia can`t be too disappointed with restricting South Africa to 237/5 on a good batting pitch. The form of Merv Hughes must be slightly worrying though as he conceeded 60 runs in only 13 overs. Contributed by Frank.Sokolic (SOKOLIC@mtb.und.ac.ZA) ====> Day 2, 18 Mar 94 SA were finally bowled out for 361,minutes before Tea here on the second day of the 2nd test. Mcgrath took the last wicket in his very first ball of his new spell to finish with 3 wickets. Sharne Warne also picked up 3 this morning to share honours with the young fast bowler. Looks like SA has wrested a slight advantage. Peter Kirsten (70), Brain Mcmillan (74) and Richardson (37) were the important contributors to SA`s pretty good score. Contributed by Sriram (sriram@astro.ocis.temple.edu) ====> Day 2, MORE Australian opener Mark Taylor survived a blow on the helmet to score a gutsy 57 not out as the Aussies reached 112-1 at stumps. Taylor was hit by Fanie de Villiers but went on to share an unbroken stand of 72 with David Boon. Earlier Peter Kirsten missed out on the chance to turn his overnight 62 into a century when he fell to Shane Warne for 70. Brian McMillan and Dave Richardson added 75 for the seventh wicket but South Africa were all out for 361. Contributed by goo-chie (jdw5@*.ukc.ac.uk) ====> Day 2, MORE This match is still evenly balanced. Australia took the last 5 South African wickets for 124 runs and then advanced to 112/1 at stumps. Starting the morning on 62 Peter Kirsten added only 8 more runs to his score before falling lbw to Shane Warne. Dave Richardson came out to join Brian McMillan who looked in much better form than he had the night before. He was a lot more aggressive and was prepared to punish to loose ball as he and Richardson put on 75 runs for the 7th wicket. Richardson seems to be getting a lot more confident with his batting at test match level. He plays the spinners quite well and doesn`t often get bogged down like McMillan did in the first part of his innings. Once McDermott got Richardson`s wicket and Warne bowled McMillan, the South African innings came to an end fairly quickly. Their score of 361 is probably 50-100 runs short of what they would have wanted on a pitch which didn`t help the bowlers too much. The run outs of Hudson and Gary Kirsten were probably the difference between their score of 361 and the 450 which they would have liked to get. Pick of the Australian bowling was Shane Warne who could easily have had more than just 3 wickets. Glenn McGrath was the best of the quickies. Australia approached the start of their innings fairly conservatively and were obviously aiming to bat out the day without loosing too many wickets. Michael Slater was the only batsman to loose his wicket as Australia went fairly comfortably to 112/1 at the close of play. Boon and Taylor weren`t troubled too much on a pitch which, apart from the occasional uneven bounce, is still good for batting. Australia have to win this match if they want to take the 3 match test series and will have to take the initiative tomorrow. Contributed by Frank.Sokolic (SOKOLIC@mtb.und.ac.ZA) ====> Day 3, 19 Mar 94 Although Australia lost only 4 wickets during the day, they probably would have liked to score a lot more than 224 runs. Nevertheless, they have made sure that they can`t loose the game and some positive batting tomorrow should give them a handy 1st innings lead. South Africa had the better of the first session when they restricted Australia to 51 runs and took 2 wickets in the process. First to strike was Fanie de Villiers who had Mark Taylor caught behind for a solid 70. Mark Waugh didn`t last too long. He slashed at the first ball of Brian McMillan`s second spell and was brilliantly caught in the gully. When I saw the catch on tv I thought `ho-hum, another fairly good catch by Jonty Rhodes` but it turned out to be 38 year old Peter Kirsten who had taken the catch! Allan Border was next in and together with Boon he saw Australia through to lunch at 163/3 and then also through to tea at 238/3. Border in particular batted extremely slowly and was painful to watch at times. Boon was out soon after tea just 4 runs short of what would have been a well deserved century. Allan Border was eventually out, caught down the leg side for 45 runs scored in just over 4 1/2 hours! Steve Waugh reached his 50 shortly before the close and will continue tomorrow with Ian Healy. To sum up: with 2 days left to play Australia are still 25 runs behind the South African 1st innings score and they have 5 wickets standing. Australia are the only side that can win this match now but they will have to gain a fairly substantial 1st innings lead and then hope that Shane Warne can run through the South African batsmen and bowl them out cheaply. Contributed by Frank.Sokolic (SOKOLIC@mtb.und.ac.ZA) ====> Day 4, 20 Mar 94 Day 4: Australia all but won the match in the final session of the 4th day when they took 5 South African wickets to reduce them to 100/6 at stumps with a lead of only 26 runs and a whole day left to play. The day started well for Australia as they almost batted right through the morning session without losing a wicket. Healy showed the South Africans that he can bat as well as keep wicket and Steve Waugh was untroubled in compiling 80 odd runs. Advancing from their overnight score of 336/5 to 418/5 there was little sign of the Australian collapse that was to follow. It started just before lunch when Matthews took the wickets of Healy and Hughes (first baller) in successive balls. Lunch was taken at 418/7. The collapse continued after lunch and Australia were bowled out for 435. The last 5 wickets fell for only 17 runs and Craig Matthews picked up 5 test wickets in an innings for the first time. If the tail-end collapse of Australia was dramatic, how do you describe the top and middle order collapse of South Africa? Facing a deficit of 74 runs on the 1st innings and having to bat on a pitch which was giving variable bounce and taking some spin, they collapsed from a relatively comfortable 94/2 to 97/6 in the space of 20 balls. The slide started when Wessels was run out by millimetres and continued as Hudson, Kirsten and nightwatchman de Villiers followed him back to the pavilion. Everything went right for Australia. If the ball was lofted, there was a fielder there to take the catch. If the batsman missed the ball he was out lbw. Will South Africa save the match? Well, I`ve already checked the weather forecast and they won`t be saved by rain. South Africa`s hope rests on Rhodes and McMil- lan but they will have to bat for most of the day on a pitch that is getting harder and harder to play strokes on. If Aus- tralia win they will level the series at one-all with one game left to play. Contributed by Frank.Sokolic (SOKOLIC@mtb.und.ac.ZA) ====> Day 5, 21 Mar 94 AUSSIES ROMP TO TEST VICTORY Steve Waugh produced Test best bowling figures to clinch Australia's nine wicket Second Test triumph. All rounder Waugh bagged 5-28 as South Africa slumped to 164 all out, setting the Aussies a victory target of 91 to level the three match series. The Aussies recovered from the early loss of Mark Taylor with Michael Slater (43 not out) and David Boon (32 not out) steering them to victory. Contributed by goo-chie (jdw5@*.ukc.ac.uk) ====> Day 5, more Day 5: Australia wrapped up the test 30 minutes after tea on the final day. Resuming at 100/6 and needing to bat through most of the day, South Africa quickly lost McMillan and it seemed as if Australia would finish things off before lunch. Rhodes and Richardson had other ideas, however, and stuck around to record the highest partnership of the South African innings. They were still together at lunch and it was only half an hour after the interval that Australia managed to break through. Glenn McGrath induced Richardson to play a loose shot outside the off stump and Healy took the catch. This wicket ended the last of the South African resistance and the innings was all over 4 minutes later, the last 3 wickets falling without a run being scored. This left Australia with a target of 91 with almost 50 overs remaining and they knocked off the runs for the loss of Taylor`s wicket. Steve Waugh was given the man of the match award for his score of 86 and his bowling figures of 22.3-9-28-5 in the South African second innings. So, the series has been squared at one-all with the deciding game starting in Durban on Friday. Contributed by Frank.Sokolic (SOKOLIC@mtb.und.ac.ZA)