Rain and reviews halt Black Caps
A day of frustration, based on what may have been.
New Zealand did their utmost to begin their quest for a win in the third cricket test against South Africa in Hamilton but were thwarted by a combination of rain, their ongoing ineptness with the DRS and an absence of their two best new-ball bowlers.
When stumps was called at 5.48pm after only 41 overs of play at Seddon Park, the Proteas were 123-4 in their first innings after winning the toss and opting to bat.
Black Caps skipper Kane Williamson’s ugly experiences with the Decision Review System this season reached a nadir as the hosts missed a couple of glaring opportunities to dig deeper into South Africa’s batting line-up, while rain from midafternoon and the subsequent wet outfield limited further chances for the hosts.
‘‘Obviously you can’t control much about the weather, so it was a bit frustrating,’’ said Matt Henry, who took 2-25 off 10 overs. All in all, we did well to get them four down. It would have been great to have a nice little hour at them tonight, but it wasn’t to be.’’
With no control of the rain, New Zealand did they best they could – with weakened resources – to have the Proteas delicately poised.
Yet Black Caps fans were probably left wondering what damage their heroes could have done had first-choice new-ball bowlers Tim Southee and Trent Boult not been sidelined.
To do so would have been tough on those handed the task of knocking over the visitors twice to allow New Zealand the opportunity to level the series 1-1 with a win in the finale.
Colin de Grandhomme, again entrusted with the new ball despite bowling at the speed that may not even get you a ticket on the Waikato Expressway, produced a beauty in his second over to remove Dean Elgar and ended with 2-43. With pitch and weather conditions enabling his budget brand of swing and seam to prosper, the under-pressure all-rounder again emphasised his usefulness. He won’t get it to hoop like Boult at his best, but does enough to leave even the best batsmen in doubt.
He troubled all the South African top order and removed the one player who looked poised to bat the Black Caps out of the reckoning.
Hashim Amla has had questions posed on this tour as to whether he’s on the downside of a magnificent career, but there were inklings in his second test late cameo that form was around the corner. In testing times yesterday, the 33-year-old was assured and produced some delightful timing with his quick hands to push a handful of boundaries back down the ground.
He’d just brought up his 32nd test half-century but before setting off in pursuit of a 27th ton he was sent in the direction of the pavilion when de Grandhomme got a full delivery to move and hold enough to uproot Amla’s middle stump.
‘‘The wicket had a bit of juice in it and certainly after lunch the ball seemed to swing a lot more,’’ Amla said. ‘‘We’ve got some runs on the board but still a long way to go to get a good total. They bowled well.’’
He had high praise for de Grandhomme, likening him to Proteas kingpin Vernon Philander.
‘‘He’s got good skill with the ball,’’ Amla said.
‘‘If you look at someone like Vernon, who may not be very quick, but he’s extremely effective – it almost feels a similar route with him. Just hitting a good area, keeping the game tight and so the guys from the other end are striking if need be, but him getting a few wickets too.’’
Matt Henry had early success against duck-making debutant Theunis de Bruyn before surprisingly luring JP Duminy into an ill-judged and poorly executed hook shot shortly before lunch, while Neil Wagner virtually put away the short ball and should have had greater reward.
But as forecast, the wet that had delayed the start of play for 30 minutes – and the return after a marginally-early lunch by 10 – returned at its most prolific for the day at 3:20pm.
‘‘There was a little bit of assistance off the wicket, it was seaming a bit,’’ Henry said. Inside: DRS debacle
Ok, let’s at least excuse Kane Williamson from one of the woes that currently confounds him.
Winning the toss – or losing it, in the case of the New Zealand captain – is literally out of his hands. The opposing South African captains have made the calls on tour and have had the ridiculous good – and random – fortune of calling correctly on eight consecutive occasions.
The statistical likelihood of that occurring is 0.0039 per cent.
But that could also prove to be a reasonable estimate of how likely the Black Caps leader and his team-mates are to get a judgement call of when and how to use the Decision Review System correctly after an appalling day of appeals on the opening day of the third test in Hamilton yesterday.
With South Africa battling for a solid foothold at 28-2 in the 11th over at Seddon Park, Neil Wagner had an lbw appeal turned down from his first ball.
After a brief consultation between those seemingly in the know, Williamson opted not to ask for a look via video, which proved erroneous as replays indicated JP
Obviously we didn’t get them all right today but, that’s the way it goes with DRS.
Duminy would have been adjudged out.
The next DRS blunder came when Williamson opted to challenge the not out decision on another Duminy lbw appeal, this time from Matt Henry’s bowling, to a ball that clearly pitched outside leg stump.
When it seemed impossible, worse was still to come.
Wagner pondered whether he had Proteas captain Faf du Plessis trapped in front soon after lunch.
The initial appeal, which was far from convincing, was turned down.
Wagner then seemed to push a reluctant Williamson to ask for a look via the DRS, which showed the ball hit du Plessis’s bat.
It meant the Black Caps had used up their two unsuccessful challenges by the end of the 29th over – meaning 51 overs without access to another one.
That looked costly when in Wagner’s next over he appeared to get a faint outside edge from du Plessis through to keeper BJ Watling, but the South African skipper was given not out and the hosts were unable to challenge the decision.
‘‘Obviously we didn’t get them all right today but, that’s the way it goes with DRS,’’ said Henry – while missing the fact they didn’t get any right. ‘‘It can be frustrating but we’ll get another chance with it later on.’’ Well, not for some while.
Henry tried to describe the decision-making process.
‘‘The bowler’s probably got the initial key to go up, then the keeper’s got a pretty good line of it as well.
‘‘It kinda goes from the bowler to the keeper and then from there you’ve probably just gotta go with a bit of gut. It all happens pretty quick.’’
South African batsman Hashim Amla admitted ‘‘there’s a lot of guesswork involved’’.
‘‘You’re taking the opinions of a lot of people.
‘‘The onus ends up being on the captain because he’s the only one who can really refer it, so the captain has to take the information from those around him and sometimes you get it right, and I think most times you get it wrong.
‘‘It happens to all teams – it’s not an exact science.
Matt Henry