Spirits Cricket

The second test match between South Africa and England seems to be going towards a draw. The rain stopped the fourth day’s play when the score of South Africa was 39 for 0. Earlier in the day, the England team was all out on 425. South Africa made a very good start to the day’s play. Morne Morkel didn’t let Pietersen add even a single run to his overnight score of 149 and trapped him in front of the wicket. That was a big blow for England. Tim Bresnan came to bat after the fall of Pietersen’s wicket and he put up a brief partnership of 45 runs with Prior for the 7^th wicket, but, when the score was 396, Bresnan edged an out swinging delivery from Philander and Graeme Smith didn’t make any mistake  at the position of first slip.

Stuart Broad fell early. He tried to sweep a delivery from Imran Tahir and miscued it. The ball went up in the air and Faf Du Plessis, who was on the field as a substitute fielder, took an easy catch at midwicket. Matt Prior completed his half century in the meantime, but, he wasn’t able to convert it into a hundred. He also tried to sweep a delivery from Imran Tahir which was outside the leg stump and had a bit of bounce. The ball took the top edge of the bat and went straight into the hands of the fielder standing at long leg. The last wicket of England fell in the form of James Anderson who was knocked over by Imran Tahir.

Due to the hamstring injury of Alviro Petersen, Jack Rudolph came to open the second innings of South Africa along with the skipper Graeme Smith. The opening pair started well, but, when the score was 39 for no loss, the umpires stopped the play due to rain.