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Proteas’ test season off to a tepid start

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Dale Steyn celebrates the wicket of New Zealand’s Martin Guptill during the 1st Sunfoil International test match a at Kingsmead yesterday. Play was suspended then abandoned after the heavens opened up.  Picture: Lee Warren / Gallo Images
Dale Steyn celebrates the wicket of New Zealand’s Martin Guptill during the 1st Sunfoil International test match a at Kingsmead yesterday. Play was suspended then abandoned after the heavens opened up. Picture: Lee Warren / Gallo Images

The Proteas kicked off their 2016/17 test season on Friday with the first match in the much-anticipated two-match series against New Zealand, their perennial bogey team.

Back into the squad after lengthy periods of injuries were veteran seamers Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander.

The absence of evergreen captain AB de Villiers was conspicuous as Faf du Plessis took the helm for the first time in the test whites.

New Zealand looked a different outfit without their mainstay, the explosive Brendon McCullum, who retired from international cricket early this year, leaving seasoned campaigners Kane Williamson (captain), Ross Taylor, Tim Southee and Trent Boult to take up the mantle.

South Africa’s stand-in captain won the toss and elected to bat on a heavy Kingsmead oval, with play having been delayed on day one due to a wet outfield.

The Proteas got off to a shaky start on a Durban track that seemed to have given the bowlers exactly what they wanted.

The first session on day one saw Boult and Doug Bracewell rip through openers Dean Elgar and Stephen Cook before Hashim Amla brought some stability to the innings, with the Proteas sitting on 92/4 by lunch.

But it was all the Black Caps from the second session onwards. Amla departed after he was caught behind for 53 shortly after the break. The rest of the batting line-up made good starts, but failed to establish lasting partnerships, with only Temba Bavuma breaching the 40s before being caught by Bracewell for 46.

By stumps on day one, it was up to wunderkind Kagiso Rabada and Steyn to take their team beyond 236/8.

Rabada ended up scoring a handy 32 not out, while the rest of the tail collapsed around him in the first session, with South Africa finishing their first innings on a tepid 263 all out.

South African-born Neil Wagner, who now plies his trade in New Zealand colours, had an impressive first innings with the ball, having snapped up three wickets for 47 runs.

New Zealand then went into bat in the first session of day two, but openers Martin Guptill and Tom Latham were quickly disposed of by a fiery Steyn, who first took Latham, caught by Amla in the slips for 4, then the valuable wicket of Guptill, who was given out LBW for 7.

With New Zealand on 15/2 and trailing by 248, the heavens opened up on Durban shortly after lunch, leading first to play being suspended then abandoned for the rest of the day.

Although, as it stands, the match isn’t quite poised in any particular way, it could open up to be an intriguing affair if, of course, the weather plays its part over the next three days.

The excitement will undoubtedly be around each team’s bowlers, as it seems the team with the most disciplined attack will come out tops.

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