Prince, Kallis prop SA as Kaneria slows the pace

Ashwell prince and jacques kallis hit fighting half centuries for South Africa on Monday against a disciplined Pakistan bowling...

Ashwell prince and jacques kallis hit fighting half centuries for South Africa on Monday against a disciplined Pakistan bowling attack on the first day of the second Test.

South Africa prodded to 259-6 with Mark Boucher not out on 9 and Andre Nel yet to score as stumps were drawn for the day seven overs before scheduled close due to bad light. Prince (63) shared the day’s best stand of 83 runs with de Villiers (45) in one and a half hours before both were dismissed in the last half an hour.

Left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman broke through Prince’s defenses when the South African vice-captain attempted a big drive and was bowled. De Villiers was unlucky to run out after Boucher’s hard drive touched Mohammad Asif’s fingers in the follow through and deflected back onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end.

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However, it was leg-spinner Danish Kaneria (2-73), who bowled a marathon spell of 27 overs, and denied South African batsmen to score freely on a lively wicket at the Gaddafi Stadium.

The lanky leg-spinner came on to bowl in only the 12th over of the day and was duly rewarded with key wickets of Kallis and captain Graeme Smith (46), who elected to bat after winning the toss.

Kaneria struck in the middle session when he foxed Smith with a delivery that turned sharply and hit the stumps through a little gap between bat and pad. Kallis put on 53 runs with Smith and shared another productive 60-run stand with Prince. Kaneria struck in the last over before tea when he had Kallis trapped plumb lbw. Kallis looked a bit shaky on a wicket that has bounce for fast bowlers and also offered appreciable turn to Kaneria.

He was beaten at times by Kaneria’s sharp leg-spinners and on 34 survived a close lbw decision off Asif. He completed his half century off 104 balls with two cover driven boundaries in paceman Umar Gul’s one over.

Scoreboard

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South Africa 1st innings: H Gibbs c Misbah-ul-Haq b Gul 13, G Smith b Kaneria 46, H Amla b Asif 10, J Kallis lbw b Kaneria 59, A Prince b Rehman 63, AB de Villiers run out 45, M Boucher not out 9, A Nel not out 0.

Extras (w-2, nb-7, 5 penalty runs) 14; Total (6 wickets, 83 overs) 259

Fall of wkts: 1-24, 2-47, 3-100, 4-160

Bowling: Mohammad Asif 23-5-55-1, Umar Gul 18-1-78-1, Danish Kaneria 27-4-73-2, Abdul Rehman 10-3-28-1, Shoaib Malik 5-0-20-0