Story A Journey with the Blackcaps **New Zealand vs Australia: 1st Test**

[just_cricket]

Great start man KUTGW. There's always plenty to learn about story writing from looking at yours'...

 

[Jaztheman]

Good update there Tom, nice to see Ricky as arrogant as in real life.

Looking forward to seeing South Africa in full swing(excuse the pun).

 

[mattfb]

Good to see this story going strong mate, and I'm also happy to see South Africa training hard with the soccer balls and not too much cricket

Great stuff Tom, brilliant presentation and nice writing. kiu!

 

[Highlander999]

Canterbury vs South Africa: 50 over tour match @ Queen Elizabeth II Park

South Africa now had their first warm up match of the tour with a 50 over match against the Canterbury Wizards. The South Africans are only taking part in the ODI series, so this match will be good preperation for them as there is a lot of competition for places. Certainly in the batting department there will be someone who has to miss out and there are quite a few good bowlers as well. South Africa have dominated recently and Australia will be struggling to beat them. Where that leaves poor old New Zealand....

Graeme Smith really did have a difficult task in choosing an XI for this match, and eventually, it looks like, he has gone for the strongest XI available to him. Here are the two teams.


Canterbury

South Africa

For the Canterbury Wizards there are plenty of big names there. Ross Taylor, Peter Fulton, Brendon McCullum and Chris Martin are all in the current New Zealand squad. Michael Mason performed very well against Australia in their recent 4 Day match. Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan and the legendary Shane Bond have all played for New Zealand in the past. This certainly is a very strong side, and whilst it may not be as dangerous as a full New Zealand XI, it need's to be treated with respect.

For South Africa, they announced their XI very late on. Smith had a good long look at the pitch and decided to go with the Morkel brothers over the spinner, Johan Botha, due to the hardness of the pitch which would help those two giants get bounce. Prince is back in the side after some time out due to his injury and with Gibbs back in favour with the selectors after sorting out his drink problem, it is a very strong top order for South Africa. Kallis, de Villiers and Duminy make up the middle order and all three of them are deadly with the bat, meaning the Canterbury Wizard bowlers are going to have their work cut out. With Boucher, and the two Morkel's brining up the lower order, this South Africa side is certainly capable of scoring runs

Graeme Smith won the toss and elected to bowl first. It was a beautiful day in Canterbury and with no clouds in the sky, there was no worries about a rain interuption.

The Canterbury openers of Stead and Taylor came out, to face the deadly pace attack of Steyn and Ntini. They did quite a good job early on. They did not score at a very fast rate, but kept Steyn out and looked to score runs of Ntini. With both batsmen nearing their half-centuries it was Albiel Morkel who got the massive breakthrough removing both of them in consecutive overs. Astle and McMillan looked to put a partnership together, before the two brothers struck again, getting them both out in the 20's. It was fabulous bowling by the pair and it put the ball firmly in the South African court.

The Wizards bounced back though, with the middle order and tail, cracking some late runs of the brothers to really up the Wizards scoring rate. Eventually Morne finished them off, but not before his brother's figures had been ruined. The Wizards were eventually bowled out for 260 off 47.3 overs.

Ross Taylor top scored for the Wizards with an impressive 52. Taylor looks in fine touch for the upcoming test matches vs Australia and his wicket will be one of the most important ones for the Australians to snare. Stead also batted well and saw off the new ball extremely well with Taylor. The rest of the batsmen all chipped in with handy knocks, though no one went on to make a big score. Chris Martin did hit two sensational boundaries though. Bradman eat your heart out

The South African bowlers for the most part were pretty accurate. Steyn was outstanding and unlucky not to get a wicket. He went for under 4 an over and looked in fine form, constantly leaving the Wizards batsmen in a complete mess. The Morkel brothers were the real stars of the show, picking up three wickets each. They both looked to be on course for excellent figures, but these were slightly dented by the big hitting of the Wizards lower order. Kallis also bowled very nicely getting two wickets and also being pretty economical. Ntini looked decent but was not at his best. Overall, it was a pretty good bowling performance by the Proteas, they just had a few bad overs which let the Canterbury Wizards get out of jail.

It was not a massive task for the South African batsmen, but they still had to be careful in this run chase. Gibbs and Smith came out to face the very dangerous pace attack of Shane Bond and Chris Martin. Gibbs took an instant liking to Shane Bond though and carted him around the ground for a bit, too quickly race away. Unfortunately though, Chris Martin stepped in to protect his bowling partner and got Gibbs to hit a flashing drive which took a massive edge. Peter Fulton at second slip took a blinder of a catch, one handed diving to his right and South Africa had lost their first wicket. Smith and Prince then begun to build up a partnership, but soon after Smith reached his 50, Prince fell when Michael Mason, the star of the last match, re-arranged his stumps. Kallis and Smith looked to re-build for South Africa, but when Wiseman got both of them in the same over, South Africa were in big trouble.

From here on in, Canterbury dominated. South Africa slipped behind the asking rate and it didn't help when first AB de Villiers and then J.P. Duminy managed to run themselves out, with Boucher being bowled soon after. Albiel Morkel tried to stage a revival, but the South African tail collapsed to leave them all out for a pathetic 204 off 46.3 overs. It was a disaster for South Africa.

Graeme Smith was the only positive for South Africa. He looked in really good touch for his 81 and was invovled in three good partnerships. Unfortunately though, no one really supported him, with Gibbs, Prince and Kallis all throwing away good starts. AB de Villiers and J.P. Duminy both running themselves out was school boy stuff. It really was a disappointing batting performance by South Africa.

For the Canterbury Wizards, Chris Martin, Michael Mason, Shane Bond and Wiseman were the star bowlers. Martin who has been in and out of favour with the New Zealand selectors, really impressed, going at 3.60 an over and picking up a wicket. Mason and Wiseman were solid and picked up important wickets. Maybe a recall for Michael Mason may be on the cards. Shane Bond was a bit expensive, but did get 2 wickets, whilst McMillan and Fulton were solid in getting through their overs. Overall it was a good bowling performance and sealed the match for the Canterbury Wizards.

This really was a massive upset for the South Africans. Whilst the Canterbury Wizards did have some star players, these warm up matches are expected to be easy pickings for international teams. With Australia only drawing their first match and now South Africa losing today, it really does seem, that the New Zealand domestic teams are looking to shake these two big boys up, before it really begins to matter. Surely Graeme Smith is going to want answers from his team after this performance.

 

[Jaztheman]

South Africa's first warm up game went well, which is great to see(!). Smith and the Morkel's did well but the rest of the players weren't too good and wouldn't take much form from the game. They can still comeback though.

Brilliant presentation, Tom. Top notch.

 

[Ollie_H]

That was actually horrific! You only managed 260? I'm ashamed! hhahaha.. yeah you did well though..Saffas had a horror!

 

[Highlander999]

I autoplayed both innings

 

[Ollie_H]

Cricket 07 must not rate the Saffas at all then!

 

[Highlander999]

Or even Cricket 05

 

[Ollie_H]

Ohh yeah? I just assumed it was 2007..not sure why though!

 

[saladguy]

After that I think that the Proteas might not be as good as we expected

 

[Roofrom50]

Needed to do a hell of a lot better to entertain me im afraid. Was let down too easily by their batsmen, (exception of Smith).
Their Morkel brothers bowled well together

 

[bladescape]

I was let down overall!
That's it,SAffers not to win one match!

 

[mattfb]

The Morkels bowled alright except JA Morkel got hit for a few to many which could have costed them because SA were terrible!

Great work mate, top story! kiu

 

[just_cricket]

That Mason's pretty cunning. He can play for ND in a four day match and then slip off to Canterbury to play a one dayer.
Nice presentation kiu