Hall, de Bruyn make India toil

Andrew Hall, promoted to open in the batting in the absence of Herschelle Gibbs, scored his maiden Test century today, to help South Africa take an upper hand in the first Test of the two-match series at Kanpur, reaching a score of 459 for 7.

Hall made the Indian bowlers toil hard, before finally falling for 163 off 454 balls, lasting close to 10 hours at the crease. He shared an important partnership with debutant Zander de Bruyn, who hit 83.

Resuming at 230 for 4, South Africa suffered an immediate blow, Boeta Dippenaar edging Sourav Ganguly, who shared the new ball with Zaheer Khan as a result of the inclusion of three spinners, to Dinesh Karthick, after having score 48.

The hosts, however, couldn't capitalize of that opportunity, letting de Bruyn gain confidence in his first ever Test innings. Both him, and Hall despite the unavailability of easy runs, put in gutsy effort to stay in the middle and work for their runs.

In fact, their 144-run partnership is now the highest sixth-wicket partnership for South Africa against India, while Hall too registered the record for the highest individual score by a South African on Indian soil.

India had to wait till after tea to get the next wicket, that of Hall, who after concentrating immensely for the span of almost two days, fell to Kumble. Shaun Pollock came in at the fall of the wicket, but soon lost de Bruyn at the other hand, who missed what could have been a century on debut.

At the close of play, Shaun Pollock was 31 not out, with the other debutant for the match Thami Tsolekile on five.

South Africa 459 for 7
AJ Hall 163, Z de Bruyn 83, SM Pollock 31*, A Kumble 116/5

Posted by Sudeep