Proteas fight back after Joseph lights up lively first day in Guyana

15 August 2024 - 23:40
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Shamar Joseph took 5/33 against South Africa on the first day of the second Test in Guyana on Thursday.
Shamar Joseph took 5/33 against South Africa on the first day of the second Test in Guyana on Thursday.
Image: Daniel Prentice/Gallo Images

The tedium of Trinidad was a distant memory as an invigorating first day in Guyana saw South Africa fight back after falling victim to a storm kicked up by the exuberant Shamar Joseph.

Where both teams battled for long periods on a sluggish surface at the Queens Park Oval, an uncharacteristically seamer-friendly surface at the National Stadium in Georgetown saw 17 wickets fall on Thursday. 

By the time stumps were drawn, the players — most of whom would have been desperate for an ice cold shower after a brutally hot day — would have looked back at three sessions in which the Test moved forward with alarming speed. 

The Proteas were bowled out for 160 at tea, with Dane Piedt, recalled to the starting team in place of Ryan Rickelton, the top scorer with an unbeaten 38. It was Piedt’s 10th-wicket partnership of 63 with Nandre Burger, who made 23, that allowed the Proteas a semblance of control after the frontline batters struggled against the seaming and swinging ball.

The West Indies batters fared little better, and will resume on Friday with their total on 97/7, after the dismissal of Gudakesh Motie to what turned out to be the last ball of the day by Keshav Maharaj.

Wiaan Mulder was the chief destroyer for South Africa, getting the ball to nibble around as he picked up 4/18 in six overs. Burger, doing the job for which he is mainly paid, took the other two wickets.

Before their intervention it had been very much Joseph’s day. Playing in his first Test in the land of his birth, the soon to be 25-year-old highlighted why he is the rightful torchbearer of the storied West Indies fast-bowling legacy. 

Making excellent use of conditions where the new ball swung and a pitch assisted seam, Joseph showed terrific skill and bowled with good pace to nullify whatever advantage Temba Bavuma thought he might have gained by winning the toss and choosing to bat. 

The South African skipper was the second of two wickets Joseph picked up in his third over, with deliveries that darted back sharply into the right-handed batters — Aiden Markram misjudging the length and seeing the top of his off-stump knocked back, while Bavuma was trapped lbw for a two-ball duck. 

David Bedingham with 28 and Tristan Stubbs, eschewing his usual attacking game, with 26 were on the verge of steadying the SA innings when Stubbs was dismissed 10 minutes before lunch.

Wickets continued to tumble after that break, with Joseph rounding out his third five-wicket haul with a superb set-up of Kyle Verreynne, forcing him to cover several deliveries wide of off-stump, before darting one in at the exposed leg-stump. 

Joseph celebrated with a football-style knee slide and blew a kiss to a disappointingly tiny crowd. 

Given the bowlers’ dominance, Piedt and Burger’s partnership proved crucial. They were able to take advantage against some loose bowling from a tiring attack, with Joseph forced to leave the field with what appeared to be cramps after he’d taken 5/33. 

The other feature of the partnership was the running between the wickets — not something usually associated with a 10th-wicket pair, but which they did with intensity.

Energised by his efforts with the bat, Burger knocked Mikyle Louis’s off-stump out of the ground, with Mulder then making his mark with a clever and accurate spell in which he, like Joseph, made effective use of the conditions to register career-best Test figures. 


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