DURBAN: Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers added 68 runs for an unbeaten fourth wicket partnership after South Africa lost three quick wickets on 113 on the third day of the second and final Test here at Kingsmead on Saturday.
South Africa were 181 for three at lunch after a solid start of 103 provided by openers Alviro Petersen (62) and Graeme Smith (47).
Kallis who is playing his final Test, batting steadily on 26 and De Villiers is 39 not out.
Ravindra Jadeja was getting plenty of bounce to worry the batsmen, and Hashim Amla was bowled for a low score for the third time in three innings as South Africa wobbled at the start of the day.
Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen started in the same brisk manner that they had played yesterday, but the breakthrough came when Smith looked to smash Jadeja over the leg side. It hit high on the bat and swirled to midwicket, where Shikhar Dhawan sprinted back and safely collected the ball as it fell over his shoulder.
Amla’s dry spell continued when he played down the wrong line to a Shami delivery to lose his offstump, and off the very next ball, the set Petersen was surprised by the bounce from Jadeja to glove a catch to first slip. Again, it was a sharp catch, with M Vijay diving forward to pouch a low chance. South Africa had lost three wickets for 10 runs and had two new batsmen in the middle.
Jadeja wheeled away, tying up one end and allowing the quicks to rotate. While Kallis was quiet early on, De Villiers took on Jadeja by lofting him straight towards the sightscreen. Kallis was struck on the arm by Zaheer Khan, and took his time gauging the track before opening up with a couple of cracking aerial hits down the ground off Jadeja.
There were few alarms for South Africa after that, as both batsmen played sensibly, going for the shots only when the bad ball was delivered and by lunch South Africa had progressed to 181 for 3.
SC:Thenews
