Cricket: Rain washes out South Africa warm-up

By David Clough
Published on 15/07/2012 01:15

South Africa were permitted just 90 minutes of batting before rain washed out the remainder of the middle day of their final warm-up match before the first Investec Test on Thursday.

The Proteas moved from 31 for one to 108 for two against Kent, in 22 overs following a delayed start because of overnight rain and before a lunchtime storm broke over Canterbury.

Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis were unbeaten as South Africa took their reply to 210 against a home pace attack comprising seasoned pair Charlie Shreck and Simon Cook as well as England Lions’ Matt Coles and 20-year-old Ivan Thomas.

A slow pitch gave South Africa’s batsmen the opportunity to fine-tune their preparation for the first Test at The Oval.

All four of the top order who have tried here – captain Graeme Smith was the only man out on Friday – have made it into the 20s. Smith’s fellow opener Alviro Petersen was the batsman to go in the play possible yesterday, lbw pushing forward when Cook got one to hold its line up the slope.

Amla and a fluent Kallis were then untroubled, adding an unbroken 34, until the forecast rain arrived with a vengeance.

On leaving the field, South Africa discovered the latest official rankings update has demoted them from second to third behind top-ranked England and Australia.

Assistant coach Russell Domingo is unperturbed by either their relatively short preparation time before the first Test, or their minor slide in the rankings.

“I reckon if we were here for a month we’d still struggle to get in a lot of preparation,” he said, as he surveyed a waterlogged outfield.

“We knew this was going to happen, so there’s nothing we can do about it. I’m not worried. We had such a good week of preparation in Switzerland.”