Proteas miss lead after Nortje five for against Windies



Protea squandered a huge lead given to them by Henrich Nortier when they crashed to 49/4 in the second innings at the end of the game on the second day of the first Test against the West Indies at SuperSport Park at Centurion on Wednesday, but still holding a strong lead of 179 runs.

Nortier made his fourth pass in the five-wicket test, finishing with a 5/36 to help the Windies take it all out for 212, giving protea a strong lead of 130 runs after they lost 342 in the morning session.

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But, despite the best efforts of Aiden Markram, who hit 35 unbeaten balls out of 33 (6 × 4), support him first innings centurythe rest of the higher order Proteas collapsed spectacularly.

With them sitting at 31/0 with just under 30 minutes left in the day, Dean Elgar (1) decided to go out in much the same way as he did in the first inning, passing the ball from Alzarri Joseph to the third man where he was caught Raymond Reifer.

Toni de Zorzi and Temba Bavuma both failed to score the first goal, intercepting the ball from Kemar Roach and Joseph respectively to goaltender Joshua da Silva as they slipped to 34/3.

The Windies then managed to sneak into an extra over and Jason Holder snare Keegan Petersen (age 7), LBW to end the day’s game with the visitors believing they had a chance to fight back to win.

In the Windies innings, a late innings crash saw them lose their last seven wickets to 43 runs, with Nortier taking four of them.

Speaking after a day of play, Nortier admitted that the bowlers just had to keep hitting their lines and lengths and were rewarded in the end.

“I really enjoyed it. We were helped by having a few guys at the border who were cheering us on and it was a lot of fun,” said Nortier.

“In a sense, we returned to the game quite calmly. We just tried to stick to our lengths and perform. This is not the fastest gate, it seems that it rises and falls a little. But we just tried to stick to our positions, create some pressure, and then take it from there.”

The collapse of the batting

After tea, the Windies resumed their first pitch at 136/3, with Raymond Reifer (62) and Roston Chase (22) in the fold.

Reifer immediately ended his half century with a charming cover shot from Kagiso Rabad, after which the two of them increased their fourth wicket post to 47 runs.

Marco Jansen then landed a shot to start the collapse, with jaffer finding the edge of Reifer’s bat and goaltender Heinrich Klaasen doing the rest behind the stumps.

The first ball of the next over Rabad produced a similar ball to get rid of Chase, but this time the catch slipped away and Elgar did the rest, making it two out of two and Windys 169/5.

A few overs later, Nortier returned to the attack with a double when Joshua da Silva cut right on Jansen at the moment, after which he found the tip of Jason Holder’s bat, Markram caught the ball in the rubbers, and Windys in trouble at 179/7.

Kyle Myers (18) landed some hard shots at the end of the serve, but Nortier caught Alzarri Joseph (4) on the spot and Myers caught on a deep thin leg, both Jansen as they slid to 201/9 before Gerald Coetzee got his second Check out Shannon Gabriel scalp trap (7) LBW to end the opportunity.

Early in the game, the Proteas resumed play at 314/8 with Jansen (23), Coetzee (17) and Nortier (14) adding a few valuable runs to the total before Joseph picked up the last two wickets and claimed first place. ever Experience five-wicket traction, finishing with the numbers 5/81.

The Windys then lost two wickets before lunch, reaching the break at 71/2 when Rabada sent off first man Craig Brathwaite (11) with a beautiful ball that bounced off the surface, beat his defender and tore off the top of the stump.

Coetzee then picked up his first ever test wicket when the vicious inswinger caught the edge of Tagenarin Chanderpol’s bat (22) flying towards Senuran Mutusami in misses that left them at 58/2.

In the second afternoon session, the Windys scored just 65 runs but only lost one wicket, Jermaine Blackwood (37) when he busted Nortier’s serve inside at home and Klaasen caught a leg well from the side to send him on his way.