Lara leads recovery
PORT OF SPAIN (Trinidad), April 8: Former skipper Brian Lara helped West Indies recover from a shaky start to reach 71 for two at lunch on the opening day of the second cricket Test against South Africa on Friday.
At the interval, Lara was not out on 41 and Wavell Hinds was not out on 15, after West Indies had slumped to 13 for two inside the first half-hour.
Lara blazed away to smote half a dozen fours from 57 balls in just an hour and a half, and Hinds sedately supported him in a stand of 58 for the third wicket.
West Indies had suffered two early setbacks, when Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan gifted their wickets to Makhaya Ntini with ill-advised cross-batted strokes.
West Indies made four changes bringing in Gayle, Sarwan, Lara and all-rounder Dwayne Bravo for Devon Smith, Daren Ganga, Ryan Hinds and Narsingh Deonarine.
South Africa brought in Ashwell Prince and Monde Zondeki for Andrew Hall and Charl Langeveldt.
Scoreboard
WEST INDIES (1st Innings):
W.W. Hinds not out 15
C.H. Gayle c Boucher b Ntini 6
R.R. Sarwan c Nel b Ntini 5
B.C. Lara not out 41
EXTRAS (LB-3, W-1)
4
TOTAL (for two wkts, 26 overs) 71
FALL OF WKTS: 1-7, 2-13.
TO BAT: S. Chanderpaul, D.J. Pagon, D.J.J. Bravo, C.O. Browne, D.B. Powell, P.T. Collins, R.D. King.
BOWLING (to-date): Nel 7-3-10-0 (1w); Ntini 7-1-13-2; Kallis 6-1-15-0; Zondeki 6-0-30-0.
SOUTH AFRICA: G.C. Smith, A.B. de Villiers, J.A. Rudolph, J.H. Kallis, H.H. Gibbs, A.G. Prince, M.V. Boucher, N. Boje, M. Zondeki, M. Ntini, A. Nel.
UMPIRES: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and D.R. Shepherd (England).
TV UMPIRE:
B. Doctrove (West Indies).
MATCH REFEREE: J.J. Crowe (New Zealand).—AFP