e_Paper (25 November 2016)

DT
26
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2016
Sport
Du Plessis hits ton to
silence Adelaide boos
• Reuters, Adelaide
South Africa skipper Faf du
Plessis silenced the boos of
the Adelaide crowd with a defiant
century before declaring
on 259-9 and giving his bowlers
a crack at Australia in the
final hour of the opening day
of the day-night third Test
yesterday.
Australia got through the
final 12 overs without loss
but the declaration prevented
Dave Warner from opening
the batting as he was off the
field towards the end of the
South African innings.
Matt Renshaw, one of
three new caps in the Australia
side, and Usman Khawaja
faced the new pink ball instead
but they were only able
to put 14 runs on the board
and will resume on eight and
three respectively today.
Du Plessis’s timely declaration
capped what must
have been an extremely satisfying
first day for the South
African, who came to the
crease to catcalls with his side
tottering at 44-3 but departed
to an ovation after hitting 118
not out. Two days after being
fined for ball-tampering during
the second Test victory
that sealed the series with
a match to spare, du Plessis
showed just the sort of grit
and determination that Australia
have been looking for
from their batsmen.
Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell
Starc and the recalled Jackson
Bird earlier showed why
with a fine display of fast
bowling that had the first seven
batsmen caught behind
the wickets. Hazlewood took
4-68, while Starc and Bird
pitched in with two wickets
each as the Australian quicks
bowled disciplined lines with
the pink ball on the Adelaide
track.•
3RD TEST, DAY 1
SOUTH AFRICA FIRST INNINGS R
S. Cook c Smith b Starc 40 99
D. Elgar c Khawaja b Starc 5 17
H. Amla c Renshaw b Hazlewood 5 11
JP Duminy c Wade b Hazlewood 5 11
F. du Plessis not out 118 164
T. Bavuma c Wade b Bird 8 34
Q. de Kock c Wade b Hazlewood 24 33
V. Philander c Wade b Hazlewood 4 9
K. Abbott lbw b Bird 17 50
K. Rabada stpd Wade b Lyon 1 6
T. Shamsi not out 18 23
Extras (b3, lb8, w2, nb1) 14
Total (9 wickets declared, 76 overs) 259
Fall of wickets
1-12 (Elgar), 2-36 (Amla), 3-44 (Duminy),
4-95 (Cook), 5-117 (Bavuma), 6-149 (de
Kock), 7-161 (Philander), 8-215 (Abbott),
9-220 (Rabada)
Bowling
Starc 23-5-78-2 (1nb), Hazlewood 22-5-
68-4, Bird 16-3-57-2, Lyon 15-1-45-1
AUSTRALIA FIRST INNINGS R B
U. Khawaja not out 3 39
M. Renshaw not out 8 34
Extras (lb2, nb1) 3
Total (0 wicket, 12 overs) 14
Bowling
Philander 4-2-10-0 (1nb), Abbott 3-3-0-0,
Rabada 3-2-1-0, Shamsi 2-1-1-0
South Africa captain Faf du Plessis
celebrates scoring a century during the
first innings of their third Test against
Australia at Adelaide Oval in Adelaide
yesterday
AFP
B
Centuries by South African captains
in Tests in Australia before
2
Faf du Plessis’ 118 not out. Former
captain Graeme Smith had scored
both of them - at the same venue in
2012-13 and at the WACA in 2008-
09. Overall, du Plessis’ hundred
was only the seventh by a South
Africa captain in Tests against Australia.
Du Plessis’ batting
97.40 average in Tests in
Australia. He has made two hundreds
and two fifties in just eight
innings. At the Adelaide Oval in
Adelaide, du Plessis has made 306
runs - scores of 78, 110* and 118*
IN NUMBERS, AUSTRALIA V SOUTH AFRICA, THIRD TEST, DAY 1 IN ADELAIDE
- in three innings. Overall, he has
701 runs at 63.72 in Tests against
Australia. Only two other South Africa
batsmen with at least 500 runs
against Australia - Sir Barry Richards
and Graeme Pollock - average
higher than du Plessis against
them.
108.33
Du Plessis’ strike
rate against
Mitchell Starc in his innings. He
faced 48 balls from Starc and made
52 runs, 36 of which came off
boundaries. The other South Africa
batsmen scored only 24 runs off 91
deliveries from Starc at a strike rate
of 26.37.
Eto’o on massive tax
fraud charges
The last time Australia
had five debutants
1981
in a Test series. They had handed
out Test caps to Terry Alderman,
Trevor Chappell, Martin Kent, Dirk
Wellham and Mike Whitney in the
Ashes series in England that year.
While Callum Ferguson and Joe
Mennie made their debuts in Hobart,
this Test has three Australia
debutants - Peter Handscomb, Nic
Maddinson and Matt Renshaw.
Number of times Josh Hazlewood
has dismissed Hashim
4
Amla in four innings in this series.
This equals the most any bowler
has dismissed Amla in a series. S
Sreesanth had dismissed Amla four
times in 69 deliveries during India’s
tour of South Africa in 2006-
07. Stuart Broad had got Amla four
times from 207 balls in the Test
series in South Africa in 2015-16.
Hazlewood has bowled just 33 deliveries
to Amla in this series so far.
Score in the final
2/102 session on the first
day when artificial lights took over
completely. The final session on
the first day of the first floodlit Test
at the Adelaide Oval had seen five
wickets fall for 83 runs. However,
the happenings in the first two sessions
of the day were almost identical
to the first Test: seven wickets
fell for 171 runs in this Test. The
first two sessions of the match between
the hosts and New Zealand
had seen seven wickets fall for 173
runs.
Du Plessis declared South
259 Africa’s innings at the
Adelaide Oval with only 259 runs
on the board - their second-lowest
total on which they have declared
in the first innings of a Test. The
table below lists the 15 instances
when teams have declared the first
innings of a Test for a total of under
300 runs. •
Injured Bale to
undergo ankle surgery
• AFP, Madrid
Spanish prosecutors have recommended
that Cameroonian football
great Samuel Eto’o be handed
a 10-year jail sentence and pay a
staggering 18-million-euro ($19
million) fine, a court filing revealed
yesterday.
The prosecutor alleges that
Eto’o set up a series of front companies
to avoid paying taxes during
his decade of soccer success in
Spain’s La Liga.
The main charges focus on a
company Eto’o allegedly established
in 2006 to hide his image
rights, hiding some 4 million euros
from tax authorities. With interest
charges and fines the prosecutor
insists Eto’o should pay 18 million
euros. A prison sentence of 18
months for the original fraud established
in 2006 is supplemented
for three years jail for each subsequent
year the fraud continued.•
• Reuters, Madrid
Gareth Bale will undergo ankle surgery
next week to repair damaged
tendons, Real Madrid said yesterday.
The Wales international picked
up the injury during Tuesday’s
2-1 Champions League victory at
Sporting Lisbon.
“Real Madrid Sanitas Medical
Services have decided that Gareth
Bale will undergo an operation following
the traumatic dislocation of
the peroneal tendons of his right
ankle,” La Liga leaders Real said in
a statement.
The 27-year-old winger has
scored seven goals and set up three
more in 16 starts for Real in all
competitions this season. No time
frame was given for his return to
action. Zinedine Zidane’s team are
four points ahead of Barcelona at
the top of La Liga and play Sporting
Gijon tomorrow. •