da apostaganha： Centurion: While a pall of gloom hung overthe England dressing room last night, and most of it they wouldhave to admit is self-induced, Clive Eksteen finally managed totake Mike Atherton’s wicket
Trevor Chesterfield21-Nov-1999Centurion: While a pall of gloom hung overthe England dressing room last night, and most of it they wouldhave to admit is self-induced, Clive Eksteen finally managed totake Mike Atherton’s wicket. As the England XI stretched theiroverall lead to 238 when they reached 136 for seven in the secondinnings against the combined Northerns/Gauteng XI at SuperSportPark yesterday, Eksteen extracted a small measure of revengewhich was not lost on the yobbo element in the crowd, when he hadthe former England captain caught in the slips by DaryllCullinan.A pity the heavy cloud, which had been building since tea,finally wiped a further 17 overs from the day’s play with ChrisAdams and Alex Tudor all too eager to accept the bad light offer.It was Eksteen’s unsuccessful marathon duel with Atherton on thelast day of that second game of the series at the Wanderers fouryears ago, now a part of modern Test folklore as the then Englandcaptain batted all day, which led to the left-arm spinner’s lastappearance for South Africa. It still rankles with some and stirsthe memory for others who have less than generous thoughts forEksteen’s bowling abilities and tactics.At Centurion yesterday the tourists had reached 88 without lossat the start of the 23rd over when Atherton dipped at a deliveryfrom the Combined XI’s captain only to find himself offering acatch to Cullinan after a 94 minute innings for 39. Quite adashing effort from the tourists’ opener. After his departure theinnings went into sharp decline for the visitors, or if youprefer improved for the locals who after being dismissed for 201fought back to be in with a chance of a victory of they can onlyget their batting act together.At one stage Mark Butcher, also on 39, Nasser Hussain, AlecStewart and Michael Vaughan all came and went in rapid successionas first Eksteen and then Walter Masimula picked up wickets asthe visitors plunged 96 for four. Not the sort of parlousposition Duncan Fletcher, the England coach would have enjoyed.It was all a matter of tight bowling, good fielding and poor shotselection as at one stage Eksteen had the impressive figures ofthree for 15 off 17 overs. That was before Andy Flintoff defacedthe figures with three boundaries which broke the stranglehold. Asix followed by a four and then a six took Flintoff into doublefigures before he too perished one of the three Van Jaarsveldcatches in the innings.Masimula brought in as the late choice for Rudi Bryson had twofor 12 in 10 overs of tight bowling, but it was during a periodwhen Flintoff and Gavin Hamilton had to set about rebuilding theinnings. The loss of another wicket at this stage would havedangerously exposed the injured Chris Adams and the tail.Steve Elworthy’s return, however, signalled the dismissal of bothbatsmen through further excellent fielding efforts and tightbowling. Hamilton went first, hitting on the up to Cullinan. Itcould have been a third wicket for Elworthy but Eksteen’sfrantic, vain dive to take a chance offered first ball by Adamsat mid-off eluded the combined team’s skipper.But the fifth ball of the over Elworthy’s delivery to Flintoffwent to Van Jaarsveld and a totally different picture to that attea, when the score was 84 without loss, emerged after theCombined XI innings also had a major hiccup in fortunes at thestart of the day. Neil McKenzie and Steve Elworthy apart, alongwith some help from a wayward Alex Tudor and a dodgy couple ofovers from Darren Gough, the combined team’s first innings was afeeble effort.More had been expected of Van Jaarsveld whose patience wasfinally worn wafer thin after 112 minutes of batting and anattempted drive caught the bottom of the bat to present Athertonwith a simple enough catch at second slip. There were times whenhe drove that he looked as flowing as the nearby Hennops River.An inability to find the gap though also reduced his run-scoringopportunities and he seemed reluctant to go for the cut.McKenzie departed without offering a shot to Gough and not eventhe young man who had earlier this year transferred his talentsfrom Gauteng to Northerns could quibble about Wilf Diedricks’awarding the Yorkshireman the decision. In contrast to hisaggressive flair and accomplished strokeplay of Friday, McKenzieseemed to Iack the conviction to go for his strokes while hisreplacement, Nic Pothas was fluent enough when going forward todrive Gough. It was only when Elworthy arrived with thescoreboard looking a forlorn 130 for five in the 47th over thatthe tall all-rounder took charge. He first saw Pothas depart toone of Stewart’s five catches during a particularly impressivespell of bowling from Gavin Hamilton.Van Jaarsveld’s wicket was Hamilton’s second of the innings andcame during a fine spell of bowling from the Yorkshireall-rounder: figures of 7-5-7-2 were quite remarkable on a sunnymorning after he took over from Andrew Caddick at the HennopsRiver end. He was forced to hobble off after dropping an Elworthytop edge off Tudor’s bowling and as a precaution remained off thefield to the remainder of the Combined XI’s innings.As competitive as they come Hamilton’s efforts may have helpedhim earn a Test cap, having earlier played for Scotland in theWorld Cup this year. Fortune favoured Elworthy though. Droppedtwice on four the first by Hamilton off Caddick when the scorewas 137 for five and then two runs later when the Yorkshireall-rounder misjudged the catch, he slapped Gough around with thesort of stylish aplomb you might expect from Cullinan. Gough,brought back for a pre-lunch spell to supposedly hasten the endof the innings, began with a wide.It then got better, for Elworthy, and worse, for Gough. Fourfours in the extended over was the sort of aggression needed tolift the tempo of a sagging run rate and a total which wasstruggling to reach 150. A cover drive, and off-drive a smackthrough mid-wicket was not the sort what England’s captainHussain wanted or needed.Gough’s next over received equally rough treatment and he wassoon replaced after giving away six fours half the number takenoff his bowling in the innings. Elworthy was good value though.He drove comfortably, and often, into the gaps and eight fourswas the sort of good value for his efforts and tactical presencein terms of scoring runs when they were needed. Before heperished after a 70 minutes duel which earned him 43 runs off 56balls, he had seen the score reach 191.