Tea on second day of three: South Africa 515-3 dec; Somerset 195-6
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Your support makes all the difference.Even without the all-round skills of Jacques Kallis the South Africans are proving far too strong for a Somerset team without half a dozen first choice players.
Kallis was hit on his right elbow by acting Somerset captain Andy Caddick during his unbeaten 160 yesterday and has been given the day off to rest the badly bruised joint. A decision will be made tomorrow morning as to whether he will take any further part in this match.
The Tourists have another injury problem, although not as serious a one as Kallis. Hashin Amla, their other centurion on Sunday, also had today off to rest a mild groin strain. He scored 172, the highest individual innings by a South African against Somerset.
After the likes of Kallis and Amla had finished with the batting lesson today it was the turn of the fast bowlers.
Morné Morkel and André Nel unleashed some ferocious missiles at the Somerset batsmen after the South Africans had added a further 60 runs to their overnight 455.
Morkel looked especially quick on a pitch which traditionally favours the bat and negates the ball. Morkel struck after Nel had ended a savage cameo from Neil Edwards, who clobbered a 6 and five 4s in his 17-ball innings, by having the left-hander taken at third slip by Ashwell Prince.
He yorked Arul Suppiah, the other opener, and then James Hildreth played on. As if that were not bad enough Somerset contributed to their own downfall by twice getting into a dreadful muddle which resulted in two useful batsmen, Zander de Bruyn and Pete Trego being run-out.
In Trego’s case he and Wes Durston – who had been involved in de Bruyn’s dismissal on the stroke of lunch – had put together a face-saving stand of 54 for the fifth wicket. But, as in the first run-out, one of the pair (Trego) appeared to decide that there was a third run for the taking.
By the time he discovered that his partner felt differently Trego had reached the other end, where Durston remained unmoved and Trego departed.
At least Durston went on to pass fifty, before he tried to work a ball from Morkel to midwicket, missed it and fell lbw, by which time he had shared in a stand of 43 for the sixth wicket with Craig Kieswetter.
The South Africa-born Kieswetter continued to display absolute composure as he worked his way steadily to a half century which helped Somerset to move to within 320 runs of the Tourists’ imposing first innings total.
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