Notes from the Park I

Thoughts from an 'absorbing' first day at Hamilton

Shaun von Berg showed plenty of cojones in his test debut. Getty Images

South Africa 220 For 6

Hamilton might market itself as the city of the future but it yesterday hosted a day of cricket from the past.

It was a tough old day where you got to flick between the euphemisms of “absorbing” or “attritional”. And that’s okay, there are no rules that say you have to entertain.

For long periods the game seemed stalled, with South Africa unable to find any gear despite some bold pre-match decisions. Eventually, they earned their pay-off, with an unlikely and unbroken seventh-wicket partnership of 70 between allrounders Ruan de Swardt and Shaun von Berg, a 37-year-old debutant who defies the athletic ideal.

Not only was the partnership valuable for the visitors in that it dragged them from a precarious position, but it also frustrated the hell out of New Zealand who wasted the shiniest overs of a second new ball trying to break the partnership at the end of a sapping day.

Up until then it was hard to discern a batting plan, unless it was to block for as long as possible before giving your wicket away in limp, and in one case desperately unlucky, circumstances.