{"id":12643,"date":"2012-07-22T01:10:36","date_gmt":"2012-07-21T23:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/cricket-smith-makes-131-in-100th-test-as-tourists-cruise\/"},"modified":"2012-07-22T01:10:36","modified_gmt":"2012-07-21T23:10:36","slug":"cricket-smith-makes-131-in-100th-test-as-tourists-cruise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cricket-smith-makes-131-in-100th-test-as-tourists-cruise\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket-Smith makes 131 in 100th test as tourists cruise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Richard Sydenham<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON, July 21 – Graeme Smith scored a century in his 100th
\ntest before he was dismissed for 131 to leave South Africa
\ncruising on 277 for two at tea against England on day three of
\nthe first test at The Oval on Saturday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Hashim Amla also had a century to his name and was looking
\nimperious on 131 not out, with Jacques Kallis on 10, as the
\ntourists reduced England’s first innings lead to 108 runs.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith’s landmark innings, his 25th test hundred and only the
\nseventh time a player had scored a century in his 100th test,
\nended when he played on to Tim Bresnan.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The South Africa captain got an inside edge to Bresnan that
\ndeflected on to his back leg and then against the stumps.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

It was an unlucky way to go but he had still done enough to
\nmark his own special occasion while placing his team in a strong
\nposition after an inauspicious first day.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

With a flat pitch and sunshine making perfect batting
\nconditions Smith and Amla cashed in to leave England rueing the
\ndropped chance that skipper Andrew Strauss made at first slip
\nthe previous evening when Amla was on 40.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Amla’s innings has otherwise been faultless and the ease
\nwith which his runs came said much about his ability to
\npenetrate the field against quality bowling as much as the
\nconditions.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

This was his 15th test century and has so far spanned 261
\nballs. But for the occasion, Smith’s six-hour innings will be
\nremembered more, as he shared in a potentially match-defining
\npartnership of 259 with the right-handed Amla.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Richard Sydenham LONDON, July 21 – Graeme Smith scored a century in his 100th test before he was dismissed for 131 to leave South Africa cruising on 277 for two at tea against England on day three of the first test at The Oval on Saturday. Hashim Amla also had a century to his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}