Cricket: Tepid Tufnell robs Flintoff of birthday ton
KwaZulu-Natal 310 & 152-2 England 421 Match drawn
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Your support makes all the difference.THERE ARE few more pointless exercises than watching limited batsmen play out a draw against toothless bowling on a pitch devoid of life. Unhappily for those concerned, the final day of England's match against KwaZulu- Natal possessed all three scenarios and there were audible sounds of relief when play was eventually called off early at 4pm. With only 22 wickets falling, and run-rates mainly below three an over, England left for Port Elizabeth still uncertain whether this match constituted practice or penance.
The few spectators that ventured forth would have faced no such quandary and, after the mother of all thunder storms - the unremitting ferocity probably upgraded it to a tempest - the night before, the cricket, especially after Andy Flintoff was left stranded on 89 not out, was slow drip torture. Unless you like swimming in shark-infested seas there are precious few things to do in Durban anyway, and cricket this dull will only add to the shortfall.
It was Flintoff's 22nd birthday and, providing he had not bumped into fellow hotel guest the Dalai Lama and become an instant convert to Buddhism, a few celebratory drinks would no doubt have been downed. Flintoff does most things with gusto and, when he is not wielding his weighty bat like a claymore or arm wrestling with the local farmers, sinking the odd pint is among them.
After Nasser Hussain's bogey breaking, but painstaking, hundred on Sunday, Flintoff's efforts were not far behind. In fact he would have almost certainly joined his captain on three figures had last man Phil Tufnell not steered his first ball obligingly to gully, an effort so limp Flintoff did well to stop himself from wringing the spinner's neck.
Since criticism in a Sunday broadsheet (accusing Flintoff of encapsulating everything that is soft with the English game) reached his ears, Flintoff has knuckled down well with both bat and ball. Yesterday, he even opened the bowling after Andy Caddick, apparently feeling sick, failed to take the field for Kwa Zulu-Natal's second innings.
For a moment it looked like crisis time for England's attack, though the sight of Caddick tucking into a hefty portion of shepherd's pie at lunch lent evidence to the theory that, with the Second Test so close, his incapacity was probably tactical.
In his absence Alex Tudor looked more frisky and rhythmical and deserved his success when Mark Bruyns left a straight one. But he is still bowling too many no-balls, and Hussain will be hoping Alan Mullally has recovered by Thursday. But even should doubts over England's bowlers persist, they are loathe to risk using Flintoff as a fourth bowler in the Test, with the coach Duncan Fletcher saying he is "happy for Flintoff to keep doing what he's doing", which is batting sensibly and bowling in short bursts.
Fletcher also claimed he would need to see the pitch in Port Elizabeth before deciding whether to play a spinner. Mind you, it would have to be a fair old bunsen to pick Tufnell at present. On a pitch four days old he gave a more than passable impersonation of a man going through the motions and he barely turned a ball.
Indeed it took him until his 43rd over in the match to claim his first wicket and that due more to the error of Ahmed Amla, a 20-year old rookie, than any sorcery on his part. England may well be better off playing the extra batsman.
Final day of four; KwaZulu-Natal won toss
KWAZULU-NATAL - First Innings 310 (J C Kent 103, K P Pieterson 61no; A R Caddick 4-64).
ENGLAND - First Innings
(Overnight: 401 for 8)
A Flintoff not out 89
A J Tudor c Brown b Veenstra 45
P C R Tufnell c Watson b Veenstra 0
Extras (b2, lb3, nb2) 7
Total (164.2 overs) 421
Fall: 1-76, 2-86, 3-201, 4-201, 5-262, 6-282, 7-313, 8-316, 9-421.
Bowling: Veenstra 29.2-9-47-3; Gilder 22-4-56-1; Pieterson 55.5-14-141- 4; Kent 19-5-51-0; Bodi 17.1-4-46-0; A M Amla 17-1-53-2; Benkenstein 4- 0-22-0.
KWAZULU-NATAL - Second Innings
M L Bruyns b Tudor 12
D J Watson not out 52
A M Amla c Flintoff b Tufnell 53
*D M Benkenstein not out 20
Extras (b4, nb11) 15
Total (for 2, 61 overs) 152
Fall: 1-32, 2-126.
Did not bat: D L Brown, J C Kent, H Amla, G H Bodi, R E Veenstra, G M Gilder, K P Pieterson.
Bowling: Tudor 16-3-48-1; Flintoff 11-5-25-0; Tufnell 20-5-42-1; Adams 4-1-12-0; Vaughan 10-1-21-0.
Umpires: D L Orchard and W Diedricks.
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