Cricket: Proteas fight back after Mills strike

As if to mock the absence of New Zealand bowling spearhead Shane Bond, South African cricket skipper Graeme Smith won the toss and elected to bat.

It initially appeared to backfire when Kyle Mills bowled the prolific Herschelle Gibbs with the score at 16. But Smith, unbeaten on 41 at lunch, blended successfully with Boeta Dippenaar (31 not out) to have the Proteas in a potentially strong position at 85-1.

Smith declared himself fit despite still suffering pain from the left ring finger injury which kept him out of the third and final test against Australia earlier this month. South Africa, who lost all three home tests against Australia, dropped middle-order batsman Jacques Rudolph and reshuffled their batting order, with Smith opening alongside Gibbs.

AB de Villiers moved from the opening slot to the middle order.

Injured fast bowler Andre Nel was replaced by Dale Steyn.

For New Zealand, allrounder Jacob Oram returned for his first test since November 2004, while swing bowler Kyle Mills came in for Bond, who suffered a recurrence of a knee injury during a warm-up match against the Rest of South Africa last weekend.See p72.

- NZPA