Cricket: Fleming has hundred frustrations

By RICHARD BOOCK

BLOEMFONTEIN - You get the feeling that the monkey on Stephen Fleming's back has just grown into a full-sized gorilla.

The New Zealand captain not only failed to convert his 26th test half-century into a century during the first cricket test yesterday, he also became just the sixth New Zealander to be dismissed on 99, after falling to a snorting bouncer from Allan Donald.

At stumps, New Zealand were 260 for five, a lead of 18 with one day remaining.

The frustration of not having scored a hundred since May 1998 must have been particularly difficult to bear for Fleming, who bravely fronted up for a packed press conference less than hour after his dismissal and charmed the home reporters with a honest appraisal of his situation.

Depending on how you want to look at it, he has now scored more runs than any other player in the world with the benefit of only two centuries, or his 26-2 conversion rate is the worst in test history.

"The conversion thing gets a bit tedious," he said afterwards.

"But it's through my own inability to convert, and I'm very aware of it, not just from my own point of view, but for the team's sake.

"Just getting 50s and 60s isn't contributing enough in the middle order, and in that respect I'm very disappointed."

It might take some time to shake off that disappointment, but when he does, Fleming may one day be able to appreciate how well he played at Goodyear Park.

He came to the crease in the 39th over after Mathew Sinclair was spectacularly caught in the gully by Lance Klusener, and began his bid to save the test match against arguably the best pace attack in world cricket.

His chanceless, 274-minute innings saw him largely nullify the threat of Donald, Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini and Jacques Kallis, as he found the perfect mix of discipline and strokeplay on a day in which many South Africans were predicting a meek surrender from the tourists.

As it became clearer that Fleming, who featured in partnerships of 52 with Richardson and 72 with Craig McMillan, was digging in for a long salvage operation, the opposition frustration levels and bowling intensity lifted, to the point where Pollock and McMillan were at one stage caught up in an angry altercation.

Fleming defied the South Africans for most of the day, striking a dozen boundaries, most of them through the leg side and a good many down the ground.

He was finally undone by perhaps the best delivery of the test, with Donald producing a wicked, rearing bouncer which the New Zealand skipper could only fend off towards gully.

Although there was a suggestion during the television replay that the ball may have deflected off his wrist rather than his glove, and that the hand had just parted company with the bat handle at the split-second of impact, umpire Arani Jayaprakash seemed entitled to give his verdict in favour of the bowler.

"It seemed a lot quicker than it looked on the television replay, that's for sure," he joked.

New Zealand were struggling shortly before lunch on the final day. Nightwatchman Brooke Walker was caught behind off Ntini for 10 and McMillan, having reached 78, chipped a catch to mid on off Kallis.

New Zealand were 325 for seven, Adam Parore on four, and leading by just 83 runs with a little over two sessions left.

SOUTH AFRICA

First innings 471-9 dec

NEW ZEALAND

First innings 229

Second innings

M. Richardson lbw b Donald 77

Total for 5 wkts, 116 overs 260Fall: 1/33 (Spearman), 2/93 (Sinclair), 3/145 (Richardson), 4/175 (Astle), 5/247 (Fleming).

Bowling: A. Donald 23-11-41-3, S. Pollock 20-9-36-0 (1nb), M. Ntini 21-6-49-2, J. Kallis 17-3-65-0 (2nb, 1w), N. Boje 29-7-54-0, L. Klusener 6-2-9-0 (1nb).