Griquas off to a solid start against Strikers

A record first wicket partnership of 243 by Mickey Arthur and Martyn Gidley helped Griqualand West to a confident 243 for no loss on the first day of their four-day Supersport Series match against the Highveld Strikers at the Wanderers on Friday.

The partnership surpassed the previous Griquas record of 221 set by Jim McNally and "Slogger" Dunn against Eastern Province in the 1947/48 season.

It has also laid the platform for what should be an impressive first innings total, with Arthur standing on 155 and Gidley on 85 when bad light ended play half and hour before the scheduled close.

A few individual milestones were also reached. Gidley has the personal satisfaction of having now been involved in three of the top four record partnerships for Griquas, while Arthur's 155 overtakes his previous first-class best of 148.

Griquas won the toss and wisely elected to bat first on a pitch that favoured the batsmen. In the first session alone, Griquas reached a competent total of 100. Arthur proved to be the more robust in the partnership, hitting 25 fours and one six during his 155.

Together with Gidley, they climbed to their eventual 243 on the first day off 282 balls and in 305 minutes.

But a brewing highveld storm, that first showed up on the television cameras watching South Africa versus New Zealand in Potchefstroom, eventually brought a premature end to what was indeed a gloomy first day's play from a Strikers' point of view.

If anything can be said of the Strikers' bowling at this stage, it's that they deserve some applause for conceding only three extras in the 80 overs.

Other than that, it's been a fairly pedestrian start by the home side's bowling attack, and indeed for a side that is obviously feeling the loss of the inspirational Ken Rutherford.