Bad light denies South Africa A victory

It's been characteristic of this tour that the two three-day matches have been affected by bad light both in Adelaide and Perth. South Africa A came within five runs of victory today on the third and final day of the second match against Australia A at the WACA Ground in Perth only to be denied by bad light. Martin van Jaarsveld was in sublime form for the South Africans.

By declaring their second innings at 307 for 2, Australia A set the South Africans a target of 306 in 75 overs. The declaration came half an hour to lunch after a superb innings by Michael Hussey and his captain, Simon Katich, who scored 145 and an unbeaten 134 respectively. This pair shared a 274-run partnership for the second wicket after resuming on 163 for one this morning. Hussey fell to part-time medium bowler, Adam Bacher. Thereafter, Katich who was then partnered by Andrew Symonds called an end to the proceedings.

South Africa A were off to a confident start, with the opening pair of Ahmed Amla and Adam Bacher setting the tone with 42 runs for the first wicket. But Amla was out for 20 and Bacher followed him shortly afterwards with the total on 49. Then Martin van Jaarsveld lost the company of Ashwell Prince for four. When he was joined by Morne van Wyk, they piled up 129 runs for the fourth wicket before Van Wyk was out for 56 which he scored off 59 balls with 6 fours and a six. Justin Kemp made a quickfire 27 before he departed. Nicky Boje made 24, but together with Van Jaarsveld they shared a sixth wicket stand of 73 runs. Boje was out for 24. However, Van Jaarsveld continued unabated to score his second century of the tour in 107 balls, hitting 16 boundaries and two sixes. He later departed for 140.

The South Africans reached 301 for 7 - just five runs short of victory before bad light stopped play.

Van Jaarsveld was ecstatic for his effort. "I'm over the moon. There was a lot of moisture in the wicket especially with the new ball. But I'm quite happy that I managed to see it through before the wicket became brilliant to bat on later in the day," he said.

Stand in skipper Nicky Boje said the match was played in good spirit after the two sides declared their innings. "To leave us 306 in 75 overs was a good declaration from them since we had declared our first innings and we gave it all in reaching that target."

Coach Vincent Barnes was content with the overall performance although some players were out with niggling injuries. Quinton Friend, Gerald Dros (both hamstring) and Dewald Pretorius (broken right middle finger nail) and Justin Kemp's bruised left wrist. "We put the ball in Australia's court to make a game of it, knowing that we would lose ten overs a day due to bad light," he said.

The remaining one day match is scheduled for Wednesday at the WACA, starting form 12:30 (WA time). Australia lead the five-match series 2-1.