EP fight back at Newlands

Eastern Province fought back gamely on the second day of the Super Six match. Although the home team scored freely in the morning session, the visitors' top order held out long enough to give their team a good chance of avoiding the follow-on.

Kirsten continued to dominate in the morning session, going on to equal his best score in domestic cricket before falling to Hayward in much the same way as Gibbs earlier. He received good support from Munnik and Dawson before Harris bashed a few quick runs at the end. Only Duminy failed to get going, looking tentative after a promising start on the first evening. Kemp bowled with some fire, while Hayward's support in the slips was embarrassing as several chances went down in the latter stages of the innings. Homani nevertheless performed well to snare 5 catches on debut.

Benfield hit 5 fours before falling to Munnik, while Bryant batted fluently. The right-hander must feel this field belongs to him, as he had scored centuries in each of his last 3 visits to the Newlands crease. He lost Bradfield immediately after the skipper had completed his 50 in 201 minutes (166 balls), and was unfortunate to be run out after a misunderstanding with Callaghan with just 4 overs to be completed. Nightwatchman Homani followed up his competent keeping with a brief but aggressive innings, apparantly misunderstanding his role.