Alex Massie Alex Massie

Things Coud Only Have Begun Better…


Strauss: caught Amla, bowled Steyn 0 Photo:Duif du Toit/Gallo Images/Getty Images.

Andrew Strauss might wish that he’d lost the toss at the Wanderers this morning since, as it turned out and despite a stripey pitch, South Africa would also have batted first. Strauss may have been dismissed by the first ball of the test but he’s in pretty good company: the first man to succumb to the opening ball of a test match was Archie MacLaren, done in by Arthur Coningham at Melbourne in 1894. Despite being skittled for just 75, England won the match by 94 runs…

Strauss’s dismissal today was the 28th time that a batsman has succumbed to the first ball of the match. Among the other victims: Tom Hayward, Hebert Sutcliffe, Eddie Barlow, Conrad Hunte, Roy Fredericks, Keith Stackpole, Gary Kirsten and Sanath Jayauriya.

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