South Africa vs. West Indies 2014, 2nd Test, Day 2 Postponed Due to Rain
Day 2 of the second Test between South Africa and West Indies was cut short after just six overs due to persistent rain, and the hosts will start Day 3 on 289 for 3, with Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers at the crease.
ESPNcricinfo scores shared the news:
"UPDATE: Match delayed by a wet outfield South Africa 289/3 (94 ov, lost the toss) v West Indies http://t.co/Jcz8r3EMcc
— ESPNcricinfo scores (@ESPNscorecard) December 27, 2014"
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The start of the second day was delayed by nearly two hours, and the morning session was interrupted after half an hour when the drizzle resumed. With the conditions not improving throughout the day, play was officially called off at 5.05 p.m. local time.
Faf du Plessis came into the morning session needing just one more run to crack a century, and he managed to hit the mark on the very first delivery. A massive four off Jerome Taylor would be his only contribution of the day, as the Snickometer revealed the ball clipped the outside edge on an excellent full-length delivery, per Digicel Cricket:
Amla and De Villiers struggled initially on the damp playing surface and found little success against the duo of Taylor and Jason Holder, and just as the hosts started building a bit of rhythm, play was called yet again.
| D Elgar | c †Ramdin b Peters | 121 | 330 | 239 | 18 | 0 | 50.62 | |
| AN Petersen | c Johnson b Gabriel | 17 | 58 | 35 | 3 | 0 | 48.57 | |
| F du Plessis | c †Ramdin b Taylor | 103 | 335 | 230 | 13 | 2 | 44.78 | |
| HM Amla* | not out | 23 | 49 | 1 | 0 | 46.93 | ||
| AB de Villiers† | not out | 9 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 50.00 | ||
| Extras | (lb 4, w 5, nb 7) | 16 | ||||||
| Total | (3 wickets; 94 overs) | 289 | ||||||
| JE Taylor | 22 | 4 | 74 | 1 | 3.36 | 105 | 11 | 0 |
| KK Peters | 15 | 6 | 44 | 1 | 2.93 | 76 | 6 | 1 |
| JO Holder | 16 | 5 | 34 | 0 | 2.12 | 80 | 4 | 0 |
| ST Gabriel | 15 | 0 | 52 | 1 | 3.46 | 63 | 6 | 0 |
| SJ Benn | 25 | 3 | 81 | 0 | 3.24 | 112 | 10 | 1 |
| MN Samuels | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
While the weather never really intensified, the slight drizzle persisted and impacted the pitch, visible in this image shared by ESPN Cricinfo's Firdose Moonda:
Play was officially called late in the afternoon, with umpires deciding to start Day 3 half an hour early, at 10 a.m. local time. South Africa still hold a commanding lead thanks to a barrage of runs on Day 1 and Du Plessis' century, and a win in Port Elizabeth would hand the hosts the Test series.
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