McKenzie's Century Helps SA to Draw first test!

The first test ends in a draw on the 5th day in Chepauk, MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. McKenzie played a crucial innings again scoring a century this time. He missed the century in the first innings but didn't make the mistake this time. He went beyond 150 in the 2nd innings to take this test to a draw!

Resuming the day at 131 for 1, the first hour was crucial for both the teams. If India succeded in getting erly break-throughs, it would have been tougher on the tourists. But, Amla, the man in form along with McKenzie played both Kumble and Harbhajan very well to bring another 150 run partnership in this test. Though McKenzie was dropped by Sreesanth in the deep square leg, the partnership was growing until Kumble produced a delivery that bounced and hit the edge and went to the hands of Dravid in the slip. Though India took wickets of Kallis for 19, Prince for 5, and de Villiers for 11, it seemed tough to take all the wickets of South Africa in time.

McKenzie was not out on 155 off 339 balls with 13 fours and a six and Amla scored 81 off 148 balls with 9 fours. These two have batted out 81.1 overs of the 123 overs SA had to bat.

Kumble's effort of trying VVS Laxman to bowl 10 overs and couple of overs from Ganguly did not help.

Kallis has to find his form immediately to help South Africa to further strengthen their batting line up. He failed in both the innings and is important that he scores in the next two games.

Shewag for his record breaking 319 was adjudged man of the match, though Amla and McKenzie contributed in both the innings.

Final Score:

Toss: South Africa

Result: Match Drawn

Man of the Match: Shewag (India)

Venue: Chennai, India

Date: March 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 2008

Captain: Smith (SA), Kumble (India)

Score:

South Africa 1st Innings 540 allout in 152.5 overs (Smith 74, McKenzie 94, Amla 159, deVilliers 44, Boucher 70, Morkel 35, Kumble 2 for 106, Harbhajan 5 for 164)

India 1st Innings 627 allout in 155.1 overs (Shewag 319, Jaffer 73; Dravid 111, VVS Laxman 39, Steyn 4 for 103, Nitni 3 for 128, Harris 3 for 203)

South Africa 2nd Innings 331 for 4 declared in 109 overs (McKenzie 155 not out, Smith 35, Amla 81, Harbhajan 3 for 101)