South Africa 100-2 at lunch on day 4, 1st test vs. NZ

Dhaka – South Africa leads New Zealand by 67 runs with eight second innings wickets intact after rain and bad light disrupted the morning session Saturday on the fourth day of the first test.Trailing by 33 runs after New Zealand made 341 in reply to its first innings 308, South Africa reached 100-2 by lunch with Dean Elgar 40 not out and J.P. Duminy 32.AP/UNB agencyThe Proteas lost the wicket of Hashim Amla (24) during the session, in which only 25 overs were bowled. Amla, who is struggling to find form and was out for 1 in the first innings, mistimed a delivery from Neil Wagner which held up on an abrading pitch and popped a simple catch to substitute fielder Tim Southee at midwicket.Southee was fielding in place of Ross Taylor, whose series looks over after he suffered a low grade muscle tear while batting.Wagner, who also claimed Amla’s wicket in both innings, had 1-21 at lunch while Trent Boult had 1-24.Play began 30 minutes late Saturday because light drizzle had dampened the outfield and players had been on the field only 20 minutes when forced to leave due to bad light. They returned after 10 minutes but further disruptions were likely with rain forecast through the afternoon.The day began in bitterly cold conditions which caused umpires Kumar Dharmasena and Bruce Oxenfold to resort to wearing gloves to stay warm.South Africa resumed at 38-1, leading by only five runs, and Amla and Elgar took almost three overs to score the first run of the morning. By lunch Elgar, who made his test-best score of 140 in the first innings, had batted 71 minutes in this innings and more than eight hours in the match.After Amla’s dismissal the usually free-scoring Duminy also found batting difficult. He had a nervous moment early on when New Zealand appealed for a catch by wicketkeeper B.J. Watling off Boult and decided to review the umpire’s not out decision. Television replays upheld the umpire’s call.He had a closer scrape on 6, edging a ball from Boult to Tom Latham at first slip. It seemed a simple catch but Latham, struggling for form with the bat and low on confidence, put it down.On 20 and with South Africa 82-2, Duminy was struck on the back pad by a ball from off-spinner Jeetan Patel which turned into him and appeared headed for the stumps. New Zealand inexplicably chose not to review what appeared a very close chance.Equally inexplicably, the home side chose to review another lbw appeal by Patel when Duminy was 27 and South Africa 92-2, though the ball had clearly come off an inside edge.Elgar offered a chance on 35 when dropped by Watling off the bowling of James Neesham, just as Watling put down a chance when Elgar was 36 in the first innings.