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Download PDF Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie produced the highest South African opening partnership as they sent Bangladesh on a leather hunt on the opening day of the second and final Test match at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium yesterday.
At the devastation of the home team bowlers, the openers finished the day with the scoreboard reading 405 for nought in 90 overs. On their way to a happy hunt, the pair has broken a number of South African records and were close to rewriting some world records after a long time. They were eight runs shy of the world record opening partnership, between India’s Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy in 1956 against New Zealand in Chennai.
Proteas skipper Smith capitalised his coin luck on a flat and placid track by making his fourth double hundred in his record-breaking 54th Test match as a captain while McKenzie hammered a hundred after seven years.
Bangladesh played the match with an additional bowler in left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak who could only share the burden of his colleagues. Tigers captain Mohammad Ashraful used as many as seven bowlers but none were able to give even some trouble to the openers from stopping their record-breaking path.
It was a day for the home players to chase the ball all through as left-handed Smith was unbeaten on 223 with the help of 31 fours and a six and his right-handed partner McKenzie smashing an undefeated 169 that featured 20 boundaries and two sixes.
During their association, Smith and McKenzie broke the South African opening stand of 368 in which Herschelle Gibbs was the other batsman involved with his captain against Pakistan in 2002 at Cape Town.
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