Rutherford ton lifts Gauteng

Johannesburg - Ken Rutherford, displaying a touch of typical Kiwi grit in testing conditions, made it look all too easy as others struggled at the Wanderers on Saturday.

The 34-year-old former New Zealand captain scored an undefeated innings of 104 with 17 fours and a six in a quality display as Gauteng went in search of a third batting point in their Super Eights SuperSport Series game against KwaZulu/Natal.

And among those who worked hard yet looked far from convincing was Daryll Cullinan as Gauteng reached 227/4 on rain-fractured afternoon which wiped out two hours and 10 minutes on the second day of Super Eights game.

In terms of the log the outing is important to both sides as they attempt to wrest the high ground, with Gauteng two bonus points better at six to the Natal Dolphins four. Both teams went into the game with 47 points each and the winner could find themselves facing Border in the final late next month.

It has been Rutherford though who has taken charge of the game and shown how to dominate the bowling reaching his 100 with his 16th four. His partner, Andrew Hall was 17 not out during a partnership of 59.

Although Natal, dismissed on Friday for 264 in their first innings have a lead of 37, the former New Zealand captain seems set for a big score in conditions where the pitch surface is a tad slower than you would expect from the Wanderers and the bounce is at times suspect.

Cullinan seemed uncertain about the bounce and this may have led to his dismissal by Kevin Petersen, the tall off-spinner who bowls faster than your average spinner. Cullinan was beaten by the pace off the pitch and his 32 (147 mins 126 balls 2x4 1x6) was far from an accomplished performance.

There was a late cut off Eldine Baptiste which flew past Mark Bruyns in the slips when the batsman was 15 and earned him one of his two boundaries. The other four was a cover drive off Jon Kent. Apart from that there were only two scoring strokes, both singles, in front of the wicket.

Rutherford though seemed to find no trouble and picked up a six off the economically Ross Veenstra's bowling.

About the only blemish in his effort so far was a top edge when he was 61 which Kent did not quite gather off Gary Gilder's bowling.

While Natal have bowled and fielded steadily Gauteng opener Sven Koenig may find himself called up before a disciplinary committee for telling umpire Rudi Koertzen that the ball he was given out caught when he had reached 30 had come off his heel.

Bruyns claimed the catch at silly point and Koenig was adjudged to his touched it before he stood his ground.

There were times though when the Gauteng innings was moving through a gestation process as laborious as you are going to get as batsmen seem to carry on as if there is no urgency in the game and the question of bonus points did not matter. - Sapa