SA batsmen continue impressive form

The South Africans continued their run of strong performances in the Caribbean with all their batsmen performing on the first day of the tour match against Trinidad and Tobago in St Augustine. Four batsmen made half-centuries and three others got close to one as the visitors ended on 347 for 7.

Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen put on 72 for the first wicket before the captain was run out. Petersen went on to make 65, the innings' top score, and the in-form Hashim Amla reached 44 before retiring out to give his team-mates the chance to practice. AB de Villiers and JP Duminy also made 53 and 51 respectively before retiring.

While Ashwell Prince didn't make use of the opportunity, falling for 18, Mark Boucher, who will return as wicketkeeper for the Tests, made 51. Trinidad and Tobago used nine bowlers but only three - Amit Jaggernauth, Yannic Cariah and Dave Mohammed - took a wicket each. Three of the other four wickets were batsmen retired out.

This is South Africa's only warm-up game ahead of the first Test against West Indies, which begins at the Queen's Park Oval on Thursday. The match was moved to Trinidad because of civil unrest in Jamaica. South Africa go into the Test series having won both Twenty20s and the one-day series 5-0.