Kirsten completes full set of centuries

South Africa 369-2 v Bangladesh

Gary Kirsten batted himself into the record books by becoming the first player to score centuries against every Test-playing nation as South Africa ran amok on the first day of the first Test against Bangladesh here yesterday.

Having dropped down one place from his usual opener's position, Kirsten (113 not out) shared a second-wicket stand of 272 with Graeme Smith, who smashed 200 to record his highest first-class score.

In his third Test, Smith showed maturity beyond his 21 years as he reached 200 before falling just before the close, becoming Sanwar Hossain's first Test wicket. Smith's previous best first-class score was 187 while his Test-best was 68 against Australia in Cape Town.

Bangladesh had little answer to South Africa's batting as Smith, Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs helped themselves. Khaled Mashud put South Africa into bat, but Gibbs and Smith rattled up a 50 partnership before Gibbs played a rash shot against Tapash Baisya to get out.

Kirsten came in and bar one Chinese cut looked in control as he cruised to his 15th Test century.

First day of five; Bangladesh won toss

SOUTH AFRICA – First Innings

G C Smith c Manjural Islam

b Sanwar Hossain 200

H H Gibbs c Tushar Imran b Tapash Bais 41

G Kirsten not out 113

J H Kallis not out 1

Extras (b1 lb1 w3 nb9) 14

Total (for 2, 90 overs) 369

Fall: 1-87 2-359.

To bat: A G Prince, M van Jaarsveld, Ý*M V Boucher, C W Henderson, D J Terbrugge, M Hayward, M Ntini.

Bowling: Manjural Islam 18-2-58-0; Tapash Baisya 21-3-97-1; Talha Jubair 19-3-89-0; Mohammad Rafique 18-1-71-0; Alok Kapali 11-0-43-0; Sanwar Hossain 3-0-9-1.

BANGLADESH: Al Sahariar, Javed Omar, Habibul Bashar, Sanwar Hossain, Tushar Imran, Ý*Khaled Mashud, Alok Kapali, Mohammad Rafique, Tapash Baisya, Talha Jubair, Manjural Islam.

Umpires: D J Harper (Aus) and R B Tiffin (Zim).