When play resumes this morning at Castle Avenue on the third and final day of their encounter with the South Africa Development XI, Ireland will be trailing by 182 runs, with the visitors' first-wicket partnership between Quentin Still and Ahmed Amla still intact.

This may not sound encouraging, but matters might have been much worse, as a stand of 57 for the sixth wicket between Angus Dunlop and Kyle McCallan saved the follow-on, after the Irish were expiring on 82 runs for 5, with all the higher order batsmen - including Jonty Rhodes - gone. Dunlop's defiant 60 came off 136 balls and included one six and seven fours.

McCallan with 24 (59 deliveries, three fours) and Peter Davy with 21 were the only other home batsmen to make any significant contribution.

Neil Carson having departed the scene the previous evening, Stephen Smyth got out without adding to his overnight single, to be rapidly followed by Rhodes, who was even less successful, with Ireland only 22 runs to the good.

Dunlop shared in a fourth wicket 25-run stand with the dogged Davy, and put on 35 runs for the fifth wicket with Barry Archer, before he and McCallan pulled off their face-saving act. McCallan sustained a badly bruised right thumb, which required an X-ray, and was unable to bowl, which is certain to make Ireland's challenge all the more difficult.

The Irish found the pace of Dewald Pretorius and Andre Nel rather too hot to handle with any comfort. Both pacemen bowled with splendid aggression; Pretorius took 3 for 40 off 16 overs, while the impressive Nel's three wickets cost only 19 runs off 17 overs.

A comprehensive clobbering looks inevitable for Ireland when play resumes at 11.00 this morning.