CRICKET TEST MATCH:MIRACLES HAPPEN, increasingly so in modern cricket with pitches that might have been prepared by Dorian Gray so young and unblemished do they remain throughout a Test, but with two days of the third Test remaining all the indications are that England and South Africa will decamp to the Wanderers next week all square and ready to shoot it out for the series.

There was parity, all but, on first innings, with England eventually conceding a lead of 18 after an opening half hour every bit as frenetic in its tumble of wickets as that of the previous morning, so the chatter was of a further clatter throughout the day and a finish sometime today.

That idea was shattered by Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla, who between them compiled a partnership of 230, a Test record for the second wicket at Newlands, scored at precisely a run a minute. If England were burnt by the fierce sun, then they were grilled beyond well-done by this pair.

Smith, South Africa’s burly bullish captain, has never lost a Test where he has made a century, and yesterday he biffed his way to the 19th of his career, his fifth against England. He resumes this morning on 162 with Jacques Kallis, the fellow who resurrected the first innings with his own century, ominously poised on 20.

Amla, wristy and sinewy by contrast, plundered the offside, square of the wicket, to get within five runs of his eighth hundred when, after four hours, he was caught at short leg off bat and pad, giving Graeme Swann the second of two more wickets to his burgeoning collection but the only ones taken by England yesterday.

The initiative had been seized, the runs coming at more than four every over for the duration of the alliance and at almost a run a ball during the afternoon when the attack wilted in the heat. It was classic smash-and-grab opportunism.

South Africa, at 312 for two, have an overall lead of 330 and another session-and-a-half to bat, perhaps, to make sure the game is safe from any madcap England charge that would give them the series (354 for five is the highest fourth innings total on this ground, so 400 plus, while unlikely, is a possibility) but with time still to bowl them out. The new ball is due but it could be too late now to affect the result.

In this regard, in these conditions, it is South Africa, particularly in the form of Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn, who have the potency in terms of sheer pace to succeed, where England’s seam attack has failed second time around. This, as with so many, is regarded as a “new ball pitch”, which implies a surface that tends to die but in reality is a direct criticism of the Kookaburra ball that tends to go soft early and suddenly.

While it remains hard, there is considerable bounce, and unevenness may play a part, made all the more dangerous by the pace generated by the mountainous Morkel in particular, compared to that of the England attack.

England stuck to their guns well enough during a trying day, and there were some intriguing contests, not least between Smith and Swann. Clearly, after the manner in which South Africa’s batsmen submitted to him during the first two Tests, there had to be an imperative to take the attack to him, to unsettle his rhythm, and try to crack the shell of boundless optimism that drives his bowling.

Smith decided to sweep and occasionally seek the midwicket fence. Swann’s counter was to bowl flatter, a point to Smith. Twice Swann’s appeals for lbw brought no success, once on referral by England and once by the batsman.

Swann seems infuriated by this, although his success rate with lbws, perhaps the highest percentage since the most common dismissal in Test history (run out and bowler-keeper combination excepted) was lbw Wasim Akram, is such that he ought not grumble too much.

The manner in which James Anderson and Graham Onions used the new ball was a poor reflection on their abilities, however. Onions erred on the short side, while Anderson’s obsession with swinging the ball away from left-handers has, in terms of simple muscle memory, deprived him of the facility to make it go the other way on demand.

This is a serious flaw, his armoury deprived of a fundamental weapon, and unless he is experiencing some discomfort in his back which he is protecting, and which leads to a more open action, it will require some considerable remedial work in conjunction with the bowling coach, Ottis Gibson, if he is to regain his wrist position and rediscover the art that was the essence of him.

The early part of the morning belonged to Morkel. On 241 for seven, and Matt Prior at the crease with Swann, England might have nursed hopes of getting their noses in front.

In the space of a few minutes, during which Swann and Anderson were taken at first slip from successive balls from Morkel, the notion was crushed.

Only a last-ditch charge from Prior, who made 76 and steered a last-wicket stand of 32, got them as close as they came.

GuardianService