Cricket/First Test: England, having kept their noses in front from the second ball of the match, were within 49 runs of winning the first Test when bad light stopped play with 12 overs of the fourth day and an optional period of extra-time in hand.
At that stage Andrew Strauss, 51 not out to go with his hundred in the first innings, and Graham Thorpe, on 23, had already taken their fourth-wicket partnership to 43 and looked in a position to steer the side home with a day in hand.
So the game will resume today with the visitors on 93 for three and within sight now of an unprecedented eighth successive England win.
Strauss, just as he has been since his debut thrust him into the spotlight at the start of last summer, has been a tower of strength: phlegmatic, unwavering but never dour. Typical was the slog sweep he used to hit captain Graeme Smith's off-spin to the grandstand at midwicket for his seventh boundary taking him to 50, his seventh score of that or more in just 16 Test innings.
Win, lose of draw, no side has made more than 273 in the final innings at St George's Park. But, having bowled out South Africa for 229 in the first two sessions of play, the task of chasing 142 for victory ought not to prove too testing for a side that has won all of the previous eight matches in which they have batted last.
Yet England could not legislate for the ferocity with which South Africa came at them with the new ball. From the very first delivery Pollock was right on the mark, shading the ball into Marcus Trescothick as he appeared to be leaving it lethargically, the resultant edge being taken by Thami Tsolekile. Mark Butcher then drove hard at a ball slanted across him in Makhaya Ntini's second over, with Smith at first slip making a difficult catch look easy.
Butcher, who has not had a good game since reaching 79 in the first innings when he played an untidy shot to get out, and then dropped a simple catch yesterday to reprieve Jacques Kallis, failed to score and was lucky to have the opportunity to take so long over it; he was perilously close to being lbw to Pollock's second ball, his first.
When Michael Vaughan, having hit Dale Steyn for two fours in his opening over, then received the ball of the match as a riposte, a fast outswinger that eluded the edge of his bat and plucked out his off-stump, England were 50 for three and the game remained in the balance.
For much of the morning, England were helpless as Smith and Kallis batted with authority, pulling South Africa back into the game. Kallis, in particular, is a superb technician and his drives off Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones, who opened the bowling, were of the highest class.
Even so, Kallis should have gone on 28 when he mistimed a gentle drive to Butcher at cover. The fielder, however, appeared not to sight the ball and a simple chance was grounded.
It was Andrew Flintoff who made the breakthrough, inducing a hook from Smith that sped flat to Simon Jones at long leg, who dived forward heroically and came up with a stupendous catch. Shortly before lunch Ashley Giles, who might have bowled from the start, finally got a chance and immediately forced Boeta Dippenaar to chop on to his stumps.
The afternoon was exhilarating for England, however, as Jones, with his Celtic dander up, sent down a superb spell of reverse-swung pace that brought him four for 18 and put his side on the road to victory. The key wicket of Kallis, for 61, came from an lbw decision that looked spot on. That of Pollock next ball to a catch behind was less secure, the ball brushing the batsman's pad rather than inside edge.
Tsolekile was then beaten and bowled by a mesmeric slower ball and Ntini was lbw. When Andrew Hall was run out from deep backward point attempting to farm the strike, South Africa had lost their last six wickets for 28 in 14 overs.
Guardian Service
