CRICKET:LIKE A Ricky Hatton right-hander, or indeed like Ricky Hatton himself, yesterday was not pretty but, for South Africa anyway, it was mightily effective. A day for the connoisseur is how it is generally described, with the sound of slow handclaps filling the air.
Lord's is too well mannered to indulge in such things for long, but as the South African batsmen entrenched themselves, intent on batting England out of the prospect of a morale-boosting win in the first Test, there cannot have been a single paying punter who left the ground exhilarated.
This in no way is to denigrate the diligence of the South Africans who began the day with the prospect of an innings defeat and real humiliation staring them square in the face and ended it with a real chance of going to Headingley with the series square and making significant improvement on their shaky first innings display.
They were bolstered by an opening partnership of 204 between Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie, the pairing who only four months or so ago, in Chittagong, compiled a world record of 415 for the wicket. In the course of that achievement, they batted throughout an entire day, and until James Anderson enticed a weary South Africa captain into an indiscretion against the second new ball, it looked as if they might do so again.
By that time though Smith - indescribably scratchy in the lead-up to the Test, and ripped out by Anderson in the first innings on Saturday - had reached 107, his 15th Test hundred and second at Lord's following the 259 made here four years ago.It was a monumental display of determination and leading from the front as the pair established a record for the highest opening stand by a side following-on. It was a further hour and more, with the close looming, before McKenzie, the obsessive/compulsive disorder sufferer who obsessively and compulsively set out to block the life out of the ball, pushed the single that took him to his fifth Test hundred.
It was no less worthy an effort than Smith's though, and after more than seven-and-a-half hours batting, McKenzie was still there on 102 at stumps, with Hashim Amla already established on 20.
After him of course comes Jacques Kallis, a man whose whole raison d'etre is to occupy the crease and perfectly capable of making McKenzie's effort look dashing.
South Africa will resume this morning on 242 for one, scored from 96 overs, a rate which might have been deemed frisky once but not in this heady day and age. As such, still 104 runs short of making England bat again with a full day yet to play, they are by no means out of trouble and will require a second huge effort if they are to succeed.
They have received considerable assistance from the pitch, which true to its recent stereotype, has got easier to bat on as the game has progressed. In the light of this, Smith's decision to bowl first may not prove to be the blunder it has been portrayed as.
Guardian Service
