CRICKET FIRST TEST, THIRD DAY: AFTER ATTRITIONAL cricket during which it was a toss-up whether the pitch or the England batting would crack up first, Graeme Swann and James Anderson salvaged some respectability in the merriest of interludes.
With thunder showers forecast for the final two days, they also gave England a good chance of salvaging something from the match.
The pair added 106 in 24 overs, a record for the ninth England wicket against South Africa, helping their side to 356, a first-innings deficit of 62.
It meant South Africa had four overs to bat, and by stumps Anderson had removed Ashwell Prince in his first over, leaving them nine for one.
England were 242 for eight when the pair came together, with the prospect of the follow-onbarely avoided and the second new ball burning a hole in the umpire’s pocket.
The game, for the innings, seemed up.
England had batted dourly but with determination on a pitch that had produced some disturbing shooters, pinned down by the accuracy of the seam attack and, bewilderingly, the mesmerically ordinary slow left-arm of Paul Harris. Somehow, perhaps with the aid of smoke and mirrors, Harris had managed to take four wickets, and five in all, one of them Ian Bell, seduced into offering no stroke to a ball that took his off-stump.
The new ball came and went as Anderson, the most improved bottom-order batsman in the business, and Swann, who, lest we forget, was England’s third-highest scorer in the Ashes series, set about it.
Makhaya Ntini failed to break through despite the urgings of the crowd who would have got free drinks if he managed it.
Harris returned and was belted by Swann, who did not want his own figures as a more penetrative spinner usurped. A swivel pull fine to the leg-side boundary took Swann to his half-century from 47 deliveries.
Batting looked easy. Twice Swann took the Kevin Pietersen switch-hit out of the locker and produced boundaries: KP will be demanding royalties.
When Swann clipped Ntini precisely through midwicket, it brought up the century partnership, the first time an England ninth-wicket pair had achieved this against South Africa.
It took a false stroke from Anderson to end it, the ball from Ntini stopping slightly as he tried to drive on the up, and lobbing to mid-off where Morkel dived forwards for the catch. But the stand had produced 106 and reduced the deficit to 70.
By now Swann had reached 81 and wondering whether Graham Onions could show some of Anderson’s fortitude. Onions responded by pulling Ntini to the boundary.
If only Swann had trusted him. Instead he heaved at Harris, and homed in on Hashim Amla at deep square-leg. What a brilliant riposte it had been, though, over little more than two hours and from 81 balls with 10 fours and two sixes.
The belligerent start given to the England innings on the second evening proved illusory. Ntini fired a warning shot in his first over when a delivery to Andrew Strauss scuttled insidiously low. Suddenly, the pitch had demons, the ball waiting to dart off cracks in the surface. Ntini clinched it when he torpedoed the England captain, leaving England’s pair of South African expats to grind out a stand that took an eternity for little reward.
Pietersen reasoned that the danger came not from catches but from straight deliveries and got himself yards down the pitch to counter. South Africa helped by channelling outside off-stump rather than straight.
If never quite in touch, Pietersen batted diligently for almost two hours until he launched an off drive against Morkel and dragged on to his stumps. In so doing a fault in the use of technology appeared to have been exposed. Morkel had overstepped fractionally but had not been no-balled and the third umpire has no remit to report this. If the technology is to be used to “eliminate glaring errors” then the least that can be done is to check that all wicket-taking deliveries are legitimate.
Guardian Service
