England shade opening day's play

The first day of the first test of this winter's D'Oliveira Trophy ended at Port Elizabeth with England holding the initiative following four wickets in the evening session, Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard taking three wickets apiece despite Boeta Dippenaar and Jacques Rudolph contributing fifties.

England kept faith with the same eleven that was embarrassed last week at the hands of South Africa 'A', whilst South Africa included quickie Dale Steyn and opening batsman AB de Villiers for their test debuts in place of Hashim Amla and Justin Ontong, with Nicky Bojé unable to recover in time.

As has become tradition, England once again lost the toss and South African skipper Graeme Smith unsurprisingly chose to bat - yet his innings was over within two minutes as Matthew Hoggard's gameplan consisting of "close your eyes and wang it down" led to a fend outside off stump and a smartly taken low catch at third slip by Andrew Strauss.

England's biggest gun, Steve Harmison, misfired early on as AB de Villiers chaulked up a brace of boundaries off the Durham quick, adding 63 for the second wicket with Jacques Rudolph before the visitors' talisman, Andrew Flintoff nipped one back off the seam to trap the debutant opener LBW for 28. Two swiftly became three as Jacques Kallis lost a 92mph Harmison full toss in the air on its way to cannoning into off-stump.

At 66/3, South Africa were distinctly on the back foot but a determined rescue act between Rudolph and Boeta Dippenaar added 112 in forty overs at a mystifyingly varying pace. Both Harmison and Simon Jones' radars malfunctioned allowing both batsmen to collect boundaries with unaccustomed ease, before the introduction of Ashley Giles stemmed the flow to great effect.

The Warwickshire spinner's first 10 overs went for just seven runs as he applied the brakes, with Dippenaar in particular feeling the strangulation. The disappointingly small Port Elizabeth crowd even slow hand-clapping the under-fire Free State batsman, the pressure showing, seemingly desperate to keep the scorecard ticking, with several attempts at suicidal singles being made. Without Rudolph's calm at the non-striker's end, three could easily have become four, but with Simon Jones accurate at the other end, the run-rate, having threatened to breach four an over, was brought back below three.

The balance of play had shifted towards the home side when Andrew Flintoff returned to the attack. Around the wicket, a short ball flicked Rudolph's shirt on the way through to Geraint Jones. With Rudolph clearly shaken, the next ball enticed a loose shot, a nick, and Jones finished the job behind the stumps. Zander de Bruyn collected a couple of boundaries but was soon dismissed by the Lancashire all-rounder, totally misjudging a straight ball which knocked back off-stump.

Andrew Hall, opener in India, was now surprisingly relgated to eight behind Shaun Pollock - who went for his shots in a breezy 31 that included five fours, before Matthew Hoggard's new ball caught the outside edge and was cleanly taken by Marcus Trescothick at first slip. Hall lasted just over ten minutes before becoming a victim of his own impetuousness, dragging the ball onto his off-stump.

At nine, Thami Tsolekile looked ill-at-ease against the England quicks, Harmison striking him on the body, but a succession of leg-side deflections saw him through to stumps on 6*, with Dippenaar remaining unbeaten on 79 having used three lives, grassed by Trescothick off the impressive Hoggard late on to add to two earlier LBW shouts.

South Africa closed on 273-7 off their full complement of 90 overs, a disappointing tally on a pitch that, if a little slow, provided little assistance to the England bowlers. With the ball still relatively new, England will be hoping to wrap up the South African tail tomorrow before building the foundations for a big first innings total.

South Africa 273-7
JA Rudolph 93, HH Dippenaar 79*
MJ Hoggard 3-41, A Flintoff 3-62

Posted by Neil