Ali saves his own blushes

Kabir Ali managed to guide England to a tie after nearly throwing the game away with a no ball at the start of the final over.

It was a thrilling end to a game that somewhat overshadowed Kevin Pietersen's brilliant maiden International century.

The hard-hitting South African-born batsman played an innings that was fairly out of character, hitting just 36 of his unbeaten 108 in boundaries after England had been put into bat by Graeme Smith.

It appeared a strange decision from the home captain, and whilst Marcus Trescothick and Geraint Jones were adding 52 in 10 overs, it looked like he'd made a mistake, but when Trescothick was bowled off his inside edge by Pollock for 37 from 36 balls, a mini collapse was sparked as both Jones and Andrew Strauss fell in quick succession to leave the side on 67-3 when Pietersen walked to the crease accompanied by a crescendo of boos.

Together with his captain Michael Vaughan, the pair set about rebuilding the innings, and although the scoring was fairly slow, they were building quite nicely, and just the acceleration started, Vaughan was run out by a superb throw by AB de Villiers. The skipper had scored a crucial 42 which included just 1 boundary and spanned 82 balls, but in the context of the game it was just what was required, and was further proof that those who had written him off as a One Day player were perhaps a tad premature in doing so.

With just over 16 overs to go, Paul Collingwood was sent in at number 6, and he wasted no time in getting going, the partnership between him and Pietersen being very reminiscent of stands Collingwood has shared with Andrew Flintoff in the past 6 months. The pair managed to add 92 runs in only 13 overs as South Africa were being comfortably dealt with and what looked like a match-winning score was being posted.

Collingwood fell 20 balls from the end, hitting Makhaya Ntini to de Villiers while attempting to flat-bat another boundary, but by then Pietersen was in full control, and shortly after he reached a century from only 91 balls, testament to a lot of good running between the wickets rather than big hitting.

Ian Bell had come in, and he played his part as best as he could in hitting 11 from 8 balls as England finished on 270-5, none of the South African bowlers conceding under 50 in their 10 over spells.

In reply, de Villiers inclusion at the top of the order meant that one of the regular openers would drop to number 4. In contrast to the Test series, when Smith moved away from the spot in order to avoid facing Matthew Hoggard, it was Herschelle Gibbs who made way.

Unsurprisingly, Hoggard yet again got his man, edging through to Jones, and England's joy was doubled when a short ball from Kabir Ali saw de Villiers hit it straight to the substitute Vikram Solanki (on for the ailing captain Vaughan) and South Africa were 51-2 with their 2 experienced batsmen in Jacques Kallis and Gibbs at the crease.

The pair batted in a manner befitting their status, although they were never looking to force the pace, so much so that stand-in captain Trescothick was able to bowl Collingwood though at the cost of only 42 runs, and therefore the required rate was forever creeping up. By the 18th over it had gone over 6, by the 33rd over it was over 7, and it touched on 7.5 before England finally got the breakthrough, Kallis caught by Trescothick off Ashley Giles, to leave the equation as 86 runs needed from 69 balls, still well within the capabilities of such a hard hitting lower order, and it was one of the lower order, Justin Kemp, who came in next.

Kemp hammered sixes off both Ali and Giles on his way to 32 from 26 balls, and at one point the home side had got it down to needing 34 from 33 balls before Hoggard again struck to remove Gibbs, swiftly followed by a superb Darren Gough yorker to rearrange Kemp's stumps.

Mark Boucher and Shaun Pollock were now at the crease, and they continued to chip away at the target until they got to the end of the 49th over requiring 8 runs to win.

Trscothick had used both his opening bowlers up, so had to choose between Ali (49 from his first 7 overs) and Giles (46 from 8). He plumped for Ali who promptedly made that decision look wrong by bowling a waist-high full toss that Boucher took great delight in swatting away for four. With the ball being also a no ball, suddenly the equation had dropped to 3 runs from 6 balls and the game appeared up for England, especially when Ali's next ball was also a full toss. Fortunately for England this one was hit straight to deep midwicket and Giles held onto the catch.

That seemed to inspire Ali, and what followed was the stuff of legends. First he managed to only concede 1 run off the next 2 balls to Pollock, bringing new man Ashwell Prince onto strike needing 2 from 3 balls. Prince pushed his first ball out to Ian Bell and mid-wicket, and in the ensuing confusion managed to be comfortably run out at the bowlers end.

This meant Pollock was back on strike needing 2 from 2, and although he used his experience to slot away a single to ensure South Africa couldn't lose the game, Ali had the last laugh, as Andrew Hall couldn't get bat on ball, and Geraint Jones who was stood up at the stumps (to avoid losing the game on a bye to the keeper) smartly whipped off the bails. England, and especially Ali) had got out of jail in the most thrilling of fashions.

ENGLAND 270-5
Pietersen 108*(96), Vaughan 42(82), Collingwood 40(41)

SOUTH AFRICA 270-8
Gibbs 78(101), Kallis 63(78), Ali 3-56(8), Hoggard 2-42(10)

Posted by Marc