First blood to England and Pietersen

England took the ODI initiative at Johannesburg as their seamers shared the wickets to reduce South Africa to 175-9, despite a fifty stand for the eighth wicket, before Kevin Pietersen survived his baptism of fire and he and Michael Vaughan took England well in advance of the Duckworth/Lewis target by the time the High Veldt rains came.

Six days on from England's series-clinching draw at SuperSport Park in Centurion, the coloured clothing and One-Day International specialists entered the fray at the New Wanderers ground in Johannesburg. England made five changes from their Test side – Andrew Flintoff, Graham Thorpe and Robert Key returned home and Simon Jones and Steve Harmison missed out as ODI specialist Paul Collingwood, highly-rated batsman Ian Bell and controversial South African-born batsman Kevin Pietersen came into the middle order. Geraint Jones replaced Vikram Solanki at the top of England's ODI batting order in the name of balance, whilst veteran campaigner Darren Gough and Worcestershire seamer Kabir Ali – whose one and only ODI to date, in the summer of 2003, was washed out.

South Africa made just three changes to the side which lost the d'Oliveira Trophy, with three players performing well in domestic cricket all recalled to the side following brief forays into the International arena earlier in their careers. Adam Bacher, Ashwell Prince and all-rounder Justin Kemp came in to fill positions four, five and six in the middle order as Jacques Rudolph, AB de Villiers and Andrew Hall made way in this first game of the seven-match series.

Knowing his team's strong record in chasing targets, and hoping for early assistance from the wicket, England skipper Michael Vaughan had little hesistation in opting to bowl first. Despite Darren Gough spearing the first delivery of the game well wide of off stump, both of England's opening bowlers immediately hit upon the perfect length as Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs were immediately contained by the accuracy of the two Yorkshiremen.

As such, it disappointed many – but surprised few who had followed the Tests – when Smith departed midway through the third over. Wandering as he has so often across his stumps, and reaching well outside off stump to a pitched up delivery from Gough that seamed away, the regulation edge to second slip came where Andrew Strauss parried, juggled and held on.

Hoggard's return then brought even more delight to the tourists and despondence to the rapidly growing Wanderers home crowd in the next over, as he carried on where he had left off in the Test series. Gibbs played a loose drive, neither a nudge nor a slash, with the result being a lob to extra cover where a man of Kevin Pietersen's height had no difficulty at all in hanging on.

Five for two, and South Africa's all-changed middle order, starting with Adam Bacher, was at the crease well in advance of any South African's plans, and the 31-year-old did not find his return to the International setup easy. He needed thirteen balls to get off the mark, and in doing so survived both a loud LBW appeal off Hoggard, and an inside edge through to Geraint Jones that neither the wicketkeeper nor bowler seemed to notice.

Bacher's reprieve proved to be short-lived. As Hoggard and Gough continued to strangle the Proteas' run-rate, he advanced down the pitch to Hoggard and aimed a cross-batted heave over mid-wicket, in the process leaving a chasmic gap in between the pendulum of his bat and splayed front pad. The resulting thin inside edge only helped the ball as far as leg stump, before Ashwell Prince played out the remainder of Hoggard's second wicket maiden of the morning. Seven years had passed since his last ODI appearance – but how long would it be before Bacher's next chance?

Prince eventually hit the first boundary from the bat in the thirteenth over of the morning, but it was far from convincing, as Kabir Ali's second ball in International cricket reached the fine-leg boundary courtesy of thick inside edge, well out of Geraint Jones' reach. He was altogether more convincing in the next over, first glancing Hoggard through midwicket to the boundary before lobbing him over cover and deflecting him – arguably fortuitously – through the vacant second slip for a third consecutive boundary to herald the end of Hoggard's new ball spell.

The respite for the now near-capacity crowd was short-lived. Kabir Ali's next ball was short, and wide down leg side, but all that Jacques Kallis could do was to feather an edge through to the disbelieving – and ecstatic – Geraint Jones to leave the hosts a precarious 41 for four. Trouble became strife as Ashwell Prince followed for the addition of just eight more runs as Kabir, bowling full and wicket-to-wicket as well as finding movement in the air and off the pitch, struck the left hander flush on his pads before Ian Howell's right index finger did the rest.

It was not until after the half-way mark that the boundary ropes were next tested, Kemp driving through mid-off, but by this point England's part time bowling of Collingwood and Trescothick were progressing through their quotas with determined economy. Justin Kemp and Mark Boucher took the sixth wicket partnership on to 34 before the introduction of spinner Ashley Giles removed Kemp, whose tentative leg-side push did no more than loop up to Ian Bell at mid-wicket.

The sense of disbelief on the South African balcony heightened immediately after the second drinks interval as Mark Boucher attempted to sweep a Giles delivery that pitched six inches outside leg, missed, and thumped into leg stump, half way up – 90 for 7 – before an unforecast – and brief – shower interrupted proceedings with fifteen overs to play for seven minutes.

Before the innings, South Africa's middle and lower order seemed curiously imbalanced, with seven, eight and nine undoubtedly more experienced and arguably better batsmen than four, five and six, and as Nicky Boje and Shaun Pollock took advantage of Michael Vaughan's reticence in restoring his front-line seamers to the attack to take South Africa towards the realms of semi-respectability as they added fifty for the eighth wicket.

It fell to Darren Gough to split the two all-rounders, bowling full and finding reverse swing to disturb Boje' middle and off stumps – but not before the left-hander had made 33 off 40 balls and giving his fellow bowlers a semblance of a target to bowl at come the afternoon's play. Pollock then took advantage of some distinctly average bowling from Kabir Ali – best summed up as a variety of full tosses and considerable overpitching – to force his side onwards.

Makhaya Ntini then joined in the fun to spoil Darren Gough's figures, the final ball of his spell finding its way many, many rows back over the bowler's head. Michael Vaughan then gambled with Ashley Giles for the final over, and the brave move paid off as Pollock's leg-side swipe brought an outside edge and Vaughan himself took a good catch diving forwards at fly slip to claim his wicket for 37, before Ntini and Nel added five in the remainder of the final over to set England 176 in their fifty overs. England would have without doubt been happy with the situation before the toss, but from 90 for 7, South Africa had a semblance of momentum, and the game was still on.

Geraint Jones' first foray to the top of the order started brightly as he smashed Shaun Pollock past Herschelle Gibbs at backward point before the South African had time to react and then heaved him past mid-on for another boundary, whilst at the other end the home seamers allowed Trescothick too much width as he slashed past point twice. It was Trescothick who fell first, trying to leave Ntini as he lowered his hands, only to see the ball loop up to Jacques Kallis who held on to an easy catch at second slip.

Geraint Jones swiftly followed as Shaun Pollock's perfect outswinger drew an outside edge as the wicketkeeper drove, and the safe hands of Mark Boucher did the rest behind the stumps. A period of consolidation between Vaughan and Andrew Strauss followed, before Strauss upped the tempo with a brace of boundaries off Ntini – a sweetly timed cover drive was followed by a dismissive pull shot through mid-wicket as the bowler dropped much too short.

As the clouds massed over Johannesburg, Andre Nel replaced Ntini and immediately struck to send Strauss back as the left-hander played, like Gibbs before him, half a shot to a full ball and was picked up by a jumping Justin Kemp at square leg. In an instant, the temperature of the match came to boiling point as Kevin Pietersen came to the wicket, greeted by a crescendo of catcalls, boos and jeers – if anyone in the stadium didn't already know why the New Wanderers ground was nicknamed the Bull Ring, they did now. Nel beat Pietersen's outside edge with his first ball, but South Africa's public enemy number one weathered the remainder of the over as both fielders and crowd appealed incessantly for anything within twelve inches of the bat.

The atmosphere resembled a Test match come mid-afternoon as the intensity of the match rose up several levels. No runs came off the bat for 31 balls as both Pollock and Nel gave neither Vaughan nor Pietersen the width nor length to play any array of aggressive shots, the importance of retaining wickets for the lesser lights of the home attack foremost in the batsmen's minds. As Vaughan saw off Pollock, Pietersen got off the mark, cutting Nel to the point boundary – greeted by near silence from the partisan crowd – before repeating the dosage, this time off the front foot to the cover boundary in the following over.

Michael Vaughan then showed off footwork more appropriate to his beloved Sheffield Wednesday than a cricket ground as he turned and volleyed the ball away from the wicket as it seemed set to loop back onto his stumps before Pietersen and Nel shared in some intense but good-spirited banter. As the 20-over mark was passed, ensuring that rain interruptions would not be enough to prevent a result from being recorded, Justin Kemp came into the attack for the first time.

His return to ODI cricket was greeted by Vaughan nonchalantly picking a leg-stump half volley over mid-wicket to the boundary, before bludgeoning the all-rounder's gentle pace to the cover fence as England moved ahead of the Duckworth/Lewis par scores. Pietersen met the introduction of Nicky Boje's left arm spin with another pair of boundaries, advancing down the wicket and flicking him through mid-wicket before dispatching a full toss through extra cover.

Vaughan continued to treat Kemp with disdain, a brace of twos followed by a one-bounce four through the covers to take England past the halfway mark in their run-chase, heralding the return of Jacques Kallis to end Boje's exploratory spell. The change of bowling made little difference to Vaughan's approach, shot selection or the result as Vaughan again found the cover boundary to bring up the fifty partnership. Pietersen again disposed of Kemp through midwicket to take England to three figures, by now well in advance of the revised par score, as the rains came down once again and umbrellas and style-free plastic mackintoshes sprouted from the Johannesburg stands.

The rain became increasingly torrential as the skies blackened and the full covers came on, with the puddles continually growing on the edge of the covered area, merging and becoming minor lakes as the elements promised to show no respite from the deluge. With England 26 runs ahead of the Duckworth/Lewis target, there was little doubt as to who the likely winners were.

The two sides move on to Bloemfontein for the second game in the series, Wednesday's day-night clash, where South Africa – with one win in thirteen ODIs – will be desperately hoping for a change in their fortunes.

South Africa 175-9
SM Pollock 37, N Boje 33
AF Giles 3-18, D Gough 2-27
England 103-3
MP Vaughan 44*, KP Pietersen 22*
A Nel 1-13, SM Pollock 1-19

England won by 26 runs (D/L Method)

CricketWeb Player of the Match
Michael Vaughan

Posted by Neil