England turn the screw

South Africa face a battle to save the Second Test after England dominated the fourth day.

The hosts were set a notional 378 to win the game after Michael Vaughan was able to declare with just over half an hour to play thanks to a superb century from Graham Thorpe and contrasting half centuries from Andrew Flintoff and Geraint Jones.

The first hour belonged to South Africa, as Makhaya Ntini's superb spell removed both Andrew Strauss and Michael Vaughan, and then Jacques Kallis dismissed Mark Butcher to send the visitors to 314-4, a lead of only 121. With the fragile and out of form lower-middle order to come, the game was coming back towards being anyone's game, and another wicket would've given the advantage firmly back to the hosts.

Over his long career, Graham Thorpe has been the man for the crisis, and although this wasn't the biggest crisis he's faced in an England shirt, it was still a high-pressure situation, and Thorpe responded in typical style. Along with first Andrew Flintoff, he added 114 as the pair took a while to bed in before gradually upping the tempo in their own fashion, while Thorpe was pushing the singles and rotating the strike, Flintoff put the ball away when possible, but at the same time retained his composure enough to ensure that he wasn't going to fall cheaply in the same manner as he did on the first day. When he was eventually dismissed, it was to Graham Smith, the captain using himself out of desperation, and Flintoff edging a catch to AB de Villiers, but that wasn't before he'd hit Shaun Pollock six over long-on and Ntini for 2 more over square leg.

With that stand, the momentum had shifted, but Geraint Jones then took the game away from the Proteas with an innings that Adam Gilchrist would've been proud of. The Kent keeper signalled his intent by coming down the pitch to Smith from the first ball he faced and collecting a boundary, and he carried on in that vein, as the acceleration towards a declaration really gathered pace. After he reached his 50 from the 71 balls he went into overdrive, with 2 sixes over square leg in 3 Dale Steyn balls before the top edge came to his aid as both he and Thorpe picked up boundaries over the top of the keeper - forcing Smith to employ a "back stop" to attempt to stem the flow.

In the midst of the mayhem, South Africa actually took the second new ball, but it didn't help, as Thorpe progressed serenely to his 16th Test century, before the real aggression started as they took more than 40 from one 4 over spell, including Shaun Pollock's last over being hit for 17, which dented his figures, but still didn't stop him finishing with the outstanding analysis of 36-16-79-1.

Finally it was finished as Jones holed out at long on off Nico Boje for 73, his final 21 runs coming off only 10 balls, but the declaration didn't come, as Ashley Giles indicated his recovery by coming out to bat. There was time for Thorpe to pick up 2 more boundaries off Boje before Giles nicked his second ball from Steyn to de Villiers for the paceman's only wicket in an innings he'll want to forget. Between them, he and Boje conceded 285 runs from 69.3 overs for the 2 consolation wickets at the end when Vaughan declared on 570-7.

With a tricky period to survive, the last thing South Africa needed was to lose any wickets, but Herschelle Gibbs had an extremely fortunate escape in the 4th over as he nicked Steve Harmison behind, but Geraint Jones made a mess of it and the chance went down. It would've been no more than Harmison deserved for a fine 4 overs spell that yielded just 3 singles, but as it was, his opening partner Matthew Hoggard did make the breakthrough, trapping Smith plumb in front for only 5, his 3rd single figure innings from 4 this series, at 12-1.

That brought in Boje as a nightwatchman, and between him and Gibbs, the close was reached without any further mishap, but with England able to attack tomorrow, the 9 wickets they require may be forthcoming for what would be their biggest fightback win since Headingley and a certain IT Botham.

ENGLAND 139
Pollock 4-32, Ntini 3-41
SOUTH AFRICA 332
Kallis 162, Pollock 43, Hoggard 3-58, Harmison 3-91
ENGLAND 570-7dec
Strauss 136, Trescothick 132, Thorpe 118*, G Jones 73, Flintoff 60
SOUTH AFRICA 21-1
Hoggard 1-17

Posted by Marc