Thorpe & Flintoff put England on top

Today belonged to England, no question. South Africa had high hopes of swiftly taking the last six wickets, which would allow them to set up a challenging target on a difficult fifth day wicket. Instead, the remaining English middle order all made valuable contributions to give them a first innings lead of 112 and all but banish any fears of defeat. Two late wickets by Flintoff made their position even stronger, and surely England will now secure their first series win in these parts for 40 years. SA still trail by 53 runs and, for them to win, they will need to bat like gods for a session and a bit tomorrow and then hope for an English collapse that will make their own capitulation at the Wanderers look positively respectable.


The morning went as well as England could possibly have hoped. They knew that their middle order had been short of runs, and therefore losing their remaining six wickets in the extended session before lunch was quite possible. They would have been encouraged by the complete absence of any cloud cover to help the ball swing, but the increasingly cracked wicket suggested that they needed to make the most of conditions today rather than having to bat for long in the fourth innings. Flintoff started carefully, which came as a relief to those who had previously despaired at the his tendency in this series to give his wicket away through ill-judged swipes. Today, however, he was caution personified and, apart from a couple of plays & misses, he looked very solid. He and Thorpe saw off Pollock and Ntini without undue alarm, and even the early appearance of Andre Nel failed to shift them, so Graeme Smith turned to spin. He and Boje immediately found some turn and, on another day, surely he would have been successful. Maybe there has been an ICC ruling against part-time off-spinners being awarded leg before decisions. Maybe Graham Thorpe has been granted immunity against these as a sort of lifetime achievement award. Whatever the reason, not for the first time in this series, it was hard to understand why else one of the lbw shouts against Thorpe was not given.



Despite these close calls, England reached lunch without losing a single wicket. Before the break, survival had been the priority, and only 85 runs were added in two and a half hours. After it, they set about the attack, with Flintoff now in spectacular form. Having progressed sedately to 30 by lunch, he unleashed a flurry of boundaries, particularly enjoying himself against Ntini. With Thorpe also picking up the pace, they quickly took England past the SA total. The second new ball came and went and, had they kept going, England would have been well set to establish a huge first innings lead. Instead, after adding 141, both departed in the space of a few balls, and the game seemed in the balance again. First Thorpe (86) was cleaned up by an absolute peach of a delivery from Andre Nel, which swung late and made an awful mess of his stumps. In the next over, Flintoff (77) aimed to launch a ball from Andrew Hall somewhere over the cover boundary but only managed an edge through to the keeper. Now, with only four wickets left, England only had a lead of 10 and SA once again had a sniff of being able to set a competitive target if they could only manage to blow away the tail.


By now, Geraint Jones and Ashley Giles were at the crease. Giles has had a more than useful series with the bat and today, once again, he settled quickly and began to push the score along. Jones, on the other hand, has had a disappointing series to date. Today, he was as positive as usual, but his shot selection was rather more sensible. Between them they comfortably saw off the threat of the quicks and then, when Nicky Boje returned to the attack, they really cut loose. By tea, they had extended England’s lead to 82. A thrilling session had seen England add 130 runs, and they looked almost safe. The flurry of boundaries continued after the break, and Jones brought up his 50 with a huge six off Nel. That was the end of the fun though. Later in the same over, Nel had Jones well caught by Smith, and he then proceeded to clean up the tail. Giles was bowled round his legs for a very useful 39, Hoggard edged to Kallis for a single and Harmison was trapped leg before for 6. The last four wickets had tumbled for 24, but by now England had a lead of 112. Nel, having today concentrated on his bowling instead of yesterday’s histrionics finished with outstanding figures of 6 for 81.


The SA openers were greeted by Hoggard and Flintoff, with England apparently unwilling to risk Harmison unless absolutely necessary. Flintoff enjoyed early success, having Gibbs adjudged caught behind for 4. Replays suggested that Gibbs was unlucky, but he was on his way and, surprisingly, he was replaced by Andrew Hall. Any thoughts that Hall had been promoted to chance his arm were dispelled as the all-rounder started slowly. He did not last long though, and having made 9, Flintoff bowled him with another fine delivery. Kallis did well to survive the inevitable first ball yorker, but after that he looked completely comfortable. He even came down the track to launch Giles for a couple of boundaries, which suggests that SA have not yet given up hope of setting up what would be an extraordinary win. Either that or he recognised that the series was gone and he just wanted to enjoy himself.



South Africa 247
de Villers 92, Flintoff 4 for 44, Jones 4 for 47


England 359
Thorpe 86, Flintoff 77, G. Jones 50, Nel 6 for 81


South Africa 59 for 2
de Villers 20*, Kallis 19*, Flintoff 2 for 18


Posted by David