England v South Africa day 4

England, owing much to the brilliance of Michael Vaughan, showed resiliance on a wearing pitch as they battled to save the first nPower test on day 4 at Edgbaston yesterday.

England started the fourth day of the first nPower test match with one target uppermost in their minds - 395, the number of runs necessary to avoid the follow-on. With so much time already lost from the game owing to inclement weather and with just six sessions to go before Monday evening's close, the odds were very much on a draw unless the wicket were to show appreciable deterioration.

At first, England made relatively unspectacular progress from their overnight position of 25 without loss with Trescothick, seemingly unhampered by his fractured finger, and Vaughan in watchful mode. Pollock may well have lost a yard of pace over the last two years but he is still a seamer of undeniable class, very difficult to dominate and the perfect foil for the more aggressive Makhaya Ntini.

After the English openers had progressed to 66 without loss, Ntini broke through with an excellent yorker to Marcus Trescothick which sent the Somerset man's off stump flying. Mark Butcher joined Vaughan at the crease and as the lunch break approached, Vaughan in particular started to shake off the early shackles which Pollock in particular had placed firmly around him, especially as the main South African pairing gave way to the lesser lights of Willoughby and Pretorius.

Butcher departed shortly after the interval and was soon followed by England captain Nasser Hussain, both adjudged leg before to Ntini and Pollock respectively, but Vaughan was stamping his own inimitable class on proceedings in the same way that Graeme Smith had done so earlier in the game. His hundred came up in 169 balls and contained 15 fours and one signature short-arm pull for six.

Yorkshire team-mates Anthony McGrath and Vaughan added 89 for the fourth wicket, taking the total on to the dreaded 'double-Nelson' - 222 - when Dewald Pretorius demonstrated the value of bowling straight on a wicket of indifferent bounce. The ball reared alarmingly and McGrath (34) got himself into an awful mess and could only glove the ball to Jacques Rudolph at backward point.

Alec Stewart progressed quite nicely during the early part of his innings demonstrating wonderful timing until he pulled a short ball from Ntili straight onto the inside of his knee. From that period on, his footwork hampered to such an extent that a runner was eventually required, the veteran wicket-keeper was content to push the ball around and play for the tea interval.

Vaughan eventually departed for an excellent, possibly match-saving 156 when he played loosely at a ball from Pretorius and Mark Boucher took a simple catch, and when the same bowler dismissed Stewart shortly afterwards, 312-6 and memories of past collapses made the follow-on target seem an awful long way away.

Andrew Flintoff and Ashley Giles are arguably two of the most improved batsmen in the England side in recent history. Giles, watchful, met most deliveries with broad bat and even broader pad close together, but Flintoll was, well, Flintoff, eager to hit the ball off either front or back foot.

Seven fours and a six bore witness to the fact that 'Freddie', even in defensive mode, is a man who can take an attack apart, and as the South Africans tired at the end of a very long day, it seemed that nothing would prevent England seeing out the day with just six wickets down. With just two balls remaining, though, the indifferent bounce claimed another victim when a delivery from Pretorius, who had stuck to his task admirably, crept under Flintoff's defensive prod and rapped him just above the ankle leaving England on 374-7 at the close.

South Africa 594-5 dcl (Smith 277, Gibbs 179, Giles 2-153)
lead
England 374-7 (Vaughan 156, Giles 9*, Pretorius 4-115)
by 220 runs


Posted by Eddie