For a long time under Duncan Fletcher, when bowlers were routinely rested from
county cricket, it was said that they did not bowl nearly enough. They
needed only to play against South Africa a bit more often, then. At Lord's,
England's bowlers sent down 260 overs during three back-breaking days. Now,
at Headingley Carnegie, they have added 176 more to their season's tally as
South Africa, run by remorseless run, ground out their first-innings
advantage to 319. Any volunteers for county action this week, chaps?
When England's bowlers finally trudged from the field after tea yesterday,
wearily and stiffly but at least with heads held high after a performance
that, if short on magic, was not lacking heart, they might have cast a
meaningful glance at the batsmen, as if to say: “Take a leaf out of South
Africa's book, please.” Profligate in the extreme in a first innings that
lasted only 52 overs, England's batsmen have some ground to make up.
By the close of the third day, they had reduced the deficit by 50 runs, for
the loss of Andrew Strauss for a duck and Michael Vaughan for 21, the
captain defeated as the shadows started to lengthen and the frolics in the
Western Terrace began. After 44 ankle-jarring overs, James Anderson was
forced to trudge out again to do the nightwatchman's duties and was
fortunate to survive an appeal for leg-before. It's a dog's life being a
bowler.
It was Makhaya Ntini, a man in need of wickets and confidence, who did the
damage by changing his angle on the crease, going wider to the right-handers
and round the wicket to the left-handers. Strauss, unable to withdraw his
bat in time, got a ripsnorter, while Vaughan, having battled bravely through
Dale Steyn's opening burst, was squared up on the crease, Mark Boucher, the
wicketkeeper, accepting both offerings.
Alastair Cook needed all his mental fortitude and technical prowess to get
through to the close unscathed against high-class fast bowling and a team
who have the scent of blood in their nostrils. The pitch is misbehaving only
occasionally, although as the cracks widen, this is likely to become more
prevalent. England will need to bat a further five sessions to be sure of
saving the match, a tall order when Tim Ambrose would have been scheduled to
go in at No6.
England needed only to glance sideways yesterday evening, into the visiting
team's changing-room, to work out how they may achieve their task. After
all, South Africa did just that at Lord's and here they adhered to this
ground's golden rules of batting much more closely than England. Where
England were loose around off stump, South Africa were disciplined; where
England were in a rush to score, South Africa were happy to be patient. Two
innings of substance, 149 from Ashwell Prince and 174 from A.B. de Villiers,
were the main exemplars of this, but it was a committed performance from
them all.
De Villiers began the day a spitting distance from three figures, but only
just made it through to his hundred before lunch, so hard did the England
bowlers make him work for his runs and so determined was he not to give away
his wicket. He endured 25 nervous minutes on 99 and even his hundredth run
had an element of uncertainty attached to it as he squeezed the ball between
bat and pad into the off side and scampered through for a single.
England were convinced that the ball had hit pad before bat and were still
imploring as De Villiers celebrated along with the South Africa
dressing-room. The Headingley crowd greeted the landmark with loud booing,
to suggest that they had not forgiven his indiscretion on the first day. It
is unlikely that England let him forget it, too, so this innings marked him
out as a player of great mental strength.
For the most part it was a grafting display, this being the slowest by far of
his six Test hundreds. The dasher England first saw four years ago has
morphed into something more methodical and mechanical, but with the tail for
company, once Boucher had dragged on, his innings took on a more expansive
air. His best strokes came square of the wicket on the off side and it was
one such shot that brought up his 150. It took something special, a
brilliant one-handed catch at slip by Andrew Flintoff to end his stay. The
crowd, tellingly, did not boo him off. Yorkshire folk make their objections
plain and then move on.
Despite another toiling day in the field, England did not bowl badly at all.
Darren Pattinson, in particular, looked increasingly at ease in the
surroundings and produced a good one from round the wicket to end Prince's
vigil. Anderson had plenty of opportunity to groove his action, as they say,
and deserved better than his final figures of three for 136.
Flintoff proved his fitness for the long haul and after sending down 497
wicketless balls, Monty Panesar finally ended his drought when Morne Morkel
missed an attempted off drive. Only Stuart Broad disappointed, looking as
though his young body is feeling the strain.
For all these bowlers, a spell with the feet up watching some classic English
resistance is the order of the day now. The more dogged the better. This
week is the 27th anniversary of England's most famous escape act of all at
Headingley. But sporting miracles come around rarely; just ask Greg Norman.
Scoreboard
South Africa won toss
England: First Innings
A J Strauss c Boucher b Morkel 27
(101min, 65 balls, 4 fours)
A N Cook c Boucher b Morkel 18
(48min, 37 balls, 2 fours)
*M P Vaughan c Smith b Steyn 0
(7min, 7 balls)
K P Pietersen c Smith b Steyn 45
(73min, 46 balls, 1 six, 7 fours)
I R Bell b Kallis 31
(81min, 51 balls, 5 fours)
T R Ambrose c Boucher b Ntini 12
(25min, 17 balls, 1 four)
A Flintoff c Boucher b Steyn 17
(52min, 28 balls, 4 fours)
S C J Broad c De Villiers b Morkel 17
(32min, 20 balls, 3 fours)
J M Anderson not out 11
(40min, 24 balls, 2 fours)
M S Panesar c De Villiers b Morkel 0
(12min, 11 balls)
D J Pattinson c Boucher b Steyn 8
(20min, 14 balls, 1 four)
Extras (lb 6, w 6, nb 5) 17
Total (52.3 overs, 251min) 203
Fall of wickets: 1-26 (11.2; Strauss 7); 2-27 (12.5; Strauss 8); 3-62
(21.4; Pietersen 13); 4-106 (28.2; Bell 12); 5-123 (33.5; Bell 17); 6-150
(38.5; Flintoff 12); 7-177 (44.2; Broad 17); 8-181 (45.2; Anderson 4); 9-186
(48.0; Anderson 8).
Bowling: Steyn 18.3-2-76-4 (1 six, 10 fours; 8-2-24-1, 5-0-30-1,
5.3-0-22-2); Ntini 11-0-45-1 (7 fours; 4-0-14-0, 1-0-4-0/lunch/6-0-27-1);
Morkel 15-4-52-4 (nb 5, w 2; 7 fours; 7-2-22-2, 8-2-30-2); Kallis 8-2-24-1
(5 fours; 4-2-5-0, 4-0-19-1).
Scoring notes: First day: Start delayed 9min by drizzle. Lunch 70-3 (24
overs, 112min; Pietersen 17, Bell 4). All out at 4pm - tea taken with 37
overs left.
South Africa: First Innings
N D McKenzie c Flintoff b Anderson 15
(69min, 43 balls, 3 fours)
*G C Smith c Strauss b Flintoff 44
(96min, 67 balls, 8 fours)
H M Amla lbw b Pattinson 38
(135min, 79 balls, 5 fours)
J H Kallis b Anderson 4
(12min, 14 balls, 1 four)
A G Prince c Ambrose b Pattinson 149
(401min, 284 balls, 2 sixes, 17 fours)
A B de Villiers c Flintoff b Broad 174
(517min, 381 balls, 19 fours)
M V Boucher b Anderson 34
(107min, 88 balls, 2 fours)
M Morkel b Panesar 0
(10min, 6 balls)
P L Harris c Anderson b Panesar 24
(94min, 76 balls, 1 six, 1 four)
D W Steyn not out 10
(18min, 13 balls, 2 fours)
M Ntini c Pietersen b Panesar 1
(14min, 13 balls)
Extras (b 2, lb 19, w 1, nb 7) 29
Total (176.2 overs, 743min) 522
Fall of wickets: 1-51 (15.4; Smith 36); 2-69 (20.5; Amla 6); 3-76
(23.5; Amla 9); 4-143 (43.5; Prince 27); 5-355 (119.0; De Villiers 87);
6-422 (146.0; De Villiers 114); 7-427 (148.5; De Villiers 119); 8-511
(171.5; Harris 24); 9-511 (172.1; Steyn 0).
Bowling: Anderson 44-9-136-3 (19 fours; 4-0-11-0,
8-2-28-2/close/4-2-6-0, 2-1-4-0/lunch/3-0-11-0, 2-0-9-0/tea/5-1-14-0,
9-3-21-0, 4-0-14-1, 2-0-8-0/tea/1-0-10-0); Pattinson 30-2-95-2 (nb 1; 12
fours; 3-0-16-0, 6-0-17-1, 1-0-7-0, 3-0-9-0, 3-0-13-0, 7-2-17-1, 4-0-6-0,
1-0-5-0/tea/2-0-5-0); Flintoff 40-12-77-1 (nb 4; 8 fours; 3-1-6-0,
7-0-18-1/close/3-1-2-0, 4-2-3-0/lunch/2-1-1-0, 2-1-6-0/tea/2-0-9-0,
3.3-2-8-0/rain/1.3-0-4-0, 3-1-2-0, 5-2-6-0, 4-1-12-0); Broad 29-2-114-1 (nb
2, w 1; 17 fours; 4-1-14-0, 4-0-23-0, 6-0-20-0, 2-0-5-0, 2-1-4-0, 2-0-9-0,
5-0-21-0, 4-0-18-1); Panesar 29.2-6-65-3 (3 sixes, 1 four; 12-2-33-0,
1-0-3-0, 2-1-1-0, 11-1-21-1, 3.2-2-7-2); Pietersen 4-0-14-0 (1 four;
2-0-8-0, 1-0-1-0, 1-0-5-0).
Scoring notes: First day: five-ball over (Flintoff's eighth - Bowden).
Close 101-3 (29 overs, 139min; Amla 18, Prince 9).
Second day: Rain delayed start by 15min. Lunch 158-4 (52 overs, 244min;
Prince 34, De Villiers 7). Second new ball taken at 3.25pm - 247-4 (81
overs). Tea 262-4 (85 overs, 364min; Prince 100, De Villiers 44). Rain break
5.15 to 6.23pm (314-4; 101.3 overs). Rain ended play at 6.37pm. Close 322-4
(105 overs, 454min; Prince 134, De Villiers 70). Third day: Lunch 384-5 (134
overs, 574min; De Villiers 103, Boucher 8). Third new ball taken at 3.31pm -
467-7 (163 overs). Tea 480-7 (166 overs, 697min; De Villiers 158, Harris
11).
All out at 4.49pm - 24 overs left.
England: Second Innings
A J Strauss c Boucher b Ntini 0
(15min, 13 balls)
A N Cook not out 23
(114min, 79 balls, 3 fours)
*M P Vaughan c Boucher b Ntini 21
(90min, 53 balls, 3 fours)
J M Anderson not out 0
(7min, 2 balls)
Extras (lb 2, w 1, nb 3) 6
Total (2 wkts, 24 overs, 114min) 50
Fall of wickets: 1-3 (3.5; Cook 3); 2-50 (22.4; Cook 23).
Bowling: Steyn 8-2-20-0 (3 fours; one spell); Ntini 9-3-16-2 (nb 1, w
1; 2 fours; 5-1-13-1, 4-2-3-1); Morkel 7-2-12-0 (nb 2; 1 four; one spell).
Scoring notes: Third day: Close (at 6.53pm) 50-2 (24 overs, 114min;
Cook 23, Anderson 0).
Umpires: B F Bowden (New Zealand - 48th Test) and D J Harper (Australia
- 73rd).
Replay umpire: R A Kettleborough.
Fourth umpire: N A Mallender.
Match referee: J J Crowe (New Zealand).
Series details: First Test (Lord's) Drawn.
Tests to come: Third (Edgbaston) July 30-Aug 3.
Fourth (Brit Oval) Aug 7-11.
Compiled by Bill Frindall
I doubt if England have anything like the mental toughness to bat 2 days.
Technique: Strauss and Vaughan went back to late seaming balls - why not on the front foot defending before the ball could move?
Selection - if Simon Jones is fit, he should be playing, reverse swing with the old ball....
Tom, Witney, UK
''if short on magic, was not lacking heart'' sums it up for Engalnd. You Brits have long relied too heavily on stoicism and ''heart''. Re-invent your county system to scrub it of the mediocrity it rewards and make your first XI the most talented XI you can pick based on skill and not ''heart''.
Aussie Nick, London, Engalnd
Vaughan has got to go. How many more chances is this chump going to get ? When was the last time he made back-to-back 50's, in consecutive matches, let alone consecutive innings ? Out with the old and in with the new. I don't know who, but anything has got to be better than this dirge.
Rich, Nottingham, England, UK.
What is this nonsense from the selectors? Five bowlers?? Every time England have played well in recent times it's been with FF missing, a batsman at 6 and a keeper who can bat 7. "It's an attacking policy"...nonsense. Without runs on the board you cannot attack as this game has clearly illustrated.
Mick Fisher, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
More excuses from his Dad's mates in the press. You should just accept that Broad is never going to be a top class bowler,he isn't quick enough,he can't swing it and he doesn't bowl it in the right areas.
I will be amazed if we aren't all out by Tea.
Will Moores' get the sack if we lose 3-0?
Fergus Sira-Lexon, England,