Proteas Pushing To Level Series

After being set an unlikely 466 to win in four and a half sessions, England are teetering overnight on 132 for three Newlands.

South African captain Graeme Smith’s aggressive knock (183, 273b) allowed the home side to declare on 447 for seven, well before tea on the fourth day.

Cook (55, 116b) and Strauss (45, 107b) got the visitors off to the most solid of replies before Cook was out on the hook, his favourite shot, to give de Wet his first wicket of the match and check England to 101 for one in the 37th over.

Three overs later, Strauss gave Harris his first wicket of the match when the ball hit his bat and his pad and then looped up to Amla at silly mid-on.

Two wickets down overnight and England would have fancied their chances of batting out a draw on a pitch that has calmed down significantly since the sun baked it dry yesterday. But when Kevin Pietersen (6, 22b), who had just had an LBW decision overruled in his favour, was trapped plumb in front by Dale Steyn, so many of those hopes would have been shattered.

It would be premature to say that England are dead and buried here but the stats would suggest that their chances are slim of batting this one out. England have saved two Tests this year by the narrowest of margins – one wicket – once at Cardiff and once at Centurion.

At Cardiff they were 20/2 overnight going into the last day, and at Centurion they were 11/1.

They could do it, but I wouldn’t put your house on it!

Quotes from the Day

AB de Villiers

“Victory isn’t inevitable – we are in a good position but are clever enough to respect the day and know we need to put in the hard yards tomorrow.”

“I’m not sure what decision they will make with the ball tampering but we all know you can’t be climbing on the ball with your spikes… they have got the ball to reverse a bit quicker.”

“The tension in the series has been serious as we are 1-0 down and don’t like losing in our home country.”

Earlier Bulletin (Day 2)

South Africa managed to add only 12 runs to their overnight score of 279 for six when they were dismissed twenty minutes into play on the second morning.

Graham Onions began the damage when he induced the edge that dismissed Jacques Kallis (108, 189b) with only the second ball of the morning. Kallis had almost single-handedly put the home side within reach of a solid score and his departure brought a heavy collapse when Steyn (26, 59b) and Morkel (0, 3b) were out to Anderson the following over.

Two overs later Anderson trapped Friedel de Wet (0, 4b) LBW to finish things off and complete figures of five for 63 in 21 overs.

Morne Morkel was tossed the new ball on a wicket that had seriously quickened up under the hot sun before play and he struck sixth ball to nick the outside of Strauss’ (2, 6b) bat to send the England captain back to the pavilion.

It was then England’s turn to endure a top-order collapse when Steyn claimed a double that shook the visitors to 36 for three. In the thirteenth over the paceman bowled Jonathan Trott (20, 36b) and then caught and bowled Kevin Pietersen (0, 2b) in a display that swung the session from England’s way to South Africa’s.

As the match continued in fast forward, the brewery adjacent the ground bellowed out a thick black smoke from its chimney – it too seemed to be working overtime after the Cape Town peak holiday season.

Soon after lunch, Collingwood (19, 44b) was out LBW to Morne Morkel – yet another loose shot form an Englishman (the others being Strauss, Trott and Pietersen!). It was the 8th wicket for 80 runs in 30 overs since the day had begun. The blue skies had earlier suggested that we were in for a batting day but nothing could have been further from the truth.

Once the ball began to get a little softer, Cook and Bell began to build a partnership. The pair survived the rest of the afternoon session batting at a slow rate, untroubled by Smith’s defensive fielding strategies. After the hard work had been done, the soft ball brought two partnerships that were both brought to an end through soft dismissals.

Cook (65, 136b) gave catching practise off Morkel to Prince at midwicket to reduce England to 133 for five and then Bell (48, 121b) guided a Kallis delivery to Duminy at backward-point to make the score 174 for six.

Yet another promising partnership followed as Broad (25, 39b) and Prior added 50 runs for the seventh wicket. But yet again a wicket fell before a big partnership could be built as Broad was clean bowled by a 90 mile-an-hour ball steamer from Steyn.

The new ball was taken soon after Broad’s departure but South Africa’s slow over-rate meant that England had only to survive two overs before stumps. The visitors trail by 50 runs with three wickets in hand at stumps on day two in a match where a result seems most likely.

South Africa trail the Test series 1-0 with only one match remaining after this New Year’s Test.