THURSDAY, 6.30PM:
SOUTH AFRICA are in a spot of bother at tea on the first day of the first Test at Edgbaston with Mike Atherton and Mark Butcher forging an unbeaten opening partnership of 151 to place England in a very healthy position on Thursday.
The English batsmen kept cool heads after they had been asked to bat by SA captain Hansie Cronje. Both struggled against Shaun Pollock, and Butcher in particular looked out of sorts. In fact Butcher was lucky not to be sent packing after being trapped plumb in front by Pollock when he had 11.
Zimbabwean umpire Russell Tiffin would have none of it, however and Butcher could breathe again, posting his third Test 50 off 142 deliveries.
Cronje’s decision to field first had obviously been prompted by some heavy cloud cover and moist conditions. But while pacemen Allan Donald and Pollock did get one or two deliveries to snort by early on, Atherton and Butcher looked comfortably in control once they had settled.
Atherton scored his 35th half century from 80 Tests off 146 deliveries, it cotained five boundaries. England’s opening partnership is the highest ever against South Africa by an English side, surpassing the 136 by Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe in 1924, against South Africa at Edgbaston.
South African squad: Gary Kirsten, Gerhardus Liebenberg, Jacques Kallis, Daryll Cullinan, Hansie Cronje (capt), Jonty Rhodes, Shaun Pollock, Mark Boucher, Lance Klusener, Paul Adams, Allan Donald. 12th-man: Brian McMillan.
England squad: Mark Butcher, Mike Atherton, Nassar Hussain, Alec Stewart (capt), Graham Thorpe, Mark Ramprakash, Mark Ealham, Dominic Cork, Robert Croft, Darren Gough, Angus Fraser.