South African captain Graeme Smith smashed 85 runs off 70 balls on Monday to set England a challenging 321 runs in 65 overs to win the first cricket test at Edgbaston.
England replied with 72 for one at tea, and lost opener Michael Vaughan (22) to the last ball before the break. Marcus Trescothick on 45 will resume after tea as the home side needs 249 runs in 44 overs in the final session. Trescothick became the first Englishman to hit five consecutive boundaries in one over when he hit fast bowler Makhaya Ntini out of the attack taking 24 runs in the bowler’s third over.
Only South Africa’s Denis Lindsay, New Zealander Rodney Redmond and Australian David Hookes had consecutive fours before in tests. Vaughan, who hit 156 in England’s 408 all out, was caught at slip by Shaun Pollock off leftarm spinner Robin Peterson for 22 runs.
Smith continuing from where he left off in his South African best 277 in the 594 for five declared, hammering two sixes and 10 fours before closing the second innings on 134 for four.
England, having narrowly avoided the follow-on, was well on course to forcing a draw in the last session. The loss of four sessions including the entire second day’s play due to rain proved to be crucial to the outcome of the test which
the tourists had dominated since winning the toss.
On a wearing pitch, South Africa gave itself enough time to dismiss England for the second time, but the outcome will largely depend on the threatening rain.
Smith, who survived a stumping on 35, was bowled by leftarm
spinner Ashley Giles.
Smith (22) was perched on 999 runs in his 16th test innings. His 362 runs in the match is the most by a South African, surpassing Bruce Mitchell’s 309 runs (120 and 189 not out) against England at The Oval in 1947.
He punished the England bowling again, and James Anderson in particular, whose 10th over cost 19 runs including four boundaries. Earlier, the home side started the day on 374 for seven, needing 21 runs to make South Africa bat again, and took just nine balls to reach the target.
Swing bowlers Makhaya Ntini and Dewald Pretorius took four wickets apiece, while Shaun Pollock took two wickets. Giles scored 32 of the 34 runs added by England on the final morning, and hammered five boundaries in the space of eight balls
from Ntini and Pretorius.
After No 10 Darren Gough had survived a delivery from Pretorius, Giles hit Ntini, 4-114, for three fours in four balls and took 13 runs in the over.
Then, he struck the first and the third balls of Pretorius’s next over as England sailed past the follow-on total. Soon after, Ntini took two wickets in three balls to dismiss Gough and Steve Harmison, before Pollock, 2-51, uprooted Giles off
stump to wrap up the innings. – Sapa-AP