Neither lightning nor rain was able to save England from defeat on the third day of their warm-up match against South Africa A at Sedgars Park on Monday.
South Africa A needed just 30 overs to win the match by seven wickets and give South Africa a psychological edge ahead of the first Castle Lager/MTN Test in Port Elizabeth on Friday.
England resumed play on Monday morning on the overnight total of 154 for seven. South Africa A took just 41 minutes to finish off the England innings, but not before skipper Michael Vaughan, playing a real captain’s innings, had reached 100.
His century came off 149 balls, and included 13 fours and two sixes, but he was out two balls later, caught by Mark Boucher off Charl Willoughby. With Vaughan gone, it was just a matter of time before England were all out for 190, for a lead of 134.
Charl Willoughby did most of the damage in England’s second innings, taking four wickets for 63 runs. Charl Langeveldt, who took five wickets in the first innings, took two for 25, Ethy Mbhalati took two for 38, and Albie Morkel and Alfonso took one wicket each.
Chasing the moderate target of 135 runs to win, South Africa A got off to a poor start when Martin van Jaarsveld, who had been the top scorer in South Africa A’s first innings, was caught behind by Geraint Jones off Matthew Hoggard for nought.
Andrew Puttick and Justin Ontong were going well, and had put on 69 runs together when a bolt of lightning struck the ground close to the cricket field, and the players scrambled for cover.
When play was resumed about 10 minutes later, South Africa A lost two quick wickets, with Puttick caught by Geraint Jones off Simon Jones for 45, and Ontong caught by Ashley Giles off Steve Harmison for 23 seven minutes later.
JP Duminy joined his skipper, Ashwell Prince, and they too were going well when there was another interruption — this time for a short, sharp shower. Tea was taken early, and when South Africa A came out again, they needed just 34 runs to win. They knocked the runs off in just more than quarter of an hour, with Prince finishing on 23 not out and Duminy on 25.
Vaughan said after the match that the loss had been ”the kick up the backside that we needed”.
”I think we possibly didn’t take the match as seriously as we should have,” he said. ”But we will do some serious talking before Friday, and I’m sure we will be more focused by Friday.”
South Africa A coach Vincent Barnes, who is also assistant coach of the senior team, said South Africa will take heart from the result.
”But England are a world-class side, and they will be pumped up when they go into the Test on Friday,” he said.
Barnes said he was particularly impressed by South Africa A’s bowlers.
”We knew that the England batsmen wanted as much time in the middle as possible, and our bowlers prevented that,” he said. ”I was also surprised at how out of synch some of their batters were, but we all know that things will be different in the Test.” — Sapa