Graham Thorpe shared in two century partnerships to reach his 16th century and bat South Africa out of contention on the fourth day of the second Castle Lager/MTN cricket Test at Kingsmead on Wednesday. At close of play, South Africa, chasing a target of 378 to win, had 21 for one, after England declared their second innings on 570 for seven.
South Africa got off to a good start, claiming three wickets in the morning session. Makhaya Ntini made the first breakthrough when Andrew Strauss was caught by Martin van Jaarsveld at third slip, having added just four runs to his overnight score of 132. Ntini struck again eight overs later, when Michael Vaughan fended off a shortish delivery that brushed his glove on its way into the hands of keeper AB de Villiers. Jacques Kallis took the third wicket of the morning, when Mark Butcher nudged the ball to Van Jaarsveld for 13.
Butcher’s departure brought Andrew Flintoff and Graham Thorpe together. They put on 52 runs together in the hour before lunch, and carried that through to a fifth wicket partnership of 114 before Flintoff got a bottom edge off Graeme Smith. De Villiers took the catch and Flintoff was back in the dressing room with a score of 60.
Geraint Jones made his intentions clear when he sent the first delivery he received to the boundary for four, and he and Thorpe made merry with the South African bowlers, their partnership of 132 coming up in 133 minutes.
Thorpe, who started off tentatively, went to his 16th Test century off 197 balls, and was undefeated on 118. When the new ball was introduced, Jones climbed into South Africa’s most economical bowler, Shaun Pollock, hitting two quick sixes to the square leg boundary. Pollock went for 17 runs in one over, and was taken out of the attack.
Jones was finally caught on the boundary by Ntini off Boje, going for another big hit. Ashley Giles, who was out of action throughout South Africa’s first innings because of a back injury, faced just two balls before he was caught by De Villiers off Dale Steyn for 0. At that point, Michael Vaughan declared, bringing England’s mammoth innings to an end with the score on 570. They had faced 172.3 overs.
Thorpe said afterwards that England was very pleased to have turned things around.
”The game was very much in the balance when we lost three wickets before lunch. We were effectively 115 for four an hour and a half before lunch. We had to put our hands up today, and it was great to see the character of the side come through. The partnership with Freddy (Flintoff) was very important, and so was the partnership with Geraint Jones. Two hundred-partnerships at that stage took the edge away from South Africa, and gave us a great chance tomorrow.”
He added that it was not going to be easy. ”We’re going to have to bowl very well if we want to win, but I think the psychology of the match is in our favour. We’ve given ourselves the opportunity to put South Africa under pressure again. It’s never easy to chase 350 on the last day, and batting for a draw won’t be easy either.”
South Africa, set the almost impossible target of 378 to win, at a rate of more than three runs an over, lost the wicket of Graeme Smith in the sixth over, when he was given out lbw to Matthew Hoggard for 5. At close of play, Herschelle Gibbs was not out on 11, and Nicky Boje had four.
South Africa have a mountain to climb on Thursday just to save the Test.
The highest fourth innings score they have made to win a Test at Kingsmead was 340, but Smith’s team will be looking just to bat out the day and force a draw. However, newcomer Dale Steyn said at a media conference afterwards that there was a ‘good vibe’ in the dressing room, and South Africa would go out in force on Thursday and try to win the match.
”Obviously we would have preferred to be chasing 30 or 40 runs less, but we’re quite happy to chase down the target,” he said. ”We’ve got nine wickets in hand, and we want to win – and what better way to do it than on the fifth day of a Test? If we end up with a draw, so be it, and we will try to level things up in the next Test.” – Sapa