South Africa stubbornly defied the England bowlers again in the opening session of the final day of the first Test at Lord’s on Monday to move closer to the safety of a draw.
Resuming at 242 for one, still 104 runs in arrears after being asked to follow on, South Africa had crawled to 312 for one at lunch.
Neil McKenzie, 102 not out overnight in his first Test at Lord’s, had added only 29 further runs while the equally pedestrian Hashim Amla cut Ryan Sidebottom for a rare boundary to reach his ninth Test half-century and his first against England.
Another four off the back foot through the covers off Monty Panesar in the final over before the interval took him to 57 not out.
England captain Michael Vaughan set attacking fields throughout the morning’s play, including a version of leg theory when James Anderson switched to around the wicket from the Pavilion End.
Anderson bowled short at Amla’s body with six men on the leg side, five of them clustered around the bat. But he lacked the pace to extract any significant lift out of a somnolent pitch and Amla serenely negotiated the brief burst.
Vaughan gave Panesar an exploratory over from the Nursery End at the start of play which McKenzie played comfortably, cover-driving the final ball through extra-cover for four.
The left-arm spinner, who took four wickets in South Africa’s first innings, was rested until nine minutes before the mid-session drinks break when he was recalled for another spell.
Lacking the variation in flight to compensate for the lack of sharp turn, Panesar tried bowling outside the leg-stump in the hope of either hitting the bowlers’ footmarks or boring the batsmen into playing a loose shot.
Instead they were content to pad the ball away in the knowledge that their sole concern is to ensure their team travel to Leeds for the second Test starting at Headingley on Friday on level terms in the four-match series. – Reuters