Narrow shave for England
Last man Graham Onions played out a tense final over from Makhaya
Ntini as England escaped with a draw on the fifth and final day of the
first Test against South Africa at SuperSport Park on Sunday.
The match seemed to be heading for a routine draw when Jonathan Trott
and Kevin Pietersen batted together for more than three hours but South
African new cap Friedel de Wet produced an inspired spell with the
second new ball to leave England hanging on.
De Wet dismissed Trott in the second over with the new ball and had a
spell of three for three in five overs. Five wickets fell in the final
15 overs but Paul Collingwood and Onions survived the last 20 balls .
It was a tense finish reminiscent of the first Ashes Test against
Australia in Cardiff earlier this year when England were also nine down
at the end.
England, set 364 to win, finished on 228 for nine on Sunday.
Trott, who came to the wicket after the dismissal of nightwatchman
James Anderson in the third over of the day, defied the South African
bowlers for 317 minutes and faced 212 balls in making 69.
Pietersen was more aggressive in making 81 off 143 deliveries as the
pair put on 145 for the fourth wicket.
The partnership was only broken two overs after tea when Pietersen
pushed the ball into the covers and set off for a suicidal run. Trott
did not respond and bowler De Wet had plenty of time to pick up the ball
and trot to the batsman’s end to break the wicket.
Trott batted through until the second new ball, taken when just over
an hour’s play remained.
Until then, remarkably few deliveries had behaved unusually off the
pitch, in contrast to the previous two days.
But De Wet made the hard new ball fly off a length and it ripped into
Trott’s right glove and deflected to third slip where AB de Villiers
made a diving catch.
CENTURION, South Africa, AFP
SOUTH AFRICA,
first innings, 418
ENGLAND,
first innings, 356
SOUTH AFRICA,
second innings, 301-7 dec
ENGLAND,
second innings
A. Strauss c Boucher b Morkel 1
A. Cook c Smith b Harris 12
J. Anderson c Boucher b De Wet 10
J. Trott c De Villiers b De Wet 69
K. Pietersen run out (De Wet) 81
P. Collingwood not out 26
I. Bell c Boucher b De Wet 2
M. Prior c Boucher b De Wet 0
S. Broad c Boucher b Harris 0
G. Swann lbw b Morkel 2
G. Onions not out 1
Extras (b10, lb3, nb11) 24
TOTAL (9 wkts, 96 overs) 228
Fall of wickets: 1-5 (Strauss), 2-16 (Anderson), 3-27 (Cook), 4-172 (Pietersen), 5-205 (Trott),
6-207 (Bell), 7-208 (Prior), 8-209 (Broad), 9-218 (Swann)
Bowling: Ntini 18-7-41-0 (nb1), Morkel 18-3-46-2 (nb7), Harris 26-11-51-2, De Wet 23-8-55-4 (nb3), Duminy 8-2-7-0, Kallis 3-1-5-0. |
