The Hindu : Sport : England content to hold on for a draw

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 26, 2005

Sport

Sport

England content to hold on for a draw

By Ted Corbett

CENTURION, JAN. 25. On as tense a final day as you can imagine, the South African captain Graeme Smith — "I'm a go for broke sort of a guy," he said at the start of the fifth Test against England — risked defeat and possibly his job as he tried every trick to draw level in the series by leaving England to make 185 in 44 overs.

Not only did he give England a chance of victory which it ignored but he switched seven bowlers in 40 overs, had three overs himself and at one time had three of England's prized batsman out for 21 and four for 45. He did not give up until bad light stopped play. By then England had a fourth successive series success to thrust under the Australian noses this summer. That will now be worth a long journey to witness; or it would if there were any tickets left.

Andrew Strauss went second ball to Makhaya Ntini, Robert Key was lbw to Ntini for nine and Marcus Trescothick bowled through the gate by Shaun Pollock after 14 overs on the defensive. Michael Vaughan, the captain and Graham Thorpe, the most experienced batsman on either side, resisted for 18 overs but when Ntini returned he had Thorpe caught in the slips.

Only 12 overs remained, the ball was occasionally keeping low and Ntini was steaming in; England was only able to circle the wagons like the old South Africans heading for their own homeland.

A long build-up to a declaration is often bewildering and none more so than the second South African innings.

By the time Smith called his men in when Mark Boucher was out at 2.45pm there were so many theories, calculations and mathematical combinations available that those of us who had guessed he might bring his men in with a lead of 170 and 47 overs left felt some satisfaction.

The final formula; 185 off 44, an easy ride in a one-day match but a different story in a Test without fielding restrictions.

Good start

Kallis and young de Villiers began smoothly so that the overnight 59 for two was 105 at the first drinks interval and in the 33rd over de Villiers announced the team's intentions by hitting a six to bring up the lead.

The next hour and a half produced only 108 runs, which was not to the liking of the pundits although I thought I detected method in this apparent madness.

Smith did not want to set England too many in case it called off a chase. That was a vain hope.

Kallis reached his 20th Test century and then, to the general applause since he is clearly a kid to watch, de Villiers made his first to go alongside his 92 in the first innings.

They were the only two to score double figures as they set a new South African record for the ground with their stand of 227.

Kallis may be a fine batsman but he leads the bores league, he refused to be hurried and there may have been a bitter exchange of views with Smith during their brief partnership. I am not sure that Kallis did anything wrong even in Smith's eyes; the declaration was too neat not to have been planned that way. Kallis finished the series with 625 runs.

Steve Harmison who had taken just one wicket in the past five innings took advantage of the increase run rate to double his success rate — Smith caught at point off a pull intended for deep mid wicket and a more orthodox clean bowled for Jacques Rudolph.

Harmison stays with the one-day squad but Andrew Flintoff goes home for an ankle operation similar to Glenn McGrath's so that the two can exchange surgery memories and bouncers when the Ashes begin in July. Strauss, who made 656 runs in the five Tests including two ducks, edged his second ball from Ntini to slip where

Kallis took a low catch that needed confirmation from the TV cameras. Andre Nel was the peril after his six wickets in the first innings and his mouthful of advice to each batsman but when only 16 runs came off the first ten overs we got the clue.

England was content to win the series 2-1 and, after five back to back Tests in 42 days and a tough fight in each, who can blame it.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport