South Africa's hopes of squeezing victory from the rain-blighted first test were foiled by England and the weather on Monday as a tense encounter finally petered out into a grey draw.
Graeme Smith, who scored 277 in the first innings and 85 at faster than a run a ball in the second as he set the agenda throughout, asked his bowlers to exploit a deteriorating pitch after setting an improbable target of 321 from 65 overs.
But England, defending against Shaun Pollock slide-rule seam from the Pavilion End while treating the other bowlers with less respect, held out as dark rain clouds gathered over Edgbaston.
They reached 110 for one, with Marcus Trescothick on 52 not out, before being forced from the field early after an previoius interruption for bad light in the final session.
Trescothick, batting with a fractured finger, provided one of the few moments of defiance in the gathering gloom by equalling the test record of five consecutive boundaries.
Two cuts, a pull and two straight drives were followed by a dot ball before Makhaya Ntini was taken off after conceding 31 in two overs.
Trescothick's feat had only been achieved three times before, the last by David Hookes of Australia against Tony Greig and England in Melbourne 27 years ago.
The left handed opener seemed set to miss the second test starting tomorrow at Lord's after damaging his finger while fielding but that one over suggested he may yet be selected, splint and all.
Michael Vaugan, who kept England in the game with 156 in the first innings, missed out with 22 in the second.
England's delight in saving the first match of the five-test series will have been matched by South African frustration.
Their best chance of winning had slipped away in just 10 deliveries right at the start of the day.
The home team resumed their first innings on 374 for seven in reply to the touring side's 594 for five declared, still needing 21 crucial runs to avoid following on.
Ashley Giles, no mean bat, took matters in his own hands as he saw Darren Gough join him at the other end, with only Steve Harmison and James Anderson to come.
Giles duly cracked Ntini's second and fourth balls through the covers off the back foot, then guided the fifth along the floor to the third man boundary.
Stealing a single, the left-arm spinner retained the strike then drove Dewald Pretorius through mid-off first ball and scythed the third past point to save the follow-on.
Smith, however, did not give up, as he hit 85 off 70 balls to give South Africa a second chance of victory.
He pulled Steve Harmison for three consecutive fours, escaped a stumping but fell as he pressed the pace, bowled by Giles's left arm spin as he aimed for the top row of the mid-wicket stands.
His dismissal left the 22-year-old left hander with 999 runs in test cricket from 15 completed innings at an average of 66.6.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB