Tue, Jul 22, 2008 page20

• Proteas edge closer to Headingley victory

  • AFP, LEEDS
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  South Africa dismissed the dangerous Kevin Pietersen for just 13 as they moved closer to victory in the second Test against England at Headingley yesterday.

  England, at lunch on the fourth day, were 130 for four — still needing a further 189 runs to make South Africa bat again.

  Alastair Cook was 46 not out and Ian Bell 1 not out.

  

  England’s Alastair Cook, left, plays a shot past South Africa’s Hashim Amla during the third day of the second Test at Headingley in Leeds, England, yesterday.

  PHOTO: AFP

  England were 12 minutes away from getting through the session without losing a wicket when nightwatchman James Anderson, who had surviving a painful blow on the head from Dale Steyn while batting for 111 minutes, was out to the fast bowler for a Test-best score of 34.

  South Africa-born Pietersen leg-glanced and off-drove Steyn for fours off his first two balls and then square-drove Jacques Kallis for another boundary.

  But the all-rounder had the last laugh when a delivery from the pace man got big on Pietersen, trying to leave the ball too late, and took the shoulder of the bat with wicketkeeper Mark Boucher taking his eighth catch of the match.

  What Anderson, who had toiled away for 44 overs in the field with the ball before his lengthy innings made of the star batsman’s five-ball and five-minute stay was anyone’s guess. Yesterday marked the 27th anniversary of the most famous recovery in Headingley history when, inspired by Ian Botham and Bob Willis, England beat Australia in an Ashes Test after following-on.

  Although England were batting to save this game rather than win it, few would have given much hope of similar heroics when they resumed yesterday on 50 for two.

  Opener Cook was 23 not out and Anderson unbeaten on 0 after South Africa had piled up 522 in their first innings, a total built around A.B. de Villiers’s 174 and Ashwell Prince’s Test-best 149.

  The left-handed England pair got through the first hour, an encouraging sign for the home side as they tried to replicate the Proteas’ feat in batting for two days to draw the first Test of this four-match series at Lord’s.

  Indeed pace man Anderson, who bats left-handed but bowls right, cover-drove Paul Harris off the back-foot and front-foot off successive deliveries for four in the spinner’s first spell of the match. Then a single off the same bowler saw him surpass his previous Test-best of 28, made against New Zealand at Trent Bridge last month.

  However, Anderson was then struck two painful blows in as many balls by Steyn, operating from around the wicket. First he was hit on the right wrist and then more worryingly, after several minutes of treatment, the next ball saw him turn his head way before being struck on the side of the face, the ball forcing the grill of his helmet onto his cheek.

  Anderson immediately fell to the ground, but was back on his feet after five more minutes of treatment and, fortified by a new helmet, he carried on.

  But a stand of 59 ended when he was leg before wicket to Steyn.

  On Sunday, Makhaya Ntini, coming from round the wicket, had Strauss out for a duck after the left-handed opener edged a full, rising ball through to wicketkeeper Boucher.

  What had seemed a placid pitch when England bowled, appeared a very different surface as Ntini and fellow quick Steyn tested the batsmen with a succession of sharp deliveries.

  Ntini, who finished the day with two wickets for 16 runs in nine overs, saw his accuracy rewarded again shortly before stumps when Vaughan got an outside edge which was well-held by a diving Boucher.
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