South Africa captain Graeme Smith paid tribute to England’s batsmen for hanging on to secure a draw in the third Test on Thursday.
“England have shown great strength of character throughout the series and we’ve had to earn every inch,” Smith said after the visitors’ final pair of Graeme Swann and Graham Onions survived 17 balls to salvage a draw and keep England 1-0 ahead in the series.
Paul Collingwood (40) and Ian Bell (78) had shared a four-hour partnership to take England to the brink of safety before a batting collapse.
PHOTO: AFP
“You have to give credit to the Collingwood/Bell partnership,” Smith said. “They stuck to their game plan well and showed a lot of character.”
Morne Morkel bowled the final over at Onions but the number 11 managed to repeat his heroics of the first Test at Centurion and protect his wicket to secure the draw.
“I just told Morne to commit 100 percent to what he was going to bowl and to give his best,” Smith said. “He’s probably carrying the whole world on his shoulders right now but I thought it was a good final over.”
PHOTO: AFP
England captain Andrew Strauss also praised Collingwood and Bell, who came together half-an-hour before lunch and survived a ferocious spell of new-ball bowling from Dale Steyn after the break.
“I thought Paul and Ian were unbelievable, it was a first-rate stand,” Strauss said.
The England captain admitted he had not dared to believe that Onions could repeat his performance from Centurion.
“When you’ve been in that situation before, the story does not usually stay the same. But Graham did a great job and the batsmen should apologize to him for putting him in that situation,” he said.
Onions said: “I would rather not have been in that position but the most important thing is that we got the draw.”
“It was much worse waiting to go in to bat than actually batting. You have to give a lot of credit to the South African bowlers, they kept running in and coming at us through a lot of overs,” he said.
Meanwhile, former captain Michael Vaughan aid on Thursday England had been “lucky” to escape official censure over allegations of ball-tampering in the third Test against South Africa.
But Michael Atherton, another ex-England captain, said Stuart Broad and James Anderson, the two pace bowlers at the center of the controversy, were victims of “trial by television.”
The Proteas raised concerns over the state of the ball after television pictures during Tuesday’s third day showed Broad stopping the ball with his boot spikes and, moments later, Anderson working on the ball.
No formal complaint was raised by South Africa and that led the International Cricket Council (ICC) to announce the matter was closed as far as it was concerned.
But Vaughan, writing in the Daily Telegraph, was in no doubt England had been fortunate to avoid disciplinary action.
“They were lucky to get away without an official reprimand, or even a ban because there was no doubt in my mind that they were trying to change the condition of the ball,” he said.
Meanwhile Atherton questioned the Proteas’ behavior in raising the matter but then not following up with official action.
Atherton, now the cricket correspondent of daily the Times, wrote: “Ball tampering is a serious allegation in cricket and if you make it, as South Africa effectively did by publicly raising their ‘concerns’ about the state of the ball, you had better be damn sure of your facts. But no formal complaint was forthcoming.”
“After letting all and sundry know they felt England were up to no good on the third evening, South Africa ran for cover yesterday [Wednesday],” he said. “South Africa’s actions were akin to throwing a hand grenade in a public place — then running before the explosion.”
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