Vaughan sees the light

CRICKET/Fourth Test Scoreboard: Excruciatingly at first, but later with much of the freedom with which we have come to associate him, Michael Vaughan hauled his side towards a position from which, given fair weather and proper bowling, they should go on to win the fourth Test.

The second day closed with South Africa on the ropes, their discipline in tatters, grateful for the rule that, when the floodlights are on, offers them the option of going off if the batsmen have turned it down.

The England captain, within 18 runs of completing what would be one of the most triumphant centuries of his career, was not shy in registering his displeasure at the decision, understandably given that he had just taken 16 off an over from Makhaya Ntini and the sun was shining at the time. Occasionally the game makes an ass of itself.

His unbeaten 82 is only a couple of runs short of his aggregate for the first three Tests and England have reached dizzy heights that had earlier seemed unattainable.

When Geraint Jones sliced to first slip, leaving England 278 for seven, Vaughan had eked out only 15. By the time Ashley Giles was next out, it had risen to 40 and he was moving up the gears. Then he and Steve Harmison added an unbroken 82 for the ninth wicket at more than one rollicking run a minute.

On a day which started late because of heavy rain and which suffered a couple of interruptions thereafter, batting was not a sinecure. At the Wanderers overhead conditions as much as those underfoot can dictate the course of a match. Heavy cloud cover and a hazy atmosphere helped the bowlers and at first Shaun Pollock and Ntini made the ball talk so vociferously that the record books were being thumbed for details of the great collapses.

But gradually, in the final session, the clouds disappeared. Play restarted for a third time in bright sunshine maybe half an hour later than it might, with a wet outfield given as the reason. Batting became easier and the South African bowlers lost their cool.

Vaughan, batting as well now as he had indifferently throughout the series, took his toll: 278 for seven became 329 for eight as he and Giles added 51 for the eighth wicket.

There was more to come. Vaughan and Harmison spotted the seeping wound in South African morale and rubbed in the salt. For the captain, this was redemption. If his career was not remotely in crisis then his sequence of scores in this series - 10, 15, 18, 10, 11 and 20 - represented someone spending time at the crease without being able to capitalise.

Half his dismissals, he insisted, had been down to good bowling, the other half to carelessness. Eradicate the latter, he rationalised, without compromising his sense of adventure, and he would be a player again.

So he spent the week between Tests with the coach Duncan Fletcher, one on one, just as he had after an indifferent trot in the early part of last summer. On that occasion it was followed by a century in each innings of the Lord's Test against West Indies. Now this. Perhaps, like a gifted child, he just requires special attention.

This was not a typical innings although as he matures it may become one. His first nine runs, on the first evening, had taken him an hour and a half and it took him almost a further two hours to reach his half-century, with only three boundaries.

Thereafter, though, he played with freedom, confident in Harmison and fed by bowling that degenerated to mediocre.

Thus far, in just over four hours, he has hit 10 fours and a six.

The task facing England when the innings finally does come to a close is to locate the full length and tight line bowled by Pollock in particular in the early part of the innings and with the second new ball with which he and Ntini took four wickets for 16 runs.

Guardian Service

Overnight: England 263-4 (A J Strauss 147, R W T Key 83).

England First Innings

M Vaughan not out 82

M Hoggard c de Villiers b Ntini 5

A Flintoff c Smith b Ntini 2

G Jones c Smith b Pollock 2

A Giles c Gibbs b Steyn 26

S Harmison not out 30

Extras lb13 nb5 pens 0 18

Total 8 wkts (124 overs) ... 411

Fall: 1-45 2-227 3-262 4-263 5-273 6-275 7-278 8-329

To Bat: J M Anderson.

Bowling: Pollock 33 12 81 2 Ntini 34 8 111 4 Steyn 21 7 75 2 Kallis 22 2 79 0 Boje 14 2 52 0