Dropped catches may cost England

Ask this England team to scale the Eiger and they would elect to do it wearing boxing gloves and a blindfold. So when it comes to trying to win the most significant Test match they have played in years, why not select a side that goes against precedent, then dilute an advantageous first-innings position with a flood of wickets, and finally, if that is not sufficient, drop catches with the ease that Phil Tufnell does aitches?

This still promises to be a close game, even if by the end of the second day it was South Africa who had their noses in front. Nine without loss overnight, they had lost only six wickets by the time they reached England's 230, with the second new ball just one delivery old. But then they lost their last four wickets in as many overs to be all out for 252, a slender lead on paper but larger in the context of a potentially low-scoring match in which they must bat last.

As Mike Atherton took the catch that finished off the innings he must have entertained, fleetingly, the idea of decking it, for it meant that he and Mark Butcher needed to face a single over from Shaun Pollock before stumps. They did so without alarm.

A quarter of an hour earlier it had been Angus Fraser, yet again, who threw his sweater over his shoulder and led the England team from the field. A threewicket spell with the new ball had given him five wickets in an innings for the third time in succession, and the fifth time in 10 Tests. The older he gets - and he is 33 today, so extra hay for him - the better he and his old-fashioned virtues seem to get.

South Africa's was, typically, a team effort on a pitch that, with the cloud overhead once more, offered batsmen little respite. Well as some have played so far - and Jacques Kallis certainly did so for his 40 yesterday, as did the impressively diligent Hansie Cronje, who spent almost four hours for 57 with nine precise boundaries - no batsman can ever have regarded himself as truly immune from the unpredictable bounce and movement. One quality innings from either side - the sort that Graham Gooch chiselled out here against West Indies - will win the match.

England hung in well, but when the dust settles they may yet have cause to regret one potty period of 22 deliveries midway through the afternoon when, in the aftermath of one of the most stunningly athletic catches ever seen on this ground, they spilled three chances. This was followed after the tea interval by another half-chance that on a good day might have been taken.

Cronje, who had played so well at Trent Bridge, twice benefited, when 20 and again when 32, and went on to provide the bedrock of the South Africa reply. Jonty Rhodes was also twice reprieved, just when he was starting to become irritating, and proceeded to make 32.

The final innings may unfold a different plot but yesterday England paid a price for including the leg-spin of Ian Salisbury rather than Alan Mullally's pace. The chance was there to be taken, and South Africa should not really have been allowed the luxury of a lead. But the England attack rarely was able to function consistently as a unit.

These are conditions that require discipline from bowlers rather than flair. Batsmen must be made to work but instead, with attacking fields generally set, there were too many pressure-relieving free hits for comfort, with Dominic Cork the chief offender.

Happily none the worse for the blow to his left elbow the previous evening, Cork bowled manfully either side of the tea interval, beating the bat regularly during a 16-over spell, taking two good wickets and deserving more.

That said, five Cork overs in the morning, when the early incisions should have been made, cost him 25 runs. Another specialist seamer option then, and again later when the new ball was approaching, to bowl in tandem with Fraser or Darren Gough - who took three for 58 - would have meant pressure applied continuously.

Instead, it was a question of chipping away. By lunch, Fraser had removed Gary Kirsten (to a truly shocking lbw decision from Javed Akhtar) and Gerry Liebenberg, while Darryl Cullinan's extravagance got the better of him, causing him to drive vigorously at Gough and edge to Alec Stewart.

When, an hour into the afternoon, the dangerous Kallis pulled Cork to midwicket, where Mark Ramprakash flung himself low to his right and clung on to a miraculous one-handed catch after the ball appeared to have gone past him, England were rampant.

Rather than inspire, however, Ramprakash's effort seemed to traumatise the fielders. In quick succession, Cronje was missed at third slip by Nasser Hussain off Cork, Rhodes by Ramprakash at square leg as he pulled Gough, and again by Graeme Hick at second slip off Cork before, with tea imminent, he swung once too often at Gough and edged to Stewart.

Shortly after the interval, Stewart narrowly failed to hold on to an edge from Cronje that was falling short of slip, Cork being the sufferer again. Cork, though, had been turning Brian McMillan inside out with his swing and finally ended his misery with a catch chipped to mid-on.

At 184 for six, the game remained poised. But Cronje and Pollock, a dangerous number eight, added 53 for the seventh wicket, taking South Africa into the lead before Cronje, well forward to Fraser and the new ball, was none the less adjudged lbw by Akhtar. It set Fraser on a roll.

Pollock, taking the attack to the bowlers, swung and top-edged another catch to Salisbury at midon, and two balls later Donald was also deemed lbw by Akhtar, this time the ball clearly striking the edge of his bat first. Mr Akhtar is not having a good game.