England maintain loose grip

CRICKET/South Africa v England, first Test: As the shadows lengthened on another azure day, England sought the grip on the match that for much of the middle portion of the afternoon they had seemed keen to release.

Having established a first-innings lead of 88, due largely in the end to the sort of late-order shenanigans that other teams once inflicted frustratingly on England, Matthew Hoggard then removed the young opener AB de Villiers to begin the process of chipping away at the home side for the second time.

Ashley Giles, on whom much will depend today, then had the dangerous Jacques Rudolph brilliantly taken at slip by Marcus Trescothick for 28 just as the left-hander was hammering out a riposte.

But Graeme Smith has bedded in nicely and will resume this morning on 33 with Jacques Kallis into double figures.

At 99 for two the lead is slender yet, but it is in the compass of South Africa to put England under pressure in the later stages of the game.

Despite retaining the upper hand - just - England cannot take too much satisfaction in a performance that so far has done little to dissuade those who believe that the lack of pre-Test match practice meant they were winging their way into the match.

Wickets were gifted yesterday, allowing South Africa back into the contest at a stage where England were in a position to bury them.

Thus, 346 for four, already a lead of nine runs, became 358 for eight in the space of four overs as Makhaya Ntini got on a roll.

Only a spate of dropped catches, a bit of common sense from Giles and some comic-cuts batting from Simon Jones and Steve Harmison saw them climb to 425 before Jones was finally dismissed.

Harmison is there to bowl fast, though, not bat, and he has yet to pose the sort of threat that elevated him to the position of the world's leading bowler.

Quite rightly, he was given a long break after a strenuous winter and exhausting summer in which he as much as anybody brought almost unprecedented success for England. But he, like any bowler, requires work in the middle over and above net practice.

Bowlers need to reaquaint themselves with the geography of bowling in a match situation, where they have the space of the arena, the familiarity of the fielders and umpires, the breezes, the cadences of the game that involve switching on and off, and not least the edge of competition.

England's attacking linchpin is firing too many blanks at the moment, unable to locate that elusive length between harmlessly short and driveably full.

The treatment meted out by Rudolph when he first came to the crease was little short of dismissive, an insult to someone whose mood would not have been lightened by the scoreline from the Liverpool and Newcastle match appearing on the scoreboard alongside his own new-ball figures of five overs for 27 runs.

South Africa though, have contributed largely to their position by the donation of extras that should qualify the players for tax exemptions as a charitable institution; 57 were conceded in all, including a truly scandalous 35 no balls - the most by a dozen that South Africa have ever conceded - 16 of them by the tyro fast bowler Dale Steyn.

There is no excuse for such profligacy and the home coach, Ray Jennings, a lippy disciplinarian for whom a boot camp would represent a five-star break at Champney's, will no doubt have his bowlers crawling naked over broken glass to rehydrate in the duckpond behind the main stand.

That'd teach them.

Halve the extras and factor in a demolition job on the England tail and the game would have been evenly poised at the half-way stage and well to South Africa's advantage by the close.

As it is, England, who must bat last, can be glad only that on a pitch that is offering some turn but little yet of the variable bounce that might have been expected, South Africa do not possess a front-line spinner.