England pay for Smith reprieve

CRICKET TEST MATCH: THE RAIN came an hour after lunch yesterday, curtains of it, obscuring the stand at the Golf Course end of the Wanderers. Fifteen minutes later, as the thunder crashed overhead, the ground was awash, and the PA was playing John Fogerty's old hit Have You Ever Seen the Rain.

The draining qualities of the ground, together with miraculous work by the groundstaff, meant that rather than an abandonment for the day play was able to resume three hours and 20 minutes later, although to little avail as three and a half overs later the light closed in and off they all trooped again. Worth waiting for. It saved England from further embarrassment and may yet contribute to a draw and hence a win in this series that the tourists scarcely deserve.

No wickets fell after the evening resumption and only two in the 49 overs possible before the storm, the second of them Graeme Smith, who edged Ryan Sidebottom’s away swing into the midriff of Andrew Strauss at first slip even as the storm clouds gathered.

South Africa will resume this morning on 215 for two, a lead of 35, with Hashim Amla, his wristiness a contrast to Smith’s bulldozing batting, on 73, his third significant contribution of the series, and Jacques Kallis, new to the crease, on seven.

The conundrum for South Africa is how to dodge the rain and conjure a series-levelling win out of what remains. Coming into the game their coach, Mickey Arthur, spoke about the need to gamble, by which he presumably meant that they must be prepared to risk losing in pursuit of a win. There are now two ways open to them.

The first is to bat England totally out of the game and then hope they can dismiss them a second time. The other is to take a more slender lead, either by design or simply by England reviving their fortunes and bowling them out before the lead gets out of hand and then hope that England do not get sufficient runs to put the home side under pressure.

England looked short of a cutting edge yesterday. The morning was clearer than that on the first day but there was still a mugginess to it that hinted at movement in the air and off the pitch for the pacemen.

James Anderson, styled the leader of the pack these days, was ignored first thing, and was not at his best when he did get the chance. Instead, Stuart Broad looked the most incisive of the seamers, and he did induce an edge from Prince that was comfortably taken by Graeme Swann at second slip.

It was a long wait thereafter as Smith and Amla added 165 for the third wicket, with little discomfort aside from the odd play and miss.

It centred, as it often seems to, on Daryl Harper, this time in his capacity as third umpire, a job he does with all the felicity of a Chuckle Brother. Smith had added three to his overnight 12 when he abandoned caution and flung the bat at a wide long hop from Sidebottom, in the process, so England will swear, edging it to Matt Prior. If there was a noise, as was detected by the stump mic available to television commentators, then the umpire, Tony Hill, did not hear it.

Smith, as he is entitled to do, stood his ground and was given not out. Immediately Strauss called for a review, although knowing there would need to be compelling evidence for the decision to be overturned, the chances of which are reduced considerably with the absence of the Hot Spot technology.

If Harper’s decision was no surprise, the notion that he had not been able to hear a noise as detected by commentators, given that he is supposed to be supplied with the same visual and audio feed, was bemusing. A blame game started, first with accusations thrown at a South African Broadcasting Corporation sound engineer who, it was suggested, had not turned the volume up, and then at Harper, who it was said had not realised there was a volume control on his equipment.

Although there was always the chance that Hill had got his original decision correct, the likelihood was that Smith edged the ball and that the technology, through human error, had failed. “Thunder?” Harper is later believed to have said. “What thunder.”

Guardian Service