CRICKET South Africa v England, third Test: Under the circumstances England acquitted themselves well at Newlands yesterday. An unrelenting sun was leavened only slightly by a flag-snapping south westerly wind and, with South Africa opting to bat on a pitch that, like a favourite uncle, was to prove placid and good-humoured throughout, it was always going to be a tough day, one to batten down the hatches, maintain discipline and just be patient.

South Africa's average first-innings score here in the past 12 matches, when they have had first use of the pitch, is 433, so to restrict the home side to 247 for four was a commendable effort, perhaps the best team bowling of the tour.

Danger looms today, though, just as it did in Durban, as Jacques Kallis, the mechanical batting man, approaches yet another precise, programmed, textbook-perfect century. He will resume this morning having batted more than four chanceless hours for 81 - an innings that includes eight fours.

Kallis will be hugely miffed if he does not convert to three figures today and he will have more than half an eye on a double, something missing from his otherwise blue-chip CV.

To do that he must first overcome the threat of the second new ball which is only seven and a bit overs old. Michael Vaughan had delayed taking it immediately it was available after 80 overs in the hope, vain as it proved, of sneaking one more wicket with the old. Ashley Giles had dismissed Boeta Dippenaar - centurion in the first Test and now recovered from a knee injury that kept him out of the second - for 29 dogged, forgettable runs with the new ball imminent.

With Kallis will be the young right-hander Hashim Amla, who was given a torrid time on his home track at Kingsmead but was persevered with here. Amla survived the day to finish on 21 and will have the chance to enhance his reputation for wristy strokeplay today.

Earlier Graeme Smith, the South African captain, made 74, with eight fours, equalling his highest score for nine months, before he was caught at slip, via the keeper's pads, off Giles' bowling.

There was more than a measure of justice in this, though, for two overs previously he had edged the ball on to his pad while sweeping the same bowler and it bounced conveniently for Geraint Jones.

Daryl Harper, the Australian umpire who has courted some controversy with his decision-making of late, gave it not out. If he cannot get these right, what hope is there? "Don't come back here if you call wrong," Vaughan was told by his team-mates before the toss.

Of course he lost it, something at which he is becoming increasingly adept. Six wins out of 22 tells only half the story: abroad, when he has to do the calling, he has done so correctly on only two of a dozen occasions.

Perhaps he should get Mark Butcher to call: he at least won his only toss as captain. Not that this would have been an option yesterday, the new Surrey captain having been omitted from the side as a result, it transpires, of yet another freak accident. Apparently he injured his left wrist while doing some weight training before the tour and it has proved bothersome since, with heavy strapping worn during his innings in Durban.

Now he must sit back and watch his replacement Rob Key strut his stuff on a belting pitch, feeling that a higher power must be trying to tell him something.

There was a little swing late in the day for Matthew Hoggard when he took the new ball into the wind but otherwise England were relying on a line outside off-stump. At one time Kallis, to the Yorkshireman in particular but also Simon Jones, resorted to moving across outside his own wicket to create a new line for himself. The odd disruptive bouncer was thrown in to keep the batsmen honest.

There was little lateral movement off the pitch either, although Herschelle Gibbs will swear that the ball from Hoggard that removed his off-stump in the day's third over as he shouldered arms came back like one of Muttiah Muralitharan's off-breaks. In truth it was no less a misjudgment of the whereabouts of his off-stump than it had been in the first innings in Durban.

South Africa - First Innings

G C Smith c Trescothick b Giles 74

H H Gibbs b Hoggard 4

J A Rudolph c G O Jones b S P Jones 26

J H Kallis not out 81

H H Dippenaar b Giles 29

H M Amla not out 21

Extras b2 lb4 w2 nb4 pens 0 12

Total 4 wkts (90 overs) ... 247

Fall: 1-9 2-70 3-145 4-213

To Bat: A B de Villiers, S M Pollock, N Boje, M Ntini, C K Langeveldt.

Bowling: Hoggard 21 5 56 1 Harmison 14 1 48 0 Flintoff 19 4 42 0 S P Jones 12 0 37 1 Giles 24 1 58 2.