Eksteen's little triumph as England XI crash

Centurion: While a pall of gloom hung over the England dressing room last night, and most of it they would have to admit is self-induced, Clive Eksteen finally managed to take Mike Atherton's wicket. As the England XI stretched their overall lead to 238 when they reached 136 for seven in the second innings against the combined Northerns/Gauteng XI at SuperSport Park yesterday, Eksteen extracted a small measure of revenge which was not lost on the yobbo element in the crowd, when he had the former England captain caught in the slips by Daryll Cullinan.

A pity the heavy cloud, which had been building since tea, finally wiped a further 17 overs from the day's play with Chris Adams and Alex Tudor all too eager to accept the bad light offer. It was Eksteen's unsuccessful marathon duel with Atherton on the last day of that second game of the series at the Wanderers four years ago, now a part of modern Test folklore as the then England captain batted all day, which led to the left-arm spinner's last appearance for South Africa. It still rankles with some and stirs the memory for others who have less than generous thoughts for Eksteen's bowling abilities and tactics.

At Centurion yesterday the tourists had reached 88 without loss at the start of the 23rd over when Atherton dipped at a delivery from the Combined XI's captain only to find himself offering a catch to Cullinan after a 94 minute innings for 39. Quite a dashing effort from the tourists' opener. After his departure the innings went into sharp decline for the visitors, or if you prefer improved for the locals who after being dismissed for 201 fought back to be in with a chance of a victory of they can only get their batting act together.

At one stage Mark Butcher, also on 39, Nasser Hussain, Alec Stewart and Michael Vaughan all came and went in rapid succession as first Eksteen and then Walter Masimula picked up wickets as the visitors plunged 96 for four. Not the sort of parlous position Duncan Fletcher, the England coach would have enjoyed. It was all a matter of tight bowling, good fielding and poor shot selection as at one stage Eksteen had the impressive figures of three for 15 off 17 overs. That was before Andy Flintoff defaced the figures with three boundaries which broke the stranglehold. A six followed by a four and then a six took Flintoff into double figures before he too perished one of the three Van Jaarsveld catches in the innings.

Masimula brought in as the late choice for Rudi Bryson had two for 12 in 10 overs of tight bowling, but it was during a period when Flintoff and Gavin Hamilton had to set about rebuilding the innings. The loss of another wicket at this stage would have dangerously exposed the injured Chris Adams and the tail.

Steve Elworthy's return, however, signalled the dismissal of both batsmen through further excellent fielding efforts and tight bowling. Hamilton went first, hitting on the up to Cullinan. It could have been a third wicket for Elworthy but Eksteen's frantic, vain dive to take a chance offered first ball by Adams at mid-off eluded the combined team's skipper.

But the fifth ball of the over Elworthy's delivery to Flintoff went to Van Jaarsveld and a totally different picture to that at tea, when the score was 84 without loss, emerged after the Combined XI innings also had a major hiccup in fortunes at the start of the day. Neil McKenzie and Steve Elworthy apart, along with some help from a wayward Alex Tudor and a dodgy couple of overs from Darren Gough, the combined team's first innings was a feeble effort.

More had been expected of Van Jaarsveld whose patience was finally worn wafer thin after 112 minutes of batting and an attempted drive caught the bottom of the bat to present Atherton with a simple enough catch at second slip. There were times when he drove that he looked as flowing as the nearby Hennops River. An inability to find the gap though also reduced his run-scoring opportunities and he seemed reluctant to go for the cut.

McKenzie departed without offering a shot to Gough and not even the young man who had earlier this year transferred his talents from Gauteng to Northerns could quibble about Wilf Diedricks' awarding the Yorkshireman the decision. In contrast to his aggressive flair and accomplished strokeplay of Friday, McKenzie seemed to Iack the conviction to go for his strokes while his replacement, Nic Pothas was fluent enough when going forward to drive Gough. It was only when Elworthy arrived with the scoreboard looking a forlorn 130 for five in the 47th over that the tall all-rounder took charge. He first saw Pothas depart to one of Stewart's five catches during a particularly impressive spell of bowling from Gavin Hamilton.

Van Jaarsveld's wicket was Hamilton's second of the innings and came during a fine spell of bowling from the Yorkshire all-rounder: figures of 7-5-7-2 were quite remarkable on a sunny morning after he took over from Andrew Caddick at the Hennops River end. He was forced to hobble off after dropping an Elworthy top edge off Tudor's bowling and as a precaution remained off the field to the remainder of the Combined XI's innings.

As competitive as they come Hamilton's efforts may have helped him earn a Test cap, having earlier played for Scotland in the World Cup this year. Fortune favoured Elworthy though. Dropped twice on four the first by Hamilton off Caddick when the score was 137 for five and then two runs later when the Yorkshire all-rounder misjudged the catch, he slapped Gough around with the sort of stylish aplomb you might expect from Cullinan. Gough, brought back for a pre-lunch spell to supposedly hasten the end of the innings, began with a wide.

It then got better, for Elworthy, and worse, for Gough. Four fours in the extended over was the sort of aggression needed to lift the tempo of a sagging run rate and a total which was struggling to reach 150. A cover drive, and off-drive a smack through mid-wicket was not the sort what England's captain Hussain wanted or needed.

Gough's next over received equally rough treatment and he was soon replaced after giving away six fours half the number taken off his bowling in the innings. Elworthy was good value though. He drove comfortably, and often, into the gaps and eight fours was the sort of good value for his efforts and tactical presence in terms of scoring runs when they were needed. Before he perished after a 70 minutes duel which earned him 43 runs off 56 balls, he had seen the score reach 191.