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England vs South Africa, 2nd Test at Leeds, , Jul 18 2008 - Ball by Ball Commentary

RESULT
2nd Test, Leeds, July 18 - 21, 2008, South Africa tour of England
203 & 327
(T:9) 522 & 9/0

South Africa won by 10 wickets

Player Of The Match
149
ashwell-prince
New
SA 2nd Innings
Full commentary

So, South Africa have won by ten wickets, which is a just victory after dominating from the off at Headingley, from the moment, indeed, that they were successful at the toss. A muted England walk off with plenty of things to think about, and a week to regroup.

Time for the ceremony now. Michael Atherton asks the crowd to congratulate Graeme Smith and his team and is greeted with silence. "OK, we won't, then!" he smiles, possibly because the microphone hadn't been turned on.

"It's not the best performance we've given," Vaughan admits. "They went and batted beautifully. Ashwell Prince and AB de Villiers played some magnificent innings. We showed some character today but we didn't get a guy to 100. Full credit to South Africa, they deserve to win."

Vaughan is being probed about the selection. "It's all hindsight, this is not a time to talk about that. We started the series well, we just haven't played as a unit here at Headingley."

What's more worrying - only one specialist batsman got to fifty or that South Africa batted for nearly two days? "Both!" But he is confident the team can come back. "Absolutely, it's a team that's shown a lot of character."

Smith now. "It was a very good performance. The batting performance is a credit to the guys. The guys bowled very well today.

"The wicket played generally very well, a bit slow. A lot of our guys stood up when we needed to. I think it was obviously important to get the draw (at Lord's). It allowed us to work on a few things during the week. We knew we could reach better heights than we had. We've got a week off before we go to Edgbaston so it's going to be exciting.

"I don't think we're a team that likes to rest on our laurels. We arrived in England with the motivation to win the series and we've taken one step towards that."

The Man of the Match is Prince and you can't really argue with that, no not even you Mr de Villiers. "I'm striking it quite nicely at the moment. I'd say at the moment I'm batting as well as ever. It needed a bit of character, Hashim and I got stuck and got going and another big partnership with AB. I think AB played magnificently. A great effort by the batting unit.

"We batted for a very long time. Even throughout the innings we never felt we were on top of the bowlers. They kept coming back at us. We needed to be disciplined throughout the innings. We had time on our side, we didn't really have to up the ante at all and we could just take our time."

So, that just about wraps things up from here. Do join us again for the third Test where South Africa wil be looking to wrap up the series. Much rests on that game, then, so don't miss out. Until next time, meanwhile, it's goodbye from us.

1.1
1
Pattinson to McKenzie, 1 run

on the front foot, pushed forward and they charge through to complete the job

Pattinson has been thrown the ball. Everyone here is predicting this could be his last action in Test cricket...

end of over 18 runs
SA: 8/0CRR: 8.00 
Graeme Smith3 (3b)
Neil McKenzie5 (3b 1x4)
Stuart Broad 1-0-8-0
0.6
Broad to Smith, no run

banged in short and wristed off the back foot to point

0.5
1
Broad to McKenzie, 1 run

short and pulls it away round to fine leg to level the scores

0.4
4
Broad to McKenzie, FOUR runs

short and pulled away through square

0.3
Broad to McKenzie, no run

good length, just outside off, left alone

He's on for Anderson, who has remained off the field, most likely because of the blows he received earlier

0.2
3
Broad to Smith, 3 runs

short outside off, cut away through cover point where the sub fielder lets it go through his legs. Perhaps he wants his dinner

0.1
Broad to Smith, no run

pushed off the back foot to the covers

Broad is back in action now, this time with the ball. This should be brief