on the front foot, pushed forward and they charge through to complete the job
England vs South Africa, 2nd Test at Leeds, Jul 18 2008 - Match Result
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.
Pattinson has been thrown the ball. Everyone here is predicting this could be his last action in Test cricket...
banged in short and wristed off the back foot to point
short and pulls it away round to fine leg to level the scores
short and pulled away through square
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
short outside off, cut away through cover point where the sub fielder lets it go through his legs. Perhaps he wants his dinner
pushed off the back foot to the covers
Broad is back in action now, this time with the ball. This should be brief
Morkel punches the air in delight, Broad remains unbeaten, though and the Headingley crowd appreciate the effort from England's batsmen-bowlers. So, a handy effort from Broad which will be some consolation but for now there's much to celebrate for South Africa, who need but 8 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the series. While Broad and Pattinson were going strong there was a slim chance that we may have headed into the final day at Headingley, a la England-South Africa in 1998 when Alec Stewart applauded a hearty crowd who turned up to watch them take the final two wickets... then again, as he pointed out, it was free to get in and it was Yorkshire. His words, not mine. Flintoff and Kallis were playing in that game, too, just to note. Anyway, South Africa will be wrapping this up tonight, so it's all academic.
bowled him now, rocking back middle and leg stumps with a full one that goes through Pattinson's gate, and the batsman is furious with himself
comes wide of the crease, delivers wide too and Broad leans into a firm cover drive out towards the boundary
width outside off, some movement away from the batsman, who chases it towards the keeper
slower ball outside off, draws Broad into having a go away from his body, mistimes it as he's fooled by the pace and the ball, laughing to itself, carries on to the keeper
width outside off, short ball, and some movement away
defended back into the track
Morkel has been given the ball now
defended in line with off and the dot ball is cheered ironically
"He's fetched that from way outside off - the thing is there's no spin threat," observes Ian Botham, quickly adding that that's do with the pitch
tossed up again outside off and Pattinson accepts the invitation to fetch that witha huge mow wide of mid on
tossed up and smote hard over mid on
defended on the front foot
defended on the front foot in line with off
pushed off the front foot to short square
round the wicket, stands tall and pushes it to short midwicket
Headingley, Leeds | |
Toss | South Africa, elected to field first |
Series | |
Season | 2008 |
Player Of The Match | |
Series result | South Africa led the 4-match series 1-0 |
Match number | Test no. 1881 |
Hours of play (local time) | 11am start, Lunch 13.00-13.40, Tea 15.40-16.00, Close 18.00 |
Match days | 18,19,20,21 July 2008 - day (5-day match) |
Test debut | |
Umpires | |
TV Umpire | |
Reserve Umpire | |
Match Referee |