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Day 1 Report

First day of five: England are 221-4 at the close

The South Africans played their cricket as competitively as ever yesterday but on the critical first day of the series they misread the pitch and chose the wrong XI. A third-wicket partnership of 142 between Mike Atherton and Graeme Hick, a happy combination of grit and glamour, rescued England from a somewhat precarious lunchtime position of 64 for three and took them to 221 for four by the close of a hot and wearisome day.

But for the magnificence of Hick's strokeplay after tea it would, indeed, have been a day to forget. As it ended, however, with Hick 105 not out and in full and glorious spate against the new ball, it was one which England will cherish, their best start to a series abroad for four years. Atherton's watchful skill and mental tenacity paved the way for Hick to express himself with a freedom he seldom has before for England and if he can play him- self in again this morning against a hard and shiny ball less than five overs old, they might create a winning position.

It is too early to suggest that they have done so, especially given the threat of Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock, whose first day of Test cricket fulfilled expectations that South Africa have a rising star. Rangy and loose-limbed, with an approach recalling both his father Peter and his old rival Brian Statham, he bowled fast and straight, mixing in occasional bouncers, a swinging yorker and more than one type of slower ball.

Not that Pollock or the other four fast bowlers in a lop-sided attack had much help from the pitch. Far from the hard and bouncy surface so confidently predicted by South Africa's convenor of selectors - was he fooling himself or trying to fool his op- ponents? - the brown strip which eventually emerged from all the watering, rolling and talking was easy-paced, a little uneven and certainly not damp enough for Hansie Cronje, and his coach and confidant Bob Woolmer, to have taken the gamble they did in put- ting England in first.

With that admirable combination of impeccable technique, unflap- pable temperament and bloody-minded determination which has made him one of the hardest of all contemporary players to dig out on an occasion that really matters, Atherton set about making them pay. He lost Alec Stewart, hooking Brett Schultz in the 10th over, only to fall to a brilliant, diving catch at square leg by Craig Matthews.

Both Mark Ramprakash and Graham Thorpe made untroubled starts, but Ramprakash fell after the first drinks interval, edging a stroke off the back foot outside his off stump - Dave Richardson's 100th Test victim, not one of them stumped - and Thorpe also got an outside edge to a good-length ball from Pol- lock in the last over before lunch - a ball in the right place at the right time.

It was South Africa's last success for 55 overs. Hick's innings was a performance to gladden the heart of the batting coach, John Edrich, a perfect example of a high-class batsman biding his time in the knowledge that the runs would come. For his first hour at the crease he was reining himself in like a jockey aboard a thoroughbred in the early stages of a race. The time came to make his move, and he did it with style, hitting 21 boundaries, a combination mainly of classical strokes through the off side and handsome, unmistakably authoritative hooks when the bowlers test- ed him with bouncers.

By the time that Donald and Pollock, by a distance South Africa's two most menacing bowlers, took the new ball after 80 overs (10 from the close and five overs earlier than it used to become due until the dubious change in the ICC regulations), Hick was driv- ing away the half-volleys and cutting the short balls with the relish of a man who has found the elusive key. Since being left out at Old Trafford in July, his last five innings for England have been 118 not out, 7, 96, 51 not out and 105, with power to add.

The new ball did, however, account for Atherton, as the light be- gan to go and the umpires were getting fidgety. A rapid lifting ball from young Pollock took the outside shoulder of the bat and lobbed to gully, the end of an innings which had taken the ship out of harbour into a choppy sea but guided it with utter dedica- tion into calmer waters.

It was the captain at his best, but he can never have been more pleased with Hick, with whom he was briefly at loggerheads ear- lier this year in Sydney. Of his 67 Test innings and four hun- dreds this is Hick's best yet. He may be about to exact a terri- ble revenge on all the fast bowlers who have peppered him since he started at the toughest level in 1991.

Comparing his technique against the short ball with Atherton's, there is still, however, one crucial difference. Hick's first and natural instinct when a ball rises towards his face is to protect himself with raised hands and bat; Atherton's is to avoid any possibility of losing his wicket by dropping his hands lower even as his head sways out of danger.

In fact, Atherton was hit three times on the helmet yesterday, once each by balls from Donald, Pollock and Brian McMillan; but on none of these moments of threat was he at any risk of losing his wicket. Hick, on the other hand, got a bouncer (of course) the moment he came in at No 5 after lunch. It turned out to be a no-ball, but it flew close to short leg off his arm-guard. It was virtually his only worrying moment until, when 67, he drove a return catch at shin height to the perservering Craig Matthews, a case of almost being bored out. Thank goodness he was not.

Day 2 Report

England in charge as elements intervene

Second day of five: England are 381-9. Rain stopped play

If IT rains at Twickenham this afternoon as it did in the Pre- toria suburb of Centurion at tea-time yesterday, the internation- al between England and South Africa will not be completed. Thun- derstorms in the Highveld, though they are almost a daily oc- currence at this time of the year, are intense even by the stan- dards of Brisbane.

When the storm broke here yesterday, interrupting a profitable romp by Jack Russell and a last-wicket stand of 21 with Angus Fraser which had halted a brief South African advance and taken England to 381 for nine, it took barely 20 minutes for the per- fect outfield of Centurion Park to become a lake. Since a similar storm on the night before this first Test had no effect on the pitch, there is every chance that given a fine morning today play will start on time and in dry conditions. In all things South Africa is a country of extremes.

The precise circumstances of the cessation of play were unusual but not unique. The rain had not started and 'fear of lightning' was the official reason given by the umpires Cyril Mitchley and Srini Venkataraghavan. As in most things in cricket, there is a precedent: the Northamptonshire v Essex match at Northampton 20 years ago was stopped for the same reason. Cricketers in minor games have been killed by lightning and among other elements to have interrupted play in first-class games are snow (also, oddly enough, in 1975) fog, extreme cold, extreme heat, dazzling sun- light, high wind and (of course) earthquake. As Ecclesiastes put it, ``there is no new thing under the sun''.

Having worked so hard to build a platform from which they cannot lose the first Test, the England players will rue the loss of the 30 overs still remaining in what, until Russell got going in his idiosyncratic way, was a prosaic day's cicket.

The continuing blandness of the pitch made it hard for Graeme Hick, in particular, to score at the sort of pace which would have been desirable if England are to win. By the same token, it will make life hard for the England fast bowlers when their turn comes today. But there are signs of uneven bounce, Richard Il- lingworth will no doubt get some turn and Dominic Cork, Darren Gough and Fraser will hope to swing the ball, as Brian McMillan did during two testing spells yesterday.

The respectable rate of scoring in the morning was due largely to Robin Smith, whose first boundary was one of his signature square cuts. He sliced a short ball from Shaun Pollock over the fence and into the bank at third man. Smith versus Pollock was like the clash of steel on steel: in the same over, a bouncer leapt at Smith's head and struck him squarely on the helmet.

In the huge stand which covers a third of the ground's spectator area, John Smith, Robin's father and faithful supporter, sat in the open seating no more than 50 yards from the box where Peter Pollock, father of the assailant, was watching with equal pride and impassivity in the guise of chief selector.

Hansie Cronje, who had erred, perhaps, in not bowling Pollock and Allan Donald together when Hick's innings began after lunch on the first day, had his two quickest bowlers in harness for only the first two overs of the day. With Brett Schultz fit only for one spell because of a muscle strain, the captain used them in succession from the Pavilion end, operating the two workhorses, McMillan and Craig Matthews, into the breeze from the Hennops River end.

Hick began as he had finished the previous evening, hooking a Pollock bouncer

Hick began as he had finished the previous evening, hooking a Pollock bouncer - also a no-ball - imperiously in front of square and reducing his experiment of bowling from round the wicket to one ball only. But Pollock's was still a useful spell, and the accuracy of Matthews gave Hick nothing to feed upon as, again, he waited for the bowlers to tire.

Smith was a frenetic contrast, expending more energy in leaving the ball outside his off stump than Hick did in occasionally driving one for four. The high points of Smith's 81-ball innings were three drives for four in a single over from Donald: power- ful, short-arm strokes hit first through midwicket, next straight, then to mid-off.

It was not Donald's day. When Hick was 125, he got a ball to lift to the splice of the bat but McMillan could only parry the resulting edge, just failing to grasp the rebound. It was McMil- lan the bowler who made the breakthrough, holding a ball up to hit Smith's off stump five overs before lunch. It was not quite the commanding comeback innings for which Smith had hoped, but if he averages 43 for the series at No 6, no-one will complain.

Hick had spent two hours over a mere 26 of the morning's tally of 75 and his timing was still not quite on song when Pollock hit his front pad on the crease 40 minutes after lunch. Twenty-five fours from 277 balls was the final count and the stage was left to Russell, whose start had been almost entirely defensive as he measured the line of each ball and left those he had no need to play with a drag of the bat towards mid-on, which merely frus- trated the bowlers. The moment they aimed straighter, he began to work them away off his legs, at first with no more than nicely timed glances, then, as partners came and went, with meaty, cal- culated blows.

Just as he had at Kimberley, Russell controlled the tailend resistance brilliantly. Cork hooked McMillan straight to square leg's midriff, and both Gough and Illingworth were bowled for ducks, Gough by a good-length ball which left him a fraction, Il- lingworth by a classic Donald yorker. Fraser, however, staunchly held an end while Russell milked the bowling, refusing singles early in overs, then thumping fours at the end of them as the field came in. He became only the fourth England wicketkeeper to combine more than 100 victims with 1,500 runs. There are many more to come.

Day 3 Report

No play due to rain.

Day 4 Report

South African plans washed down the drain

Fourth day of five: England are 381-9. Rain prevented play

For both English and South African cricket, and for quite dif- ferent reasons, the ruination by rain of the first Test ever played at Centurion Park is a terrible shame.

The cold, wet weather which followed the thunderstorm on Friday evening prevented any play yesterday, as it had all day on Saturday. Overall at least 14 hours of cricket, or 217 of the scheduled 450 overs of the game, have been lost.

These sort of statistics, for all the reputation of English weather, seldom apply at home.

There have been six inches of rain on the ground since the storm broke, and the Hennops river, which borders the ground, has burst its banks. The outfield has absorbed the water well, but the forecast for today remains poor.

South African regret is largely financial and cultural in nature - the missed opportunity to establish the game more certainly in the heartland of the confused and belittled Afrikaner is one point. The loss of a budgeted 30,000 spectators over the weekend and an estimated #85,000 of revenue to the Northern Transvaal Cricket Association, who had spent #100,000 getting the ground to Test standard, is another.

The financial loss is exaggerated by an extraordinary and not fully explained clash between the second Test in Johannesburg, starting in 10 days' time, and one of the country's biggest sporting extravaganzas, the Million Dollar golf tournament at Sun City.

Television coverage of the Wanderers Test is to be altered as a result and local firms and sponsors have had to make a choice between the two events to the detriment of cricket.

For England the certain draw is a great chance wasted. Mike Ath- erton and his team would hardly be human if they did not wonder why this sort of weather never seems to come to their own rescue.

It was far from certain, of course, that they would have been able to press home the slight advantage which, at 381 for nine on a pitch which was starting to become less even in bounce, they had established by tea on the second day.

The South Africans were confident that on such a slow surface they would have made sufficient first-innings runs to draw the game in any case, but they had virtually no chance of winning, and their attempt to blast England out with five fast bowlers in the hope of destroying them psychologically at the start of the series clearly failed.

Like Devon Malcolm, Schultz's good days can be occasional and unpredictable

The South African selectors met yesterday to discuss their team for the second Test, but they will not announce it until tomor- row. Their dilemma now is that, while they should have taken the gamble with the unorthodox left-arm googlies of Paul Adams after his success against England in Kimberley, he or the orthodox Clive Eksteen may not be needed at Johannesburg.

There, the Wanderers pitch really is likely to be a lively one. Either or both spin bowlers, however, are likely to be in the squad and one of them will play.

The 22-year-old debutant, Shaun Pollock, apart, the South Afri- cans did not bowl well at Centurion Park. Pollock's exemplary closeness to the stumps at his point of delivery rather exag- gerated Allan Donald's one technical shortcoming, the relatively wide angle from which he bowls. Donald's bouncer is less directly threatening to the batsman's head than Pollock's for this reason. In any case Donald's timing was not quite right and all the bowlers, Pollock included, were too obsessed with banging the ball in short.

Brett Schultz, perhaps because of the knotted muscle in his right buttock, could find no rhythm. Bob Woolmer, South Africa's coach, said yesterday that Schultz felt a twinge as early as the fourth ball he bowled.

There is criticism that Schultz was not given a proper fitness test after a similar problem the previous weekend. Like De- von Malcolm, Schultz's good days can be occasional and unpredict- able and, to be at his best, he needs a quick pitch, which this one was never going to be. Craig Matthews and Brian McMillan are both more predictable bowlers. McMillan has been, since South Africa's return, perhaps the best genuine all-rounder in Test cricket.

It was being seriously contemplated that McMillan should bat at number three in this series instead of Hansie Cronje, whose own medium-paced bowling, incidentally, is useful enough for the selection of five other seam bowlers to be an absurdity.

Whatever the financial losses, South Africa's mistaken strategy has cost them nothing. Whether there is cricket today or not, they will be wiser for the experience.

Day 5 Report

Employer rights highlighted as Donald is rested

Fifth day of five: England 381-9. Match abandoned as a draw

One of the last acts of the Test and County Cricket Board, when they meet next month to discuss the future administration of the game in England and Wales, may be to give Ray Illingworth and his successors the power enjoyed by South Africa's selectors.

Peter Pollock, the home chairman, confirmed yesterday that his main strike bowler, Allan Donald, will, at his request, not be playing for Free State against England this weekend. Instead he is going to Johannesburg early for three days of one-to-one work with the national coach, Bob Woolmer, before next week's second Test.

England's chairman and manager reiterated, after the first Test in Pretoria had finally been abandoned yesterday, his firm opin- ion that occasionally he, too, should have the right to rest players in the interests of the national team.

The counties will need to be convinced that the privilege will not be abused, and may possibly require compensation if a player is rested for a county game, but if they have any appreciation of the demands on the regular international cricketer, especially the fast bowler, they will surely see where the priority should lie.

At the heart of the issue is who employs whom. If the South Afri- can selectors want any player to be rested, their wishes can im- mediately be granted by the Board because members of the national squad currently 15 strong - are employed by themselves and not by their provincial cricket authority.

The TCCB will have to debate whether the South African system would work in England. They will conclude, no doubt, that to em- ploy a national squad centrally would be an unnecessary expense (it proved so in the case of winter contracts) and that so long as there is compensation, and a genuine commitment to putting the needs of their national team first, it would be better for coun- ties to continue as the employer.

Counties are already given a basic #2,075 when one of their players is picked for England, an amount which rises in accor- dance with the player's own Test fee, currently a basic #2,700, according to the number of caps he has won. Illingworth was unhappy last season when Darren Gough, officially unfit for England, still played in two NatWest matches for Yorkshire, but there was apparently nothing he could do about it.

Ali Bacher, the chief executive of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, spelt out their policy thus: ``The UCB will encourage nationally contracted players to play for their provinces when not representing South Africa but will in principle support the selectors if they ask for a player to be rested.''

In fact, I suspect that it was never the intention that Donald should play at Bloemfontein. Test bowlers all over the world, in- cluding England, tend not to play against the touring team.

This time, however, they might be wrong: Donald's lack of rhythm at Centurion Park had nothing to do with tiredness; more, perhaps, with a lack of match practice.