Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook completed the first leg of England's survival bid in the third Test at Newlands, successfully negotiating a typically hostile new-ball onslaught from Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn to carry England to 38 for 0 at tea on the fourth day, after South Africa had declared early in the afternoon session on 447 for 7, a lead of 465. With four sessions of the match remaining, and the ball now 16 overs old and losing its shine and hardness, the manner in which Cook and Strauss endured will have given their team-mates heart as they brace themselves for a long and torturous finale to the contest.
Their opening gambit was not without alarms, as Strauss, on 1, edged Steyn inches short of Graeme Smith at first slip before being pinned on the shoulder by a rapid bouncer that nearly knocked him into his stumps, but he eased the pressure both on himself and his team by driving Steyn handsomely through the covers for three fours in a row, to reach 15 not out at the break.
Cook, meanwhile, resumed his watchful approach, leaving both new-ball bowlers diligently outside off stump, before raising his tempo in the final overs of the session, as he welcomed the spinner Paul Harris with a clip through midwicket, before rocking back to pull Friedel de Wet in front of square.
Earlier in the session, South Africa's marathon second innings was finally brought to a close after a tempo-raising cameo from the under-pressure JP Duminy had been ended by a catch down the leg-side off James Anderson. Duminy, who came into the innings on the back of consecutive first-ball ducks, added 31 runs in 7.2 overs to his lunchtime score of 5 not out, including a glut of cover-drives and a big six over midwicket.
AB de Villiers had also looked to press on in the session, but was expertly caught by Stuart Broad, running back from mid-off in the second over after lunch to give Anderson his second wicket of the innings, while Mark Boucher came and went in a hurry, smacking the first ball of Graeme Swann's spell over midwicket for six, before top-edging another sweep in the same over - the 14th instance of Swann striking a blow in his first over of a spell.
The mainstay of South Africa's innings, however, was their captain, Graeme Smith, whose epic innings came to an end on 183 when he top-edged a pull off Graham Onions to deep backward square leg after six-and-a-half hours of determined agenda-setting. He had resumed on 162 not out, and quickly found his range by crunching Anderson through point for the first boundary of the day, before edging him safely through third man in the same over.
Onions, however, settled into a constraining line and length with some appreciable movement off the seam of the new ball that England had claimed as soon as play began. He soon earned his reward when Smith climbed into a pull for Paul Collingwood to complete a comfortable catch on the backward-square boundary. Later replays, however, suggested that the delivery ought to have been called a no-ball.
Without their captain to drive the agenda, South Africa's momentum began to meander, with Kallis typically content to play to his own unflustered tempo. With his second half-century of the match looming, however, he unfurled an expansive drive at Anderson, and snicked a thin edge to Matt Prior to depart for 46.
