SOUTH AFRICA HAMMER ENGLAND AT HEADINGLY
Michael Vaughan's men were given a cricketing lesson in four painful days in Leeds.
After been put into bat by Graham Smith, England found themselves three wickets down by lunch on the first day, losing Cook for a disappointing 18, Captain Vaughan for a duck and Strauss for 27. After lunch Pietersen and Bell found themselves in a similar situation to what they had found themselves in at Lords. However there was to be no repeat performance of their heroics this time, with Pietersen getting to 45 before been caught by Smith at slip. After Ambrose was dismissed, Bell quickly followed and England found themselves at 150-6. Four more wickets fell before tea with England reaching just 203 in their first innings.
More wickets were to follow before the end of day one however as Anderson and the returning Flintoff set about getting England back into the match. After taking three wickets by 6.15 England were somewhat back in the contest and could have had a fourth. Vaughan seemed to take a catch from Amla who walked, however he was sent back to the crease by Captain Smith and the Springboks survived.
From then on in, it was all about the South African batsman. On day two, despite the early dismissal of Amla by debutant Pattinson, Prince and Di Villiers battered the England attack and added a further 200 plus runs to the previous nights total to leave the tourists at 322-4 at the end of day two.
Day three was slightly better as the England attack were finally rewarded for its persistence, with Prince the first to go on 149. Another good partnership was just around the corner though as Boucher and Di Villiers pushed the total to 422 before Boucher went for 34 after been clean bowled by Anderson. Another wicket quickly followed with Monty getting in on the act, however another hundred runs were added before the final wicket fell at 522.
And England's misery wasn't over for the day as two wickets fell for just 50 runs by the end of day three with Strauss and Vaughan again disappointing.
Night watchman Anderson and Cook got England off to a decent start on day four, putting on a 60 partnership before Anderson, who had earlier been drilled in the jaw by Steyn, was done LBW. KP was in next and quickly rattled his way to 13 before been caught behind. Bell and Cook, who hit a decent 60, followed soon after as England toiled further. Flintoff and Ambrose further delayed the invertible for a few more hours with a decent 70 partnership before Ambrose was caught behind. Flintoff was next to go and with him went any hopes of England getting out of the mess their performance on day one had put them in. Despite a magnificent 67 from Broad, South Africa would need just 9 runs to complete a run of the mill 10 wicket victory.
Next up is Edgbaston and Vaughan and the England selectors have a lot of big decisions to make.
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