England came back strongly against the South African bowling in the latter half of the second day and hauled themselves into contention in a match that appeared to be drifting away.
South Africa had managed 343, comfortably exceeding the past decade's first innings average of 300 and worth considerably more given the boggy slowness of the outfield. It was overcast all day too, respite from Saturday's Turkish bath, and sufficiently so to get the seam bowlers twitching. The ball usually swings in such conditions, and pitches tend to green up, the ball bruising the grass and nipping around off the seam. The South African pacemen, bodies loosened by a spot of bat swinging during some last-wicket shenanigans, preened, ready to dominate proceedings for the remainder of the afternoon.
Instead, they found Andrew Strauss batting as if the spirit of Chris Gayle had entered his body, carrying the attack to the South Africans in such emphatic manner that it must have dented their confidence in their capacity to scythe through what they might perceive as England's fragile batting order.
Strauss and Andy Flower have managed to instil a new ethos in the team, one of playing without fear, and it is uncanny the effect such an attitude can have. Strauss pulled strongly with that satisfying clump that denotes a shot well struck from the very centre of the blade, drove ferociously and once, in an over that dismantled the flagging Makhaya Ntini, cut witheringly, so that he reached a galumphing half century from just 49 balls.
If it was not to last, then it had lit the way. Only when the giant Morne Morkel went round the wicket and tucked him up from just back of a length, did he appear vulnerable. One strong lbw shout was immediately reviewed at Strauss's instigation, and overturned on the grounds that the third umpire, suspecting the thinnest of inside edges, had detected a noise from the stump mic to which he is privy, but it was a close run thing.
The review took 10 seconds fewer than it would take Hicham el Guerrouj to run the 1500m in his world record mark of 3min 26sec. Shortly afterwards, a similar delivery missed his pads and uprooted his leg and middle stumps.
But Strauss had made 54, sharing an opening stand of 71 with Alastair Cook, who in his 50th Test (at just 25, the youngest England player to reach that mark) had batted with the solidity and sound judgment that has been missing for a while.
Cook was not to be tempted outside off-stump, played straight in defence, twice pulled Dale Steyn emphatically and had not been afraid to clump Paul Harris over midwicket as a prelude to the tea interval. When bad light intervened, as it threatens to do on each day of this match, he had made 31 of England's 103 for one, with Jonathan Trott, operating as he does on a different timescale to everyone else, settling in nicely on 17.
As ever though, especially with an early start once more, the first hour or so tomorrow will provide a strong clue to the direction this game will take: lose wickets and South Africa can take charge; see the morning out and it is England who will be looking for a decent first-innings lead.
Having taken three vital wickets in the nick of time on Saturday, England were hoping for further inroads first thing, but instead encountered a fierce counterattack from AB de Villiers, architect of the run out of his captain and thus with some ground to make up, and that terrier of a cricketer, Mark Boucher.
With Boucher taking the lead role, the pair added 63 for the sixth wicket, taking England to within two overs of the second new ball without a breakthrough before Graeme Swann came to the rescue, right on cue, and, from round the wicket, winning a verdict only after his request for review.
It gave England a new ball and one end open to exploit. Yet it was De Villiers who, having completed his half century, was caught at the wicket off Stuart Broad. Swann then disposed of both Morkel and Harris to further lbw decisions, each disputed but upheld, before Steyn, one of the better No10s around, and Ntini, not quite so noteable, added 58 together.
Steyn's fierce hitting of Swann put a question mark against Strauss's decision to persist with his spinner, who was searching for a fifth wicket, and dented the figures that nonetheless put into the shade the idea of seamers dominating the match. It took James Anderson to finish things off.
The umpire decision review system was given a full airing. Seven times play was halted significantly while first the players convened a meeting (nine of them in a huddle for one such) and then the third umpire made his deliberations. More than 20 minutes of a truncated day were lost.
Of those reviews, only two were upheld, which if nothing else gives some indication of the excellence of the umpiring in this series, Aleem Dar and Steve Davis at Centurion together with Dar and AM Saheba in this game.
There have been none of the so called "howlers", for the eradication of which the process has been designed. Occasionally, the duplicity of the players has been shown up, which is to the good.
Why for example, would Matt Prior and the slips appeal vehemently for a catch at the wicket, and then when quizzed by Strauss, following a not-out verdict, decide that it should not be reviewed? By and large the system is working well for a work in progress but it is still cumbersome, sluggish and, an essential element, deprives the game of the drama of a slow Steve Bucknor death.
