Prince drops anchor after Smith duck

Lunch South Africa 70 for 2 (Prince 33*, Kallis 7*) v England
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Graeme Smith contemplates his seventh-ball duck © Getty Images



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Players/Officials: Jacques Kallis | Graeme Smith | Andrew Strauss
Matches: South Africa v England at Centurion
Series/Tournaments: England tour of South Africa
Teams: England | South Africa


Stuart Broad claimed the crucial wicket of Graeme Smith for a duck, and Graham Onions was rewarded for a fine stump-to-stump spell with the scalp of Hashim Amla for 19, as England's seamers reduced South Africa to 70 for 2 at lunch on the first day at Centurion, after winning the toss and choosing to bowl first on a green-tinged deck.

Ashwell Prince, making his first international appearance since the Cape Town Test in March, dropped anchor for an unbeaten 33, although he was indebted to a pair of let-offs in his morning's work - first, on 15, when the TV umpire, Amiesh Saheba, correctly overturned an lbw appeal from Onions that was zipping over the top of off, and then on 21, when Alastair Cook at square leg couldn't cling onto a looping clip off James Anderson.

Given the lurid appearance of the surface, however, and the bold intentions from Strauss, who called correctly for the eighth time in his last ten matches, England's morning's work represented an opportunity lost, especially after the vital early extraction of Smith, in whom so many of South Africa's hopes are invested. He was strangled down the leg side by Broad's third delivery of the match - and expertly snaffled by Matt Prior - to emulate the duck he made in his first innings of England's last tour of the country, at Port Elizabeth in 2004-05.

By and large, however, England's seamers failed to make full use of the conditions, with too many deliveries passing harmlessly past the off stump. The honourable exception was Onions, who targeted the top of off with relentless determination, and found just enough movement both ways off the seam to keep Amla in particular under constant scrutiny. He might have had cause to review two lbw appeals that were rightly turned down by umpire Davis, but finally got his reward when Amla pushed firmly outside off, and edged low to Paul Collingwood's right at second slip.

Onions, who was included in England's side in preference to the left-armer Ryan Sidebottom, might have made it two in two when Jacques Kallis, back in the team as a specialist batsman, edged his first ball tentatively through the cordon for four, but he settled down to reach 7 not out at the break.

Prior to the start of play, England opted not to hand a debut to the allrounder Luke Wright, and instead gave a 50th Test cap to Ian Bell, who will bat at No. 6. The biggest team news, however, concerned the fitness of South Africa's strike bowler, Dale Steyn, who was ruled out before the toss with a hamstring strain. Friedel de Wet, the debutant Titans paceman, was called into the side in his place.


England 1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Ian Bell, 7 Matt Prior, 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Anderson, 11 Graham Onions.

South Africa 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Ashwell Prince, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 JP Duminy, 7 Mark Boucher, 8 Morne Morkel, 9 Paul Harris, 10 Makhaya Ntini, 11 Friedel de Wet