England breathe sigh of relief as series remains level, but South Africa have the initiative

The first Test looked to be petering out into a stale draw before England’s would-be capitulation began with Kevin Pietersen’s stupid run-out and gathered momentum with Friedel de Wet’s new-ball spell. We have seen England collapse like this before, and defeat could have done untold damage to their re-found morale. Graham Onions saw out the final over from Makhaya Ntini and celebrated with an understated punch to the dressing room, but only twice before the final session did a result seem likely; when England fell to 242-8 in the first innings chasing 418 before Swann and Anderson rescued them with a 106 partnership, and early in the final morning when Anderson and Cook were out cheaply. Pietersen and Jonathan Trott put together an important partnership of 145 lasting throughout the middle session of the fifth day and showed promise as a busy/slow combination - and it was pleasing to see KP back in form. We have seen him lose concentration before as he approaches a century, and he was guilty of putting himself above the team once again here. As the dust settles, The Worm is left to reflect on a match which gave us scant new insight into these two sides but which suggests South Africa may have the edge with the bat and, crucially, with the ball.

Scoring at a rate of 2.72 in the first innings, South Africa’s cautious approach to Test matches always brings the draw into play and with only three more matches to go in this series, one or two match-winning spells from a bowling attack are likely to dictate the series outcome. South Africa seem more likely to produce this. As predicted, there was precious little swing in the sedate altitude of Centurion and the quick bowlers toiled with hope they might hit the flat spot and catch the grubber that saw off Strauss in the first innings and Amla in the second. De Wet, a remarkable imitation of Dale Steyn, impressed on debut particularly on the final afternoon. Onions looked the most penetrative of England’s pacemen, while Broad lacked aggression and the absence of Flintoff was painfully visible throughout. The two spinners, Paul Harris and Graeme Swann, took half of the first innings wickets and Harris in particular got some turn and showed an interesting turn of pace that England have not seen before. We should not be surprised: he is ranked 7^th in the World and has 71 Test wickets to his name; but there was a strong element of England giving their wickets to him rather than him earning them, Collingwood apart.

Those who entered this match with their positions under pressure left it more so. South Africa will be left wondering whether time has finally caught up with Ntini, who lacked penetration, and they will be frustrated by Morne Morkel’s lethargy and inconsistency. However, their batting line-up seems more assured than England’s, for whom Ian Bell and Alastair Cook are in serious jeopardy. The Sword of Damocles hangs especially heavily over the Warwickshire man's head after failing time after time, and the embarrassing manner in which he shouldered arms to a straight one from Harris in the first innings will do him no favours at all.

Meanwhile, the new referrals system made an impressive debut and has been well streamlined after it was trialled in the West Indies last year. Both teams applied some gamesmanship to the system and choosing your review seems a tactical conundrum in itself, but the system ably corrected the occasional wrong decision and proved again how well the umpires in the middle tend to call the borderline decisions.

Both teams are likely to view this Test as something of a missed opportunity - South Africa because they batted well on the first day to put themselves in the ascendancy throughout the match and came so close at the death, whilst England will rue a wasted toss and will be aware that the hosts’ attack is only going to improve for the return of Steyn and Kallis as a bowling force. South Africa have the edge after a winning draw and the return of Steyn. But there is no real change; whoever is able to take 20 wickets is likely to win any given match and with Durban expected to bounce and seam we might have a better chance of a series-defining result there. If the weather holds…