Michael Vaughan hit 156 on Sunday as England battled to save the first Test against South Africa. The home side, replying to South Africa’s 594 for five declared, closed the fourth day on 374 for seven, needing another 21 to avoid the follow on. All-rounder Andrew Flintoff was dismissed for 40 with the last ball of the day after putting on 63 with Ashley Giles for the seventh wicket. Vaughan batted for 10 minutes short of seven hours, facing 286 balls and hitting 24 fours and one six. He has hit nine Test hundreds, eight in his last 15 matches. Quick bowler Dewald Pretorius took four for 107, including those of Vaughan and Flintoff. SCOREBOARD South Africa (1st Innings): 594-5 dec England (1st innings): M Trescothick b Ntini 31, M Vaughan c Boucher b Pretorius 156, M Butcher lbw b Ntini 13, N Hussain lbw b Pollock 1, A McGrath c Rudolph b Pretorius 34, A Stewart b Pretorius 38, A Flintoff lbw b Pretorius 40, A Giles not out 9 Extras: (b-19, lb-6, w-11, nb-16) 52 Total: 374/7 in 112.5 overs. Fall of wickets: 1-66, 2-132, 3-133, 4-222, 5-306, 6-311, 7-374. Bowling: Pollock 24-10-44-1, Ntini 23-6-95-2, Willoughby 20-7-46-0, Pretorius 23.5-1-107-4, Peterson 22-9-57-0. The England one-day captain with ambitions to succeed Nasser Hussain in the Test arena is not an easy man to fluster. On Saturday evening at the start of his innings he was dropped at slip off a no ball. On Sunday he soon edged again off Makhaya Ntini but the ball dropped short of second slip. The pitch had resembled a docile featherbed during South Africa’s rain-blighted innings, particularly when Graeme Smith was carting the ball to all parts during his 277. But Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick, batting with a fractured right index finger, endured a torrid opening session. The South African quicks extracted far more life from the track than England had managed and Vaughan became so studious in Defence at one stage that he failed to score for 40 deliveries spanning more than an hour. Trescothick made 31 out of an opening stand of 66 before getting in a tangle and being castled by the whippy Ntini. Vaughan picked up the rate just before lunch, hitting left-arm spinner Robin Peterson’s first over for 14, including three boundaries. Immediately after the break, he pulled Ntini for four off his first ball and then repeated the shot for six just forward of square as 13 came off the over. But when Mark Butcher (13) and Hussain (1) both fell lbw, Hussain fatally offering no stroke to Pollock’s slide-rule bowling, England looked vulnerable on 133 for three.
