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Live Test Match Blog: Eng v SA, Second Test, Day 4

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It's backs to the wall time for England at Headingley, with the home side trading at [100.0] for victory before the off. Cricket betting maestro Ed Hawkins is on hand to keep us updated throughout the fourth day's play

18.30 SA win by 10 wickets
A fully deserved victory for South Africa, who won virtually every session in the Test. England will name their squad for the third Test at Edgbaston - which starts on Wednesday week - on Saturday and it would be a surprise if the names Pattinson and Ambrose are included. England have to go back to four bowlers with Andrew Flintoff as one of them. If they do that, they have a chance of squaring the series in Birmingham. It is their most successful ground. I'll be blogging for that, too so join me again.

18.13 England 327
SA need nine to win. Bit of fight from Broad at the end there but in the context of the game it means sweet fa.

18.10 England 326-9
England lead by seven. South Africa need to remove Paul Harris from the attack. He looks ludicrously ineffective at this level. Broad, it must be said, is batting beautifully. My dad has just told me I played cricket with Broad when he was about 4 and I was 11 at Moreton-in-Marsh. I think Gloucestershire must have been playing Notts and he was there to watch his dad play. Of course, I carted his bowling all over the place but he was a tough batsman to remove from the crease.

18.00 England 309-9
A fifty for Broad, who continues to frustrate SA. It looks likely that they will bat again given England are only 10 behind now. No doubt plenty of people will start raving about Broad because of his ability with the bat but so what? Broad is in the side to take wickets and he is just not doing that. Only ten in his last four Tests. That is no good for a bowler, particularly at a time when England are struggling with the balance of the team.

17.40 England 289-9
Stuart Broad is swinging the bat. Hence England trail by 30 runs. Darren Pattinson, or The Roofer, is blocking away. Enjoy it, pal. Sure as legs are legs this is the last time you'll walk around as an England player.

17.24 England 266-9
Not long now. Monty is out. Don't know how. Too busy eating some well-earned cake. Come on SA, one more. By the way, I hope you were all on the Proteas. If you have a look back at the first day blog I did suggest we all pin ouir colours to the mast.

17.17 England 258-8
England trail by 61 runs now and it is difficult not to find this stage of the game pointless. The only people enjoying this futile exercise now is the sorts who are smashed out of their minds on Special Brew on the Western Terrace. "Wahaaaay!" they slur as Panesar hits the ball to a fielder. Come on SA, put England out of their misery.

17.00 England 242-8
Andrew Flintoff has been removed for 38. Good riddance, Fred. Of course typically he has been removed three runs too late for me because I sold his match runs at 52. He played some powerful strokes but with his all-attack, little-defence performance in that dig he has highlighted exactly why he can bat no higher than No 7. England must find a way of getting a batsman in at No 6 and if that means playing Flintoff as part of a four-man bowling atttack then so be it.

16.45 England 220-7
Tim Ambrose may have played his final Test innings for England for a while. He's had a pop at a wide one from Dale Steyn and edged to Mark Boucher. It was quite a nice innings from Ambrose. He hit five fours in his 36 but it probably will not be enough to stave off the chop. Stuart Broad is striding to the crease now. Let's face it, there is nothing to come after this partnership so for all concerned it would be for the better if SA wrapped things up quickly.

16.30 England 207-6
South Africa's price has just started to drift with Ambrose and Flintoff enjoying a 55-run partnership. Only a tiny amount though [1.02] to [1.05]. Interesting to note that Flintoff has a tremendous record scoring runs with the wicketkeeper of the side. Fred and Geraint Jones were a dangerous pair when at the crease.

16.10 England 186-6
Punting pal Gareth has been on the email to give me some heartening news on Durham's Twenty20 squad for tomorr'w clash with Glamorgan. Read on folks.
"Fair play to you for still sounding vaguely chirpy, I don't remember a more depressing 6 days (last 2 at Lords + these 4) Test cricket for a fair while. Those of us that have backed Durham for 2020 glory can carry on cheering every Ambrose leave and Freddie block regardless of any financial interest as Sky have very generously agreed to release Pollock regardless for tomorrow's quarter-final, and I hope I am not counting my chickens but as quarter finals go, home to Glamorgan must be pretty high up everyone's wish list."

16.04 England 184-6
South Africa will have a new ball in three overs time so this match could be wrapped up pretty quickly with the tourists just one wicket from the bowlers. If not, we have 41 overs left today and the possibility of South Africa claiming the extra half an hour. Flintoff looks like he will play some shots after tea. He has hit one straight up in the air just shy of Graeme Smith.

15.45 England 182-6 TEA
Ambrose is playing with some guts. He has just played a nice pull shot off Morkel for four. He has 16. Would it be out of order for me to suggest that the England selectors are hoping he doesn't score runs? England are horribly unbalanced with Ambrose at No 6 and they have two options to rectify that. One is to drop him and play Matt Prior, who is a better batsman, in that position thus keeping the five bowlers that England crave. The other is keep him and forego the five bowlers, drop Stuart Broad and bring back Paul Collingwood.

15.28 England 171-6
Andrew Flintoff has started to play a few shots. They have all been in the air, though. Slightly surprising to see that Graeme Smith has not posted a midwicket for Fred because he is forever hitting the ball in the air through there. Pehaps I should email him. Here's our Graeme with a quick reminder.

15.00 England 156-6
You may recall during the Lord's blog I was discussing my flatmate's phobia of the number 13. I had some fun at his expense last night by discovering the joys of the marker pen. First up I drew a 1 and a 3 in big figures on the iron, because he also has a fear of losing his hand in an ironing accident. Secondly, I wrote 13 on a piece of paper and put it in his wallet. Then, and this was quite painstaking, I wrote 13 in large black letters on each day in his diary for the rest of the year.

14.50 England 153-6
Andrew Flintoff and Tim Ambrose have been rendered virtually strokeless. One run scored in 20 minutes. Flintoff, of course, is paralysed by a loss of form which probably stretches back more than two years while Timid Ambrose is paralysed by fear. He is, after all, playing for his Test career.

14.30 England 152-6
The wickets keep coming for South Africa. Alastair Cook, who has battled on despite being out of form, has misjudged one from Jacques Kallis and skewed a catch to Hashim Amla for 60. South Africa are [1.01] for victory.

14.20 England 150-5
I wonder if Durham have been on the phone to Shaun Pollock? With this game likely to be over by the time they face Glamorgan in the Twenty20 quarter-final tomorrow, Pollock, presumably, would be free to play for them. Surely Sky Sports would let him go, too because it is a string to their bow to have a guy on their team who would be involved in such a game. Or am I talking through my pocket because I've backed Durham to win the thing?

14.05 England 140-5
Fantastic catch by AB 'the Bible' de Villiers in the gully to remove Ian Bell, who has slashed at a wide one off Morne Morkel. This game looks likely to finish today, especially with England's tail exposed. Tim Ambrose in now and you have to feel for the chap; a failure here and he may lose his place. He has just 26 runs in his last seven international innings.

13.45 England 131-4
I haven't managed to eat lunch yet. I've just returned from a major superkmaket store, their name will be witheld because I'm not going to publicise them. Suffice to say it is not Tesco, which is a disgraceful behemoth. There is a Tesco nearby but I placed a ban on shopping there because of the way it forces local shopkeepers out of business and produces food which could be described as 'crap'. I'm pleased to say the ban has now lasted more than a year. Every little helps. That could be Alastair Cook's motto. He has 50.

13.00 England 130-4 LUNCH
Kevin Pietersen scored 13 runs off five deliveries as he looked to attack South Africa. He hit three fours and was looking at his cocky best. It is a shame he didn't continue with his attacking and postive intent because he lost his wicket due to a bit of uncertainty. KP was in line nicely with Kallis swinger and was going to play until deciding at the last second to withdraw his bat. The result was a feather of an edge to Boucher, the wicketkeeper. Ian Bell has joined Alastair Cook at the wicket. the pair formed a solid rearguard in Perth in the last Ashes you may recall. But it wasn't enough to save England. England trail by 189.

12.54 England 123-4
Huge wicket. It'sPietersen. Caught behind off Kallis. That could be the game for SA, who are as short as [1.09]. The draw has shot up to [11].

12.45 England 109-3
The full ball has done for James Anderson, who has fallen leg before to Steyn. Not entirely surprising. Anderson was not keen to get on the front foot because of the sickening blow he took on the jaw so Steyn pitched one up and caught him on the crease. A classic dismissal really and no shame for Anderson, who batted with bravery and no little skill for 34. Draw price has drifted a whole point [4.5].

12.40 England 105-2
Steyn tried the yorker. Anderson missed it. But it missed the tumps. Brave stuff from Anderson. It was real jaw-breaker that he got. There will be some whimps who will be claiming that Anderson has been a victim of 'intimidatory' bowling because he is not a proper batsman. Rubbish. As soon as England promoted him to No 4 as nightwatchman he became a batsman and fair game. England 214 behind.

12.35 England 99-2
If you can't get 'em out, knock 'em out. James Anderson has ducked into a short one from Dale Steyn and has taken a fearful whack on the jaw. It hit the grill of the helmet but the ball will still impact onto flesh through the mesh. It looks as though Anderson might be staying on. Cue a yorker.

12.25 99-2
The draw price has now hit [3.85]. Forget what we said about backing and then laying, we may as well soon switch to just laying. The shortening is perhaps understandable because if James Anderson (he has a career-best 29) can make batting look so easy, then Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen will also score runs. But there is still an awful lot of overs to be bowled by SA and the pitch will be crumbling all the time.

12.10 England 88-2
Alastair Cook is battling hard. There has been lots of discussion about him being out of nick, a fact highlighted by his trigger movements being slightly out of time. Cook is a chap who has quite a few triggers.He has an extravagant bat lift and a forward press. When you see a batsman struggling like he is, it begs the question: why doesn't he just cut out the bat lift stuff and hold the willow where it ends up at the end of it? Cook waves his bat around as if trying to swat a wasp.

11.55 England 82-2
Crazy stuff on the markets. The draw price has plummeted - as predicted earlier - just because of a little partnership. Down to [5.00] from almost [10.00] earlier in the day. If we could get Jimmy Anderson out and then Cook and Pietersen could hang around for a bit, we could make some serious dough with a back and lay on the stalemate.

11.30 England 64-2
We like to expose a few myths on this blog. Sometimes it takes a bit of research. Not today though. We only need to look at our TV screens to explode one of the biggest, and annoying, myths: Yorkshiremen love their cricket. No they don't. A fact epitomised by the huge swathes of empty seating at Headingley today. It's not the first time, nor will it be the last. There is no excuse for an empty stadium with so much cricket still to be played. It rather makes a mockery of Ian Botham's belief that Test matches should be taken away from London because they always end in draws. They may end in stalemate but at least the 7million people in the capital clamour to get in. Email me your views at hawkeyeview@hotmail.co.uk

11.12 England 54-2
"What a coup a couple of wickets this morning would be guys!" That was the shout from Smith a couple of minutes ago. Surprising to see him use the word 'coup'. It's not the sort one would think Smith would trot out for a spot of cajoling. Or indeed any sportsman. Also interesting to note that it would not be a 'coup' of any sort if SA took two wickets. One of the batsmen in is James Anderson, the nightwatchman. So SA would expect to remove him. They would also expect to snare Cook or the new man in because both are starting afresh. In other words, good captaincy because Smith is taking the pressure off his bowlers.

10.55 England 50-2
Nasser Hussain has just told us that Graeme Smith "inserted" England. Sounds unpleasant. Not enitrely inaccurate, of course. England are 269 runs behind in the third innings but more importantly than that there are still two days to play. Unsurprisingly South Africa are as short [1.12] and the draw is [9.80]. Expect that draw price to dip if England score runs.

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