Cricket: England A let things slip

England A 350 UCB President's XI 107-3

THE ENGLAND A batsmen failed to press home their advantage in the face of a spirited President's XI second-day fightback at Newlands yesterday. The tourists, resuming on 259 for 3 with Darren Maddy on 122 and Andrew Flintoff on 70, were bowled out for 350.

The President's XI had reached 107 for 3 by the close. Yesterday Flintoff was caught behind without adding to his score off the last ball of the first over of the day from Greg Smith.

David Townsend then removed Vikram Solanki and Graeme Swann's rapid innings was ended when he edged Townsend to first slip and departed for 21.

On 135, Maddy cut a short ball from Townsend to point. Another wicket to fall before lunch was that of Darren Thomas, run out when beaten by a direct throw to the bowler's end.

Chris Read and Dean Cosker then put on 41 for the ninth wicket to halt England's slide before Read was bowled. Steve Harmison fell first ball to Abrahams and England had lost their last seven wickets for 91 runs.

England's total was not what they had hoped for but Harmison struck early to have Mark Bruyns caught at second slip by Flintoff in the fifth over.

Flintoff himself claimed the valuable wicket of Boeta Dippenaar when the batsman went for a pull but edged down the leg side to the wicketkeeper.

Flintoff and Harmison saw chances go tantalisingly close to the slips without going to hand, but spirits were raised when Martin van Jaarsveld was given out leg before.

The England coach, John Emburey, said: "For the first time on this tour we failed to achieve one of the goals we set, and that was to get a score in the region of 450 to 500.

"But the pitch is taking spin and Swann in particular has bowled at a good pace and has created problems already and I'm sure we'll get early wickets."

Second day of five; England A won toss

ENGLAND A - First Innings

(Overnight: 259-3)

D L Maddy c Dippenaar b Townsend 135

A Flintoff c Masikazana b Smith 70

V S Solanki c Brooker b Townsend 0

G P Swann c Kemp b Townsend 21

C M W Read not out 33

S D Thomas run out 4

D A Cosker b Abrahams 18

S J Harmison b Abrahams 0

Extras (lb14 nb1) 15

Total (all out, 127.5 overs) 350

Fall: 1-5, 2-45, 3-117, 4-259, 5-260, 6-284, 7-293, 8-309, 9-350.

Bowling: Smith 29-10-53-2; Townsend 32-6-103-3; Kemp 26-6-66-1; Abrahams 20.5-4-55-2; Crookes 20-5-59-0.

PRESIDENT'S XI - First Innings

M L Bruyns c Flintoff b Harmison 4

C C Bradfield not out 53

H H Dippenaar c Read b Flintoff 18

M Van Jaarsveld lbw b Thomas 8

F C Brooker not out 13

Extras (lb7 w1 nb3) 11

Total (for 3, 52 overs) 107

Fall: 1-10, 2-50, 3-74.

To bat: D N Crookes, J M Kemp, S Abrahams, L Masikazana, D H Townsend, G J Smith.

Bowling (to date): Harmison 14-4-29-1; Thomas 13-3-34-1; Flintoff 12- 6-19-1; Swann 10-3-16-0; Cosker 3-1-2-0.

Umpires: D F Becker and R Brooks.