Cricket: Vaughan leads the resistance

England A 267 & 115 for 1 President's XI 493

MICHAEL VAUGHAN played a captain's innings for England A, leading a rearguard action against the President's XI at Kwekwe yesterday, but there is still much to do if the tourists are to avoid defeat.

The President's XI captain, Andy Flower, had pushed his score to an unbeaten 194, giving his team a total of 493 and leaving England to score 226 to avoid an innings defeat.

The Zimbabweans came out in positive mood but Vaughan, abetted by Kent's Robert Key and Mal Loye, defied the bowlers before Key was given out lbw for 25 to Dan Peacock.

Vaughan, who scored 69 and Loye, unbeaten on 15, demonstrated the importance of staying in, although the Northamptonshire man did seize on an opportunity to drive Peacock back over his head for six. At the close of play, with a minimum of 97 overs due to be bowled on the final day, the deficit had been reduced to 111.

That equation, however, could prove to be of no more than academic interest, as storm clouds gathered overhead while the players left the field.

"We were delighted only to lose the one wicket and tomorrow we have to start again and look to bat the whole day," Vaughan said afterwards. "It's a good pitch and a flat wicket just taking a bit of spin, and if we concentrate, I'm very confident we can do it.

"I don't want to be an England A captain who loses a match - there aren't many of those around, so I'm going to fight and so are the rest of the lads."

Third day; England A won toss

ENGLAND A - First Innings 267 (M G N Windows 69, A Flintoff 61).

PRESIDENT'S XI - First Innings (Overnight: 382-5)

A Flower not out 194

D J Peacock c & b Cosker 3

C T Gurr c Flintoff b Cosker 5

A J MacKay c Read b Swann 44

M Mbangwa lbw b Lewry 4

B W S Pswarayi b Lewry 0

Extras (lb17 w3 nb9) 29

Total (148 overs) 493

Fall: 1-6 2-86 3-211 4-351 5-368 6-384 7-404 8-463 9-491.

Bowling: Lewry 12 3 45 3; Harmison 24 7 71 0; Cosker 39 4 135 3; Swann 37 3 116 1; Thomas 25 4 73 2; Flintoff 7 0 17 0; Windows 2 0 7 0; Vaughan 2 0 12 0.

ENGLAND A - Second Innings

R W T Key lbw b Peacock 25

M P Vaughan not out 69

M B Loye not out 15

Extras (lb1 nb5) 6

Total (for 1, 59 overs) 115

Fall: 1-75.

To Bat: M G N Windows, A Flintoff, G P Swann, C M W Read, S D Thomas, D A Cosker, J D Lewry, S J Harmison.

Bowling: MacKay 6 2 13 0; Pswarayi 10 2 33 0; Mbangwa 12 5 13 0; G W Flower 5 0 9 0; Peacock 15 3 34 1; Viljoen 8 6 4 0; Goodwin 3 1 8 0.

Umpires: K Kanjee and M Esat.