Date-stamped : 22 Dec95 - 10:31 Tour Match. Combined Universities v England. Pietermaritzburg. 20,21,22 December 1995. ====> Day 1, 20 Dec 95 England lose their way after Ilott makes early inroads By Christopher Martin-Jenkins in Pietermaritzburg First day: Combined South African Universities 253-6 IT IS extraordinary how cricket has a way of punishing a team who do not apply 100 per cent application and concentration all the time. Perhaps for the first time on their tour England were guilty of complacency yesterday and they duly paid for it by letting inex- perienced opposition off the hook. Not only that, but as if to prove it is a real England tour, two players were injured and another had an upset stomach during what must have seemed a long first day in their three-day match in the Natal Midlands. After Mark Ilott, with a 10-over opening spell of four for 23, had reduced the Combined South African Universities to 23 for five, England completely lost the initiative. Threatening rain kept clear of the Jan Smuts Stadium until the evening but when bad light stopped play after 83 overs, the students had recovered to 253 for six. Having taken five wickets in the first hour, indeed, England managed only one in the next five. It was the result of several things: taking the game too light- heartedly, which may be appropriate to Christmas but is hardly so to the preparations for a Test; a pitch which became docile once the new ball had lost its hardness; innocuous bowling, despite some turn, by the spinners, Richard Illingworth and Mike Watkin- son; and, above all, a wonderfully positive maiden first-class hundred by the 22-year-old Transvaal wicketkeeper, Nic Pothas. From the start it was a mercurial sort of day for England Tall for a wicketkeeper and solidly built, Pothas judged the length early and hit freely with the full face of the bat off ei- ther foot on his way to 141 not out. He was given intelligent and capable support, during a seventh-wicket partnership of 145, by Nicky Boje, whose chance of winning a Test cap in one of the next two games can only be enhanced by his ability as a left-handed batsman. He has already shown himself to be a well- organised and cool-headed cricketer. Pothas, who opens for his province and is doing a course in sports management at the Rand Afrikaans University in Johannes- burg, will be making a career in cricket first if his keeping is anything like as impressive as his batting. He hit 18 fours and a six, battling through against Ilott and Peter Martin in the early stages of his innings and taking to Illingworth and Watkinson with relish, a wide array of strokes and decisive movement of his feet. From the start it was a mercurial sort of day for England. Their coach broke down on the N3 motorway from Durban to Pietermar- itzburg, so they spent 40 minutes on the hard shoulder and the game began half an hour late. Jason Gallian fell flat on his face as he left the ground to bowl his first ball on tour and he later dislocated the little finger of his left hand making a brave stop off a searing drive by Pothas. The first moment was comic, the second painful, but he was soon back to the fray. Robin Smith had to leave the field early with a stomach upset. More significantly, perhaps, Martin, after an unlucky new-ball spell, felt soreness in his bowling shoulder, was off the field for a time for treatment and delivered only 11 overs. The offi- cial word was that it was "nothing too serious". This will not, now, be an easy match for England That might sum up the England approach yesterday, in the absence of Ray Illingworth, who spent the day with his wife on the coast, and his ever-willing and industrious assistant, John Barclay, whose duty it was to meet the wives and families and to usher them to their hotel. A team can seldom have left a cricket ground earlier once play had been called off, and after nine weeks apart, who could blame them? This will not, now, be an easy match for England, but they can at least rejoice that Ilott, who took 37 wickets at an average of 14 on the A tour of South Africa two years ago, is bowling with the same effectiveness now. Bounding in with his usual irrepressible gusto yesterday he worked up quite a sharp pace, got some bounce off a surface which must have had a residue of dampness - although Gerhardus Lieben- berg had chosen to bat first on it - and, above all, swung the ball a little both ways. A bowler who moves the ball just enough is often more dangerous than one who makes it go a long way past the edge. Ilott`s first victim fended to short-leg, his second drove round an inswinger, his third tried vainly to leave a lifting ball and his fourth was also caught at short-leg by Smith, off an inside edge. Martin, though less consistent in length than Ilott, nevertheless got the most significant student wicket, bringing a ball back off the seam to have Liebenberg acrobatically caught down the leg side by Jack Russell. The little fellow`s concentration, it should be said, never faltered throughout the day. He took another diving catch after lunch to end the rather charmed life which Mark Davis had led in sharing the early stages of the recovery with Pothas, but the hero of the day was well on the way now to an outstanding hundred. He was dropped at square- leg when 89 by Devon Malcolm off Watkinson, but it was not an easy chance and seasonal charity was in the air. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 2, 21 Dec 95 Stewart the architect as England lay solid base By Christopher Martin-Jenkins in Pietermaritzburg Day two: England are 186-2 in reply to Combined SA Universities 269-8 dec ALEC Stewart, having won the argument about whether he should continue to open the batting for England, proved to himself and any doubters yesterday in Pietermaritzburg that he has not lost the art of building and maintaining an innings. On a slow turner, usefully similar to the one on which the fourth Test is likely to be played next week, he batted throughout England`s carefully compiled 186 for two, making 89 not out in 4hr 10min before the latest cold front blew in over the green hills where Zulu, Boer and Briton fought some of their fiercest battles in the last century. It is the next century in which Stewart is interested. More specifically, it is the next Test century, but he would certainly not turn up his nose at one in this match and he thoroughly deserves it. The rain was light when he was a little reluctantly talked into leaving the field three overs after tea but soon it became heavy enough for all hope of further cricket for the day to be aban- doned. It has, presumably, put paid to the exercise as a serious contest, although not necessarily yet as a means of badly needed match practice. Mike Atherton and Graham Thorpe also had lengthy nets in the mid- dle against the spinners, but Jason Gallian`s inheritance of the No 3 position suggests the chalice still has a residue of poison. Coming in just before lunch he played himself in for 10 overs then cut a long-hop to cover point. If this was an innings, and a dismissal, which proved nothing, it may conceivably embolden the tour selectors to go for five bats- men, a wicketkeeper and five bowlers at Port Elizabeth. Gallian will certainly be the keenest man in the team to see the sun rather than looming clouds when this morning dawns. Without a convincing innings from him it could well be that the main debate over England`s Christmas lunch will be which of Jack Russell, Robin Smith and Graeme Hick should go in at No 3. The Universities declared after a quick morning hit yesterday, when Nic Pothas`s splendid innings ended with a pull to midwicket to give Mike Watkinson his only wicket of the innings. That he shared the bowling with Mark Ilott, who took his tally to six before the declaration, may have been the tiniest indication that if England do decide on a five-man attack for the fourth Test, Watkinson will be the extra man. Watkinson could also do with a day`s cricket and another chance to press his case today. If the truth be told, he suffered by comparison with the Pretoria University off-spinner Mark Davis, who bowled like an old master rather than a tyro. If the facts that he bowled 31 overs, eight of them maidens, con- ceded only 43 runs and was hit to the boundary but once suggests that he bowled negatively it would be quite untrue. Not only did he bowl much more accurately than Watkinson, he also spun the ball more and despite having six men on the leg-side to the right handers, he could not safely be hit through the off- side. If he is prepared to bowl at off-stump not middle in fu- ture, he could, like Pothas, become a well-known cricketer. On the day, indeed, Davis outbowled not only his England counter- part, but his spinning partner Nicky Boje as well. The left- arm spinner did, however, earn the captain`s feather in his cap after Atherton had reached 50 out of England`s opening stand of 86. He was reprieved low in the gully off the unexceptional medium pace of James Albane when he had made six, but thereafter batted at his best for an hour and 40 minutes. He had just pulled Boje through midwicket for his eighth fifty when he swept and top- edged to slip. It was a replica of his dismissal in the Roses match against Richard Stemp last August. Stewart played a couple of loose shots early in his innings but under the watchful eye of the manager, back on duty, and of John Edrich, now returned to the tour but only as a holiday leader, he got on to the front foot consistently on this slow pitch. Once he had become set his shot selection was faultless. A beau- tifully straight six off Boje was the most memorable stroke but there were 12 fours, too, and a long stay at the crease will have done much for his peace of mind. Thorpe is at least as liable as Stewart to throw his wicket away and playing two nudge-cuts against Davis and another off-spinner, Wandrag, he might twice have been caught at slip, once when 11, once when 17. The lesson was salutary and he made no more mistakes, learning to wait for the ball to come on a surface getting slower by the minute. At last England can say that they have played a match on a pitch appropriate to the Test which is to follow, for which small mercy they should be profoundly thankful. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 3, 22 Dec 95 No play and the match is abandoned as a draw. Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu)