Pattinson Scalp Only a Footnote

Darren Pattinson's first Test wicket might well have been as legitimate as his right to be in the team, but he at least gave England flickering cause for hope on day two of the second Test. By the end, that hope was more forlorn than uplifting.

Tall, upright, pretty sharp and (as Matthew Hoggard would have it) looking and sounding as much like an Australian as is possible without actually being born there, Pattinson shifted Hashim Amla just when the South African batsman was starting to move through the gears.

That he did it with with a ball going down leg that hit Amla's pad on the full mattered not to either Daryl Harper nor the virtual strangers Pattinson, for now, has the right to call his England teammates. They surrounded him with the sort of child-like glee schoolboys reserve for the new kid with the good-looking sister. Who cares where the guy is from if he can bowl it back of a length, with good carry in the high 80s? Not Geoff Miller and his selectors, obviously.

Pattinson had got rid of one of the key irritants of the sterile draw at Lord's last week, and South Africa were briefly in danger of tottering. They did not. They went on from 143 for four to pass England's total of 203 without further disturbance by mid-afternoon after 66.4 overs, and Ashwell Prince and AB de Villiers were looking more comfortable by the ball.

South Africa were not so well placed when they resumed yesterday morning on 76, with Graeme Smith, Neil McKenzie and Jacques Kallis accounted for, but Prince and the reprieved Amla still consolidating.

Crossfield winds gusted strongly enough to make bowling more of a chore than it might have been, but the fast men stuck at it. Andrew Flintoff reminded us all what we have been missing, keeping it tight and strangling the scoring. If his body and his batting were as reliable as his bowling, England would have good reason to smile.

For now, Flintoff was running on half-Freddy, and that was good enough to keep Prince and Amla down to two an over.

The run-rate doubled when Pattinson bowled, as he mixed line and length too often, and Stuart Broad similarly had to strive for accuracy but he was making it nip about, as did James Anderson.

Twice Prince edged Anderson through the slips but, when the compact left-hander did rediscover the lovely rhythm that lit up his century in the first Test, he looked a serious threat.

Prince, who has all the shots, does not these days indulge himself in their indiscriminate use and his patience paid off with another century. At 31, he is a more mature batsman than when he came into Test cricket six years ago, strong on his legs but equally powerful off the back foot through the covers. His flaw is an angled bat, but Monty Panesar could not find a way through the gap - certainly not when Prince heaved him over long-on for sixes in consecutive overs as he cruised past his fifty.

De Villiers, given a frosty welcome when he came to the crease for his transparently poor appeal for a slips catch on Friday, also ground it out diligently. There was nothing to excite the Saturday fancy-dress party that used to be the Western Terrace, so, as is the tradition during uneventful passages of play, they made their own fun. Unfortunately, this resulted in the odd balloon and bits of paper sailing across the pitch, much to the annoyance of the umpires and batsmen.

Early in his afternoon spell, Panesar did not use the breeze as well as he could have done and Kevin Pietersen was introduced with the score on 237 for four to add slow variety with his off-breaks. He should bowl more often as his better deliveries are more than handy.

But this is a minor distraction; Panesar's place is secure - at least until Graeme Swann is given a chance in the longer form. The selectors' central dilemma with the bowling is at the start of the innings.

If there is any logic to the selection of Pattinson in the first place - that is, if he really is the best England-qualified alternative to the injured Ryan Sidebottom, regardless of the conditions, and Matthew Hoggard is no longer considered good enough for Test cricket - he should stay in the frame.

If, on the other hand, a 29-year-old roof-tiler, born in Grimsby and raised in Victoria, gets one Test match in his career, it will be something for him to treasure and the rest of us to wonder at. Pattinson did not look out of place, but you got the impression that Michael Vaughan viewed his presence as not so much an oddity as an irrelevance.

Pattinson's late inclusion, along with the return of Flintoff and the retention of Tim Ambrose, resulted in a reshuffle that so unbalanced England's batting below No 5 that they could only muster a first-innings score that could yet see them struggling to save the match. When Prince got his second century of the series shortly before tea, the ninth of his Test career, that fear must have grown in English hearts. And Pattinson's.