Smith Admits to Nervous 270s Before Bowlers Deliver Warning

Something happened at about 3.20pm. Suddenly the ball was darting left and right, eluding the bat and thumping into the wicketkeeper's gloves. For the previous 10 hours of the match, the pitch here had reverted to the featherbed qualities of the 1970s and1980s. But now batting was treacherous.

I think I can explain the phenomenon: South Africa were bowling.

Back in the dressing room, the England bowlers must have been looking out of the window with apprehension - and weary limbs. During the 145 overs of the South Africa innings, the ball had either thudded unerringly on to the middle of the bat or crept gently into the waiting gloves of Alec Stewart.

No doubt they assured their colleagues that this was a 'flat 'un', but someone had omitted to tell the touring team's bowlers that this was the case. Where Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith had plundered runs with abandon, Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick scratched around nervously. The slip cordon, deserted for the second half of the England innings, was now heavily populated.

At second slip stood Smith, a proud man and, indisputably, the man in charge. Not all Smiths are lame duck leaders. Even if this match is drawn - and there has been enough rain around the West Midlands to make this the likeliest outcome - the match has been a triumph for the South Africa captain.

He has behaved like a captain since arriving in this country - forthright and articulate. This has impressed onlookers. But what really impresses fellow players, ahead of all the guff, is the ability to cut it when under pressure; in other words, scoring runs - stacks of them - when it really matters.

Here Smith has hit 277 out of a total of 594 for five declared. This was the highest score by any South African in Test cricket. Two of the previous record holders were at the ground to congratulate him. Gary Kirsten (275) was in the dressing room, Graeme Pollock (274) was hovering in the committee rooms. All of England's bowlers must feel chastened, or they should do, that they have been shredded by a relative Test novice.

Smith added a further 99 runs yesterday without breaking sweat. We sensed his determination to drive on when he registered his second double century in Test cricket. On 199, a ball from Steve Harmison clipped the inside edge of his bat and sped down to fine leg. There was not a glimmer of a smile to be seen - in Smith's eyes the job had barely started.

Edges from the bat of Smith were infrequent. Throughout his innings he clipped the ball away on the leg side without blemish. This did not startle regular South African observers of Smith. That is his strength. What has astonished his countrymen has been the fluency and frequency of his cover-driving. He is not supposed to score in that arc. In one innings he has added a new dimension to his play. He has also confirmed his status as the captain, if that were needed in the South Africa dressing room.

None of the England bowlers perturbed him yesterday. James Anderson was permitted only four overs and you could understand why. He looked as lethargic as he did on Thursday and there was no great improvement in his direction.

Anderson remains a great prospect - at the age of 20, he is permitted an off day or two - but this Test match has at least curbed exaggerated expectations and should check the marketeers from constantly seeking to use his face, and hair, to promote the sport to a new audience. Anderson is a down-to-earth lad, but raw enough to be taken in by the publicity.

Meanwhile, Darren Gough could find no demons in the pitch. He was relatively accurate, using his experience to avoid a caning, but his solitary wicket came when Boeta Dippenaar pulled a long hop straight to Mark Butcher at midwicket.

Harmison was more threatening, just occasionally disturbing even Smith's composure. His one wicket - that of Jacques Rudolph - came from a catch on the third-man boundary.

Harmison takes too many wickets caught on the boundary edge for my liking, often at third man. I would prefer to see him provoking catches to the slip cordon more frequently. Indeed, an analysis of England's wicket-taking balls in this match only adds to the worries about the bowling attack.

The two taken by the pacemen were 'strangles'. Gary Kirsten, dismissed by Ashley Giles, will think the same of his dismissal; he was caught by Stewart when attempting to leg glance. The other two victims of the spinners were caught on the deep midwicket boundary. Which is not quite what the manual prescribes.

In fact, the ball turned more for Giles - albeit slowly - than I can recall in England. Yet he could not capitalise. Smith played him superbly. Often he rocked down and across the wicket to hit the ball on the leg side with the spin. Perhaps Giles should have bowled wider of off stump or tried a different angle from around the wicket. Perhaps Nasser Hussain should have used Vaughan more frequently.

When Smith finally succumbed to Giles, thumping the ball to Anderson on the leg-side boundary, the damage had been done to the left-armer's confidence. Smith kissed his helmet before returning to the pavilion and pronounced that breaking the record had been 'a very proud moment'. 'On 262, I realised how close I was and I was a little nervous in the 270s. I remembered Gary Kirsten getting out on 275 and I didn't want that to happen again,' he said. Most batsmen can cope with nerves in the 270s. And we now know that Smith is made of stern stuff.

Trescothick was able to open the innings for England despite the fracture to his right index finger. His innings might have ended in the first over. He edged Shaun Pollock to first slip, but it was a no-ball and Dippenaar dropped the catch anyway. But in their first eight overs, Trescothick and Vaughan seemed to play and miss as often as South Africa had in 80. The only respite came when Trescothick hit Makhaya Ntini through the covers for four - and when the rain started to fall during the tea interval.