England Hammer South Africa At The Oval


By Paul Bakel
June 28 2003

Two more one-day hundreds sealed a six-wicket NatWest Series success for England over South Africa at The Oval as they made light of the loss of injured captain Michael Vaughan.

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England Hammer South Africa At The Oval

Two more one-day hundreds sealed a six-wicket NatWest Series success for England over South Africa at The Oval as they made light of the loss of injured captain Michael Vaughan.

Vikram Solanki notched a maiden one-day international hundred, at a-run-a-ball.

He shared a new England record 200 for the first wicket with fellow centurion Marcus Trescothick, leading the side in the absence of back injury victim Vaughan.

Solanki enjoyed a slice of luck on 21 when he edged a Shaun Pollock no-ball behind and struck 10 fours in reaching his half-century.

Seven further boundaries followed, the sixth of which took him to three figures and equalled the 193-run stand made between Bill Athey and Graham Gooch against New Zealand at Old Trafford in 1986.

He fell moments later, however, when he edged an attempted drive at Makhaya Ntini to slip, a dismissal which began a mini-slump.

The out-of-form Robert Key nicked a wide one from Ntini first ball and Anthony McGrath, promoted to number four, then gave wicketkeeper Mark Boucher a second catch, this time off Kallis.

Trescothick got to 50 from two balls fewer than Solanki and held his team together to register a sixth one-day international hundred and second in a week following his match-winning knock to beat Pakistan at Lord's.

The left-hander had preceded that 108 not out with a 55-ball 86 on this ground against the Pakistanis two days previously.

Once again he remained unbeaten, this time on 114 as England won with more than four overs to spare.

Kallis' ninth one-day international century had helped South Africa to 264 for six after James Anderson struck twice early on.

Kallis shared a stand of 111 for the fourth wicket with Boucher, who made 55 before becoming the first of Flintoff's three end-of-innings victims.

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