Vaughan Ton Helps England Cause

Despite a magnificent 156 from Michael Vaughan, no other England batsman reached 50 in their close of play score of 374 for seven.

That leaves them 21 short of avoiding the follow-on with just 105 overs and three wickets remaining.

England had looked on course to easily surpass 395 at one point with Vaughan back in his typical, flowing groove after a disappointing start to the summer.

However, his dismissal followed by Alec Stewart's shortly after and Andrew Flintoff's departure to the penultimate ball of the day gave the South Africans renewed hope.

Vaughan was unusually conservative during the opening exchanges with both Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini exploiting helpful conditions, restricting the Yorkshire batsman to just two scoring shots during the first hour during which time he faced 45 consecutive deliveries without adding to his total.

Marcus Trescothick had looked comfortable enough despite batting with a fractured right index finger until his off-stump was removed by an outswinging Ntini yorker while both Mark Butcher and captain Nasser Hussain fell to leg before decisions in successive overs after the interval.

Those wickets appeared to free up Vaughan who, along with Yorkshire teammate Anthony McGrath put on 89 for the fourth wicket.

The opener struck a six and 24 other boundaries during an innings lasting nearly seven hours and 286 balls before he edged a front foot drive off Dewald Pretorius to Mark Boucher.

McGrath (34) provided solid support to Vaughan but became the first of four victims for Pretorius when he surprised him with a short delivery which looped off the shoulder of the bat to backward point.

Stewart had looked equally solid until inside edging a short Ntini delivery into the side of his knee. This forced him to wince with pain and prompted two trips out to the middle for physiotherapist Kirk Russell to make running repairs with the pain clearly upsetting his rhythm.

After calling McGrath back out as a runner four overs later, Stewart faced a further 38 balls but only added 11 runs when a Pretorius yorker smashed into his stumps.

Neither Andrew Flintoff nor Ashley Giles seemed comfortable facing the second new ball, particularly against Pretorius, until Flintoff got into his stride and seemed intent on ensuring England past the follow on target that evening.

Flintoff hit a six and seven other boundaries in his 40 off 57 balls, but his aggressive innings was abruptly halted off the penultimate ball of the day when he was adjudged leg before to one that kept low from Pretorious to leave Giles and England's three remaining tail-enders with a tough task on the final day.

Discuss it on the message board!