England v South Africa, 1st Test, Lord's, 4th day

Smith and McKenzie defy England

	Graeme Smith produces a rare expansive shot as he set about saving the Test for South Africa

The Lord's pitch was living up to its reputation of not breaking up, as South Africa's match-saving mission was given a boost by an unbroken opening stand between Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie. England plugged away, sustaining the pressure with accurate spells of pace and spin, but the visitors have learnt their lesson from a poor first innings.

The morning session brought 54 runs in 28 overs and 61 runs were squeezed out between lunch and tea. Smith finally had some relief from a tough match, raising his half-century from 106 balls, brisk by comparison to McKenzie's which took 190 deliveries. The scoring rate certainly wasn't eye-catching, but they have provided the platform the team needed after crumbling to 247 on the third day.

England have recent memories of finding it much tougher dismissing a side second time around at Lord's. In 2006 they enforced the follow-on against Sri Lanka, who then batted for 199 overs to save the Test. So Michael Vaughan, even though he wasn't in charge for that match, will have been very aware of the task ahead when he sent South Africa back in.

There were the occasional alarms for Smith and McKenzie, especially against Monty Panesar who probed away in what will be a busy innings for him. McKenzie survived a confident lbw shout on 13, when the ball was heading for middle and leg although Daryl Harper thought otherwise. Smith had two let-offs, once when no one appealed for a faint under-edge off James Anderson, then when an inside edge scooted through low to Tim Ambrose against Panesar.

England worked hard on the ball to try and extract some reverse swing. There was a hint of it for Ryan Sidebottom, when he returned for a second spell, as he speared a series of deliveries full at Smith and Anderson's afternoon burst was testing. However, as expected, the main dangers came from Panesar who settled into a threatening spell from the Nursery End. McKenzie was rendered virtually scoreless and for one period before lunch he added two runs in 60 balls, until the shackles were broken momentarily with a lofted on-drive off Panesar. The scoring rate, though, was of no concern to South Africa whose focus is purely on batting time.

Vaughan was at his quirkiest in the field, never afraid to set unusual fields when there was very little happening with the ball. At one stage for McKenzie facing Sidebottom there was a silly point and three very close men at cover, who could have linked hands. Then with Paul Collingwood in action there were five men catching in front of the bat. But nothing broke the concentrating and opportunities were few and far between. Anderson found the outside of edge of McKenzie's bat, but with the pitch dying the edge fell well short of Ambrose, and Broad encouraged Smith to lob a slower-ball excruciatingly into the gap at cover.

The crowd tried to lift the atmosphere, with the encouragement of the England fielders, and the breakthrough nearly came when McKenzie edged Sidebottom through a gap in the slip cordon. The look on the fielders' face told showed the frustration was growing. England still have plenty of runs to play with, but South Africa are a third of the way towards their ultimate aim of leaving Lord's intact.

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