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England duo close in on half-centuries
11:45, Dec 10 2009
Ian Bell and Matt Prior shared an unbroken stand of 83 after two England wickets had fallen in the first hour of a squelchy second and final morning at Buffalo Park.
Ground staff performed wonders to get play under way on time after heavy rain yesterday and the teams had to compromise plenty too to take the field with swathes of sawdust needed to soak up mud around the square.
England resumed on 142 for three in this first of two matches against a South African Airways XI at the same venue as preparation for next week's opening Test against South Africa at Centurion. With overnight pair Paul Collingwood and Alastair Cook gone early, Bell and Prior took their chances for time at the crease before the start of the four-Test series - taking the tourists to a lunchtime 259 for five.
Collingwood is one player who perhaps needs middle practice less than some, having been man of the series in England's one-day triumph over their hosts.
He did not get much either this morning, going in the first full over of the day when he chipped a straightforward catch to short midwicket off Siya Ntshona.
His dismissal was entirely typical of a slow pitch which has spent so much of the past week under cover - and so too was Cook's half-an-hour later.
The opener almost had a hundred in his sights but fell for a 144-ball 81 - containing 12 fours - when he failed to stay on top of a push drive and was well caught at mid-on by tumbling home captain Wendell Bossinger to give Charl Pietersen his third wicket of the innings.
Sixth-wicket pair Bell (48no) and Prior (44no) quickly achieved a fluency which had proved beyond some, taking advantage of the back-up bowling of Piet van Niekerk and then the part-time medium-pace of Bossinger himself.
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