South Africa's Graeme Smith turns screw on England in third Test

Tea South Africa turned the screw on a baking afternoon when no wickets fell and another 109 runs were added. The massive figure of Graeme Smith refused to budge - he won a review against Graeme Swann having been given out by the umpire Tony Hill - while the slighter one of Hashim Amla flicked the ball square of the wicket with feline wrists. He specialised in boundaries to third man off the quick bowlers. If you want one moment to reflect England's travails it was when the ball passed through the legs of Matt Prior, standing up to Swann, before trickling into the helmet: five penalty runs. The seamers were innocuous with Graham Onions proving especially expensive, Swann offered more of a threat and Kevin Pietersen was a tad inconsistent. Yes, KP was required to bowl, which highlighted how Strauss was fast running out of options. The nearest England came to a wicket was when Smith, determined to remain aggressive against Swann, swept the off-spinner. There were several appeals. Once Hill raised his finger but the subsequent review had the ball going over the top of the stumps. Smith was contriving to get his mighty front leg a long way down the pitch. There were murmurs in the SABC TV box suggesting that England had not-so accidentally trodden on the ball once or twice in order to damage it and thus to encourage some reverse swing. Even if this were true, the scoreboard suggested that the ball was seldom misbehaving. So did the increasingly resigned demeanour of the pace trio. This felt like England's most barren passage of play in the series so far. Lunch South Africa are inching ahead in this captivating contest. By lunch their lead is 74 and they have nine wickets in hand. Graeme Smith is still there and threatening to play the decisive innings. And it's scorching hot out there. There was more intense activity in the first over of the day. England were hoping for a small first-innings lead, a notion which was swept away when Morne Morkel dismissed Graeme Swann with his fourth ball and James Anderson with his fifth. Graham Onions watched the hat-trick ball pass by, trying to look calm. Morkel, immediately on target, was finding pace and bounce bowling from the Kelvin Grove End, the one where all the wickets fall to the quicker bowlers. Neither Swann nor Anderson had answers to fine deliveries, which both ended up in the slip cordon. So England were grateful to Matt Prior, who swung the bat skilfully and unselfishly, as well as an obdurate Onions. This pair added 32 together, mostly from the middle of Prior's bat, whereupon a bottom edge cannoned on to his stumps. The South Africans began carefully. Daryl Harper provided the best vindication for the review system yet - he was always the likeliest candidate to do that. He gave Ashwell Prince out caught down the leg-side - it appeared that he was persuaded to raise his finger because he thought that Prince was heading to the pavilion. In fact the TV review suggested that Prince's bat was about six inches from the ball. Inevitably the introduction of Swann quickened the pace. Smith swept several times without conviction in his first over and edged a ball just past Paul Collingwood at slip. Then in Swann's second over Prince was given out lbw, pushing forward. South Africa's reluctant opener went for a review that was as misguided as Harper's earlier decision. The ball was hitting the middle of middle. It's still compelling stuff. Smith seems determined to take the attack to Swann, a policy which has already prompted two unusually wayward deliveries. The ball's getting older, the sun's getting hotter. England are hanging on.