England facing heavy defeat

The biggest could be Flintoff 's availability as a bowler for Johannesburg-and Centurion following confirmation that the vital all-rounder is "feeling discomfort" in his left side after sending down another four overs today and being worked harder than any of his colleagues through this contest.

But Vaughan's form is a real worry, too, because he has now scored 84 runs in six innings, despite getting into double figures every time.

England knew they had a mountain of their own to climb here after being challenged to bat for 11 hours to save the Test. The route up to the world famous Table 'top' looks desperately daunting from Newlands Cricket Ground. But the journey facing Vaughan's team appeared tougher still, even before they lost Marcus Trescothick for a second ball duck.

More often than not during 2004, England were given a good start. This time, though, there wasn't even a single on the board when Pollock dismissed Trescothick with the help of a clever tactic.

Captain Graeme Smith posted a straight, short mid-off for the Somerset left-hander and Trescothick duly picked out that fielder, Hashim Amla, as he tried to play the second ball of the innings into the leg-side.

There was a great deal wrong with England's headlong slide to 163 all out in the first innings. But perhaps most worrying of all, they seemed to want to bat like millionaires even when they had no more than a few runs to rub together.

At least today, after Trescothick's dismissal, Andrew Strauss and Key set a different tone, leaving alone anything they didn't need to play.

As a result, 32 overs either side of lunch yielded a modest 68 runs but, still, the pair were laying solid foundations and it took an umpiring error to shake them.

Strauss was probably struck outside the line of off stump by left-arm spinner Nicky Boje and TV technology suggested there had been an inside edge as well.

Vaughan and Key brought their team a little more comfort after tea.

The pressure on them was intense, though, and Key buckled with the total 103.

He went down the pitch to left-arm spinner Boje, failed to make contact and was stumped by yards.

Ten balls and two runs later, Vaughan made his horrible exit, leaving Thorpe and Flintoff to try to salvage something positive.

When they came together, 90 minutes from today's close, there seemed a distinct possibility of South Africa pressing for their win tonight. The pair applied themselves diligently for more than an hour until Flintoff 's dismissal. South Africa may have had enough runs in the bank last night. But they batted through another 11 overs this morning, just to make sure, before challenging England to score 501 to win and double their series advantage.

The team's only real target this morning was to try to keep the score down as much as possible and hope South Africa - cautious by nature - would bat on longer than necessary.

In fact, England were arguably too successful with the ball, virtually taking the matter out of home hands during an almost comical hour of cricket that brought five wickets and produced only 38 runs.

At least Steve Harmison broke his duck for the match, having Abraham de Villiers caught at deep mid-wicket before South Africa's declaration on 222 for eight.

But Flintoff 's early departure from the field more than wiped out that little bonus.