Smith has wounded England on brink of defeat

Two England batsmen, at least, needed to follow suit today.

That was asking far too much of natural tailender Anderson, of course, but the longer he could hang around the better because the ball, at 24 overs old, still had some hardness about it when play began. Remarkably, De Villiers has not been dismissed for a duck in any of his 73 Test innings. And, more surprising, neither has Anderson - in 38 visits to the crease - after getting off the mark this morning by squirting Makhaya Ntini to point via a leading edge.

It was to Cook, though, that England were looking for an innings along the lines of Neil McKenzie's nine-hour match-saving marathon for South Africa at Lord's a week ago. And he could not be faulted for lack of effort.

The Essex batsman set out his stall last night, spending 45 minutes without scoring at one stage but never looking flustered. And he was all care and concentration again today until finally perishing.

With Jacques Kallis, Steyn and spinner Paul Harris all entering the attack inside the first hour this morning, England at least made South Africa search for a breakthrough.

But when Anderson played two cracking strokes, punching slow left-armer Harris through the covers for consecutive boundaries, he was becoming a real nuisance and Steyn knew he had to be softened up.

Going around the wicket, he first hit the left-hander on his right wrist with a lifter. That blow required a bit of medical attention, but not nearly as much as the next one. Steyn's follow-up delivery was not short enough to duck under and when Anderson tried, he took a heavy blow to the side of his jaw.

Some spectators booed as Anderson crumpled to the ground, but there was nothing wrong with Steyn's hostility.

It looked for a time as though the batsman who started this summer as a Test No11 would be forced to retire hurt. But having bravely carried on, and seen out the last three balls, Anderson was pinned lbw by a full length ball during Steyn's next over.

England had got to within 15 minutes of seeing out the first session. They ended up losing not one but two wickets, though, with Pietersen failing to deliver.

It is all very well counter-attacking but falling to your fifth ball, with the team in a crisis, is not much use.

In the end, Pietersen looked as though he was trying not to play at Kallis's outswinger. He nicked it all the same, and South Africa were on a roll that Bell's dismissal early this afternoon threatened to turn into a romp.

Prince and De Villiers would almost certainly have left a wide long hop of the kind Morne Morkel sent down, at least during the first hour or two of their innings. But Bell's eyes lit up - and so did De Villiers' as took a stunning righthanded catch in the gully.

Cook's near five-hour effort ended with a looping, leading edge catch to cover off the canny Kallis, meaning that Ambrose and Flintoff represented the team's last real hope.