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Leeds, England: AB de Villiers extended South Africa's first innings lead over England to 277 at tea on the third day of the second Test at Headingley on Sunday with an unbeaten 158.
De Villiers, booed to the crease on Saturday after claiming a catch that was grounded the day before, played an unusually patient innings as South Africa went into the interval on 480 for seven. He had faced 367 deliveries in the slowest of his six test centuries.
Mark Boucher (34) and Morne Morkel (0) were the only wickets to fall between lunch and tea as the Proteas, replying to England's 203, seemed well placed to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series. Ashwell Prince departed in the morning session for 149.
After Prince's dismissal, de Villiers took up the challenge to eliminate England's chances of an unlikely victory.
De Villiers slowly grew in confidence and a square cut for four after lunch even beat the fielder sweeping the cover boundary to the rope. A drive on the up through extra-cover against Andrew Flintoff to go to 132 was further evidence of his momentum.
For the most part de Villiers had played a supporting role to Prince and then Boucher. On 70 overnight, he spent an agonising 45 minutes in the 90s and was stuck on 99 for 14 balls.
Boucher was dropped by Darren Pattinson off his own bowling in the first over after lunch. His next scoring stroke was an edge through the vacant fourth slip area for four in an innings lacking fluency.
Pattinson conceded just six runs from that four-over spell and his improvement would have been a relief to captain Michael Vaughan, enabling him to rest the over-worked Flintoff (40 overs) and James Anderson (43).
SCORECARD
England (1st Innings) 203
South Africa (1st Innings)
(overnight 322-4)
G. Smith c Strauss b Flintoff 44
N. McKenzie c Flintoff b Anderson 15
H. Amla lbw b Pattinson 38
J. Kallis b Anderson 4
A. Prince c Ambrose b Pattinson 149
AB de Villiers c Flintoff b Broad 174
M. Boucher b Anderson 34
M. Morkel b Panesar 0
P. Harris c Anderson b Panesar 24
D. Steyn not out 10
M. Ntini c Pietersen b Panesar 1
Extras (b2, lb19, w1, nb7) 29
Total (all out, 176.2 overs) 522
Fall of wickets: 5-355 (Prince), 6-422 (Boucher), 7-427 (Morkel), 8-511 (De Villiers), 9-511 (Harris), 10-522 (Ntini)
Bowling: Anderson 44-9-136-3; Pattinson 30-2-95-2 ; Flintoff 40-12-77-1 ; Broad 29-2-114-1, Panesar 29.2-6-65-3; Pietersen 4-0-14-0.
(At tea on third day)
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