CRICKET:FOR 15 minutes yesterday evening, as the crowd bayed and adrenaline pumped, a day's cricket that had carried a dull inevitability about it was stripped down to bare-knuckle fighting, a gladiatorial contest between a great batsman and a colossal fast bowler. And at the end it was Andrew Flintoff who almost single-handedly had pulled his side back from the brink to a position from which, if they can draw further strength from his deeds, they may go on to win a match that after the first day had seemed doomed.
Jacques Kallis, one of the finest technicians of this or any other age, was constructing another masterpiece, on the way, with absolute certainty it appeared, to another century to go with the 30 he had already acquired in Tests, when he encountered Flintoff, on the rampage after a rain break which had delayed the resumption after tea.
It was gloomy, almost too gloomy, but 10 deliveries were all it took to create a legend to rank alongside Allan Donald's spell to Michael Atherton and Flintoff's defining over to Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting three years ago.
The first ball set the tone, a yorker which Kallis failed to pick up out of the pavilion background. The batsman grinned at the absurdity; it was the last smile he had. Flintoff thrashed in successive bouncers which had Kallis snapping his head back.
Another yorker appeared to hit him full on the toe and slap bang in front, but Aleem Dar ruled against Flintoff's impassioned appeal. The bowler was incensed.
Further deliveries, swinging away, seared past Kallis's groping outside edge before Flintoff produced one more perfect yorker, wickedly fast, shaping away, which eluded the bat and detonated the off stump from the turf.
Too often in this series batsmen have donated their wickets to unworthy deliveries. There was no shame to Kallis, unseated for 64 by a genuinely great fast-bowling cameo.
The close came three overs later, 14 overs early because of bad light, by which time Flintoff had removed another previous thorn in England's flesh in AB de Villiers to complete a six-over spell that brought two for 15 and four for 68 in all.
So South Africa will resume this morning on 256 for six, a lead of 25, with Ashwell Prince (37) and Mark Boucher (11) the last batting bastions. The game is far from over.
Until Flintoff's late intervention diligence with the bat was the watchword for the South Africans as they began the process of squeezing England out of the series yesterday. This was as it had been throughout the series. They had been diligent in batting out the second innings at Lord's to save a game that might have been lost, and they had been diligent in compiling their winning score at Headingley, in the process putting to shame the cavalier batting of their opponents.
And now they have been diligent at Edgbaston. These South Africans rarely give willingly. They would not pee in your ear if your brain was on fire. It must be something in their upbringing.
Flintoff apart, England offered only mundane bowling for South African consumption. In the morning session the wrong James Anderson, Bad Jimmy, the profligate one without radar, allowed the luxury of entrenchment.
Only in the afternoon did Good Jimmy appear, to discover his lines and bowl testingly at times.
Of real concern was Ryan Sidebottom, who laboured so far off the pace that he barely reached 80mph at times, and clearly is protecting his back. He claimed the wicket of nightwatchman Paul Harris, who had hung around for 91 minutes, but for now he looks a medium-paced busted flush.
Beyond Flintoff there was nothing else: Monty Panesar twirled ineffectually and Collingwood, hapless in the short time he was given, was taken over by his alter ego, a churchman called Canon Fodder. A good finish for England cannot mask the inadequacies that preceded it.
