Prior supplies the heroics after Steyn leaves hosts in trouble

Saturday 21 July 2012

Matt Prior admitted he took "sick" enjoyment from his stint defying Dale Steyn in full flow to help prevent an even more damaging England collapse on the second day of the first Investec Test.

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David Clough

Prior arrived at the crease yesterday morning after the South African removed Alastair Cook (115) and Ravi Bopara for a duck in the following over. England had gone from an overnight 267 for three to 272 for five, and they would soon lose Ian Bell and Tim Bresnan, too.

But Prior (60) turned defence into attack, as he so often does, on the way to his 20th Test half-century, helping England muster 385 all out before South Africa replied with 86 for one.Prior said of Steyn: "He's a world-class performer, we know that. He's not No.1 in the world for no reason, but it's a great challenge."At times like this morning, you have to look at it and say, 'right, I've got to thrive on this, on this pressure and see if I can get through it'. So, in a sick kind of way, it's quite enjoyable, really. We were expecting South Africa to come out hard, which they did. We lost a couple of early wickets and had to steady the ship again."That's what we're going to expect the whole series. It's not just going to go our way, we know that."But I think it's very easy to think, 'oh, this was South Africa's day and we're not now in a good position'. Actually, it's a very attritional wicket, it's quite hard to score runs quickly."They've only gone at about two an over so far and if we come in [today] and get two or three early wickets, we're back in the ascendancy and a very, very strong position in this Test match. That's the way we'll look at it."Prior believes England's total, although not as substantial as once seemed likely, is a good one. "We ended up with 385 and I think that's a good score on that wicket," he said."Yesterday, we probably would have said, 'you want to get 400'. But the way the wicket changed this morning, 350 is almost a par score."A lot will depend on that first session tomorrow. We have the bowlers in the dressing room to do the job for us, and I'm sure we'll come out very hard and pick up a few early wickets."Morne Morkel, the South African seamer eventually took Prior's wicket and that of last man James Anderson to finish with four for 72. But he admitted it was Steyn who altered the match."I think it was needed," Morkel said. "They were sitting pretty well overnight and we knew that the first hour this morning was key for us: to get some early wickets."I think all credit must go to Vernon [Philander] and Dale. The intensity they bowled with was fantastic."Dale is capable of delivering something special like that at any time. As a bowling unit, and for me personally as well, it fires me up to follow."*ScoreboardFirst Investec Test, The Kia OvalEngland won tossOvernight England 267-3 (A N Cook 114no, I J L Trott 71)England. First Innings (continued)A N Cook b Steyn 115I R Bell b Kallis 13R S Bopara c de Villiers b Steyn 0M J Prior c de Villiers b M Morkel 60T T Bresnan b Imran Tahir 8S C J Broad b Philander 16G P Swann not out 15J M Anderson c de Villiers b M Morkel 2Extras (b2 lb24 w3 nb14) 43Total (125.5 overs) 385Fall 1-0, 2-170, 3-251, 4-271, 5-272, 6-284, 7-313, 8-358, 9-383Bowling M Morkel 24.5-2-72-4, Philander 27-4-79-1, Steyn 30-7-99-2, Kallis 19-7-38-2, Imran Tahir 19-0-61-1, Duminy 6-1-10-0South Africa. First Innings (close)G C Smith not out 37A N Petersen lbw b Anderson 0H M Amla not out 47Extras (lb1 nb1) 2Total 1 wkt (37 overs) 86Fall 1-1To bat J H Kallis, A B de Villiers, J A Rudolph, J P Duminy, V D Philander, D W Steyn, M Morkel, Imran TahirBowling Anderson 6-3-15-1, Broad 10-4-20-0, Swann 5-1-12-0Umpires Asad Rauf & S J Davis

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Prior supplies the heroics after Steyn leaves hosts in trouble

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