SA reeling as bad light stops play

South Africa lost three quick wickets and slumped to 175/5 soon after tea as the pendulum swung England's way late on the opening day of the second Castle Test at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead today.

When the players went off for bad light at 3.37pm Mark Boucher, who had just arrived at the crease, was not out on one while AB de Villiers was on eight.

After building the innings and doing all the hard work throughout most of he first session when South Africa had lost Ashwell Prince (2) and Hashim Amla (2), Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis disappeared from the middle in quick succession after tea.

The South Africans, who had won the toss and decided to bat, were sitting in a pretty comfortable position at the break - 151/2 with the South African captain on 65 and Kallis, who had been batting with supreme confidence, on 74 not out.

But shortly after the break spinner Graeme Swann was re-introduced into the attack, and he produced the magic that England skipper Andrew Strauss desperately required.

The England spinner had Kallis caught at slip for 75 with South Africa on 160/3 in the 56th over which proved to be a real turning point for the visitors.

They soon had Smith disappointingly walking back to the changerooms after a mix-up in calling and was adjudged run out for 75 four overs later.

The South Africans, who were sitting in a very comfortable position and looking to further build on what Smith and Kallis had laid were in for a further shock.

Jean-Paul Duminy was trapped leg before wicket for four and the home side were struggling at 170/5 while England began oozing a bit of confidence. But that was doused by bad light followed by light rain thereafter.

Kallis scored his runs off 132 balls in 196 minutes while striking seven boundaries and Smith made his 75 off 186 balls in 257 minutes with nine boundaries. The pair put on 175 for the third wickets in 275 minutes.

The wickets were shared by the England bowlers - Anderson, who troubled the batsmen in the early part of the day, ended with 1/32 off 12 overs while Graham Onions must consider himself unlucky to take just one wicket for 40 off his 15 overs.

He bowled consistently well throughout the day in the heat and high humidity. Stuart Broad (1/28) and Swann (1/44) were the other wickets-takers.

- Play will start half an hour early tomorrow - 9.30am instead of 10am - to make make up for loss time and the 29 overs that were lost during today's play.

- Just over 17 500 spectators - the biggest ever for a Test match since South Africa's return to international cricket - watched the first day's play. So far KwaZulu-Natal Cricket have sold close on to 52 000 tickets for the five days of this Test.