England on top as light fades
The weather intervened once again for a second day as the players were driven from the field when bad light stopped play on the second day of the Castle second Test between South Africa and England at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead on Sunday.
England, chasing South Africa's first innings total of 343 all out, were in a strong position at the time as they reached 103/1 off 26.2 overs with 22 overs still remaining in the day's play. England were 240 behind with nine wickets in hand.
Andrew Strauss set up the England challenge with a spectacular attacking approach and scored a delightful 54 before being bowled by Morne Morkel with the visitors on 71/1 in the 19th over.
Strauss raced to his half-century - cutting and pulling while showing scant respect for the South African bowlers and also survived a leg-before appeal which was sent to the third umpire - in quick time. He reached his 50 off 49 balls in 55 minutes in the 14 over.
By tea on this second day England had chipped away at the South African first innings total and were 59/0 with Alastair Cook on eight.
However after the break Morkel gave the home side something to celebrate as he bowled the England captain, the delivery taking the inside edge and on to his stumps.
No sooner had Strauss left the scene, Cook, who was prepared to play an anchor role as his skipper piled on the runs, grew in confidence as he and South African-born Jonathan Trott, added 32 for the unbroken second wicket before the umpires decided it was too dangerous to continue with play.
Cook had 31 at the time and had been batting for 114 minutes while cracking five boundaries.
Earlier in the day South Africa, resuming at 175/5 were given two big boosts - first by the sixth wicket pair of AB de Villiers and Mark Boucher and then the last wicket pair of Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini.
The De Villiers-Boucher stand yielded 63 for the sixth wicket with the South African wicketkeeper/batsman making 39 with five fours and De Villiers taking his score from eight overnight to 50.
His half-century came off 96 balls in 147 minutes with six boundaries.
Steyn scored a blistering 47 before being the last man out after striking three sixes and three fours while adding 58 for the 10th wicket. Ntini's contribution in that partnership was a mere six runs.
Graeme Swann, who won the Man of the Match award in the first Test at SuperSport Park, took 4/110 while Stuart Broad bagged 2/44 and James Anderson took 2/75. Graham Onions bowled outstandingly well but had little reward for it. He finished with 1/62.