Strauss Leads England Reply Brightly to 343

Durban: Andrew Strauss played some glorious strokes as he led England to 103 for 1 at stumps on the second day of the second Test against South Africa at Kingsmead in Durban on Sunday.

Strauss breezed to 54, including nine boundaries, after Dale Steyn (47) had frustrated England with a last-wicket stand of 56 with Makhaya Ntini (6 not out) to take South Africa's first innings total to 343.

Alastair Cook was with Trott on 31 not out as South Africa's bowlers made a rotten start with the new ball and the left-handed captain capitalised with some top-class driving through the off side.

The light has not improved and there is no further chance of play and the umpires have officially called it a day. It was another intriguing day with the South African lower order fighting hard from 175/5 overnight to post a commendable 343.

England, then, counter-attacked in tremendous fashion, led by their skipper Andrew Strauss to reach 103/1, trailing by 240 runs. Plenty of overs lost already, 22 today. Graeme Swann was the star for the visitors, picking up 4/110, his fourth four-wicket haul.

After that, Strauss blazened away to his fastest Test Fifty, in 49 balls and was eventually cleaned up by Morne Morkel. The hosts would now be hoping to get England all out as quickly as possible tomorrow.

Earlier, Graeme Swann finished with four for 110 in 35 overs to take his year's haul to 49 wickets in 12 tests, second only to Australia's Mitchell Johnson (58 in 13). But the off-spinner suffered heavy punishment from Steyn, who hit three sixes off him.

Seamer Jimmy Anderson was eventually called into service and he had Steyn caught behind to end the innings 52 minutes after lunch.

South Africa resumed after lunch on 284 for eight. Morne Morkel failed to add to his score of 23 when he was trapped leg-before by Swann, a decision he unsuccessfully tried to have overturned by the umpire review system.

AB de Villiers reached his 19th test half-century but was dismissed for 50 before lunch.

He and Mark Boucher had resumed on Sunday morning on 175 for five.

The pair added another 58 runs before England used an umpire decision review to dismiss Boucher (39) after Swann had spun a delivery back into the his pads to trap him leg-before.

Brief scores
South Africa: 343 (Kallis 75, Smith 75) by 284 runs
England: 103 for 1 (Strauss 54, Cook 31*)
Status: England trail by 284 runs

Scores	Upcoming	Results
South Africa vs India - 4th T20I 2nd T20I - Australia v Pakistan - November 16, 08:00 GMT 4th T20I - West Indies v England - November 16, 20:00 GMT 3rd T20I - West Indies v England at St. Lucia England won by 3 wickets (with 4 balls remaining) 1st T20I - Australia v Pakistan at Brisbane Australia won by 29 runs

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