England blow hot in Benoni

Benoni: Having lost with a touch of embarrassment to the cream of South Africa?s youth the day before, Nasser Hussain?s England tourists skimmed the top off the curdled debris among the Gauteng talent at Willowmoore Park on Tuesday.

Okay, it was far from an easy victory but with temperatures hot enough to curdle anything remotely milky if left too long in the sun, Easterns were eventually beaten by three wickets with the visiting side having a little to prove to their doubting media critics after what had been dubbed ``the shame of Randjesfontein''.

England were fair value for their score of 233 for nine in a limited-overs slog designed to acclimatise the tourists before heading Cape Town this morning for the first more important leg of their South Africa safari and the opening four-day game against a combined Western Province/Boland XI which starts at Newlands on Friday.

In reply Easterns were more interested in their survival than mounting a genuine challenge once Phil Simmons, their West Indies import, departed with the total at 68 for four in the 20th over of the innings. That was until Dennis Smith did what he could to inject a little life into the innings with a career best limited-overs total of 75 off 90 balls to help Easterns reach 215 for seven in reply.

There was a partnership of some entertainment of 97 with Hussein Manack which did much to rescue Easterns from going down in typical fashion: which is usually more of a gurgle than a shout.

Whether England coach Duncan Fletcher was entirely happy with the results of Team England?s efforts is uncertain. There were times when they looked as lethargic as the efforts of the top three batsmen and the bowling was a little too untidy to be impressive.

Hussain, dropped when 13, went on to a top-score of 64 played prettily at times while Mike Atherton, looking for a big one tapped back a simple caught and bowled to former Northerns all-rounder Pierre de Bruyn who should treasure the moment of that dismissal. There was not too much wrong with his bowling either: figures of one of 35 showed that he is one of the more capable players in the side.

Another who gave a steady bowling display was Andre Nel who bagged a tidy four for 33 and bowled sharply enough to test some of top-order. He also sat on a hat-trick when he bowled Graeme Swann and Chris Read with successive balls only to be thwarted by a Alex Tudor leg bye.

Easterns presented an incongruous sight: while Hussain?s Team England were dressed in creams and the game was played with a red ball, the locals were dressed in their Standard Bank garb of a tacky navy blue. The visitors were unable to field in their coloured gear as this is not available until the end of December.

The West Indian hired gun, Simmons and Smith, apart the rest of the Easterns batting was almost as tacky as the England ground fielding. Gavin Hamilton?s first spell yielded 19 runs in three wayward overs with the Trinidadian and Leicestershire all-rounder punishing most of the loose stuff as handsomely as was his general strokeplay.

Languid, almost lazy and usually effective Simmons it seemed could have present the tourist?s with an enticing challenge until he wrecked his plans for a big score by playing an untypical hoik to square-leg. It was an inelegant shot certainly not the pick among the roses on offer against Tudor?s bowling.

After that he lay on the grass and enjoyed and chatted with some local friends and took little further interest in the game.