Stewart suggests England can strike back

Johannesburg - Alec Stewart put on a brave face last night as England faced an early 1-0 deficit in the Tests series with South Africa and reminded everyone that England had come back to win 2-1 last year.

Admitting it would be far tougher this time he acknowledged it could be done in South Africa but agreed England would need to work "very, very hard" to win the series.

While England has been outplayed by a better team, England's immediate past captain felt the circumstances in this first Test of the series at the Wanderers had far from favoured England: they had the worst of the conditions, the luck had been against them and aided the South Africans. He was far from a whinging Pom, just pointing out the facts of the situation and how the luck of the toss had given South Africa the decided edge.

"We have been outplayed by a better side and you have to agree that Cullinan and Gibbs batted exceptionally well and had taken the game away from us". He felt although the preparation for the Test had been good in the warm up games it counted for nothing when it came to playing the Test as "the class and quality of the opposition was so much greater because we are facing on of the top two sides in the world at the moment".

Stewart also had a few words to say on Allan Donald's bowling, indicating that the Free State and Warwickshire fast bowler had bowled quicker after tea today than at any stage of the game. It was tough and it was hard.

What England had to do, and not lose sight of, was as Duncan Fletcher, the coach, had said that England had to be competitive in the series.

"That is our aim in this Test series," he said.

While it had been frustrating going into this Test with a top score in the 20s during the early part of the tour he had to make the most of what (batting) opportunities there were.

"I went out there to try an play my natural game," he admitted. "It is what I do best and I got the ball in the middle a few times early on and it built my confidence."

There was no comment of the lbw decision which terminated Stewart's partnership with his Surrey county colleague, Mark Butcher. The Srinivas Venkataraghavan decision came shortly after tea as the pair had added 104 for the fourth wicket in a bid to restructure England's second innings as well as their pride.

Butcher took an age to leave the crease, as if awaiting an invitation to join his teammates in the pavilion. It was a poor decision.