The saga of of the 'blind spot' behind Andrew Flintoff's arm which claimed the wickets of Jacques Kallis (twice) and Neil McKenzie during South Africa's pursuit of a victory target of 281 took a twist shortly before tea on when the Proteas thought they had conjured up a cunning plan to counter it.

Nobody was quite sure why all the tourists' right-handers were failing to see Flintoff's yorker length deliveries - and why none of England's were troubled by yorkers from Andre Nel or Morne Morkel who are also tall enough to deliver the ball from a height above the woefully inadequate sightscreen.

When both teams had completed their first innings Graeme Smith and the Proteas management asked the umpires if the dark window of the Warwickshire comittee room above the sightscreen could be covered with a white sheet.

Umpires Aleem Dar and Steve Davies can only sanction a change during the match to what was effectively a 'playing condition' if both captains agree so they duly asked Michael Vaughan if he had an objection. Naturally enough, he did!

But when Kallis completely 'lost' a Flintoff delivery to fall lbw for the second time in the match, South Africa responded by sending 12th man Robin Peterson up to join the wine-sipping bigwigs on the committee balcony with instructions to hold a white towel behind the bowlers arm.

"He was verbally abused immediately and told to go away," confirmed team manager Dr Mohammed Moosajee. "They called him an effing cheat."

The matter came to the attention of the match referee, Ranjan Madugalle, who was sitting just a couple of boxes away and he dispatched the fourth match official to tell Peterson that his actions were not allowed.

"We feel that any individual batsman who has a problem when something interferes with his vision is allowed to ask for action to be taken to improve it, or correct it," Moosajee said. "If something is glaring in his eyes from anywhere in the ground, if there's a problem with an advertising board, anything, then he can stop the game until it is cleared up. That's all we were trying to do," Moosajee said.

Give Makhaya a chance!

On the last tour of Australia, in case anyone has forgotten, South Africa had Australia on the ropes in their first innings at 248-9 before Michael Hussey and Glenn McGrath added an absurd 107 for the tenth wicket.

Hussey protected McGrath brilliantly from the majority of the strike but, nonetheless, 'Pigeon' faced 56 balls for his 11 not out.

Throughout McGrath's career his teammates may have giggled at his batting but they always, always encouraged him to bat properly and rarely, if ever, gratuitously threw their wickets away just because he came striding to the crease at number 11.

Sadly, the policy of expecting everyone to be able to bat properly appears to have been abandoned with Makhaya Ntini and the statistics bare that out.

He has batted 14 times in his last 15 tests and finished not out in 11 of them, eight of which were nought not out. In other words, he simply isn't being given the chance to bat. Nobody trusts him to survive even a hand full of deliveries, let alone feature in a partnership of any substance.

That is not the South African way. In the aftermath of the justifiably wild celebrations, South Africa need to remember - one day, they'll need 20 runs from the last wicket and they won't get them if their number 11 can't remember which end to hold his bat.

* In 42 test matches at Edgbaston since 1902, England's favourite ground, they had only ever lost to the West Indies (four times) and Australia (three times). In 22 tests against other teams, they had never lost. Until Saturday, August 2nd, 2008.

Big match temperament

* Graeme Smith's astonishing ability to rise the big occasion is also born out by his remarkable record in fourth innings run chases. It was the 25th time in his career he has batted in pursuity of a last innings target and it was the 14th time his team has won. The other 11 matches have been drawn or lost.

His own aggregate during those run chases is a staggering 736 at an equally staggering average of 81.77. Only five men have scored more runs in winning pursuits - Matthew Hayden, Gordon Greenidge, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting and Desmond Haynes - all of whom played over a hundred tests compared to Smith's 69. If that doesn't say 'Big Match Temperament', nothing ever will.

* It was the fourth highest fourth innings run chase in South Africa's history:

340-5 vs Australia at Kingsmead, 2001-02
297-4 vs Australia at the MCG, 1952-53
287-9 vs England at the Old Wanderers, 1905-06 (SA's first test win)
283-5 vs England at Edgbaston, 2008



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