LONDON, Sept 5: Shaun Pollock claimed the history but England took the honours after the second day of the fifth and final test.

Pollock began Friday with 66 well-struck runs and ended it as the second South African to take 300 Test wickets as England, having dismissed

their opponents for 484 in their first innings, closed on 165 for two.

Marcus Trescothick was 64 not out, having batted just over three hours, while Graham Thorpe, recalled after a year in Test exile, was on 28, the left-handed pair combining in an unbroken stand of 87.

The 30-year-old Pollock reached his milestone by inducing England captain Michael Vaughan to overstretch for a ball on off-stump and edge to third slip, where Herschelle Gibbs pouched the chance.

Vaughan, wretchedly out of form since scoring 156 in the first test — he has now made 149 in his next eight knocks — had promised more with a series of flashing cover drives off Makhaya Ntini, before departing for 23.

“It was nice to get Vaughan for the 300th, I think of him as England’s best batsman” Pollock said.

The 19th man to take 300 wickets in test history, he joined compatriot Allan Donald (330 wickets) on the list, his wickets costing just over 20 each. No bowler on that list ended their career with a better average.

“I would like to thank Allan,” Pollock added. “Maybe batsmen played a few more shots against me when he was operating from the other end.”

South Africa remained well placed, despite failing to capitalise on their dominance of the opening day.

Needing only a draw to win their first series in England since 1965, they had resumed on 362 for four with a total of around 600 runs in mind.

One key moment in the morning session, however, killed off that ambition as the last seven wickets fell for 122.

Jacques Kallis, on 66, was trying to relaunch the innings after the early morning departures of Jacques Rudolph and Mark Boucher when, backing up, he was run out at the non-striker’s end.

A return drive from Pollock brushed bowler Ashley Giles’s fingertips before cannoning into the stumps, the third umpire confirming the decision.

“The luck didn’t really run for us,” Pollock said. “Jacques looked really set for a good score, but 484 is still a decent first-innings total and we have the runs on the board. I think we are still just on top.”

Earlier seamer Martin Bicknell, shaping the ball from right to left, had trapped the off-colour Rudolph lbw for a four-ball duck as the left-hander played across the line to a ball which straightened.

The seamer then had Boucher caught behind for eight to make it 385 for six. Television replays suggested Boucher had brushed his pad with his bat rather than snicking the ball, but that strike gave Bicknell two victims for six runs in 23 deliveries.

The departure of Kallis was quickly followed by Andrew Hall, trapped lbw for a single by Andrew Flintoff, before Paul Adams was the third man to be run out, chancing a second on Mark Butcher’s throw from long off.

Pollock, however, protected Makhaya Ntini from the strike as they put on 52 before the number 11 lost his middle stump to James Anderson.

“Those runs will have frustrated England,” Pollock concluded.

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