LEEDS (England), July 20: A.B. de Villiers extended South Africa’s first innings lead over England to 277 at tea on the third day of the second Test at Headingley on Sunday as South Africa with an unbeaten 158.

De Villiers, booed to the crease on Saturday after claiming a catch that was grounded the day before, played an unusually patient innings as South Africa went into the interval on 480 for seven.

He had faced 367 deliveries in the slowest of his six Test centuries.

Mark Boucher (34) and Morne Morkel (0) were the only wickets to fall between lunch and tea as the Proteas, replying to England’s 203, seemed well placed to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series. Ashwell Prince departed in the morning session for 149.After Prince’s dismissal, de Villiers took up the challenge to eliminate England’s chances of an unlikely victory.

The century would have been especially satisfying for de Villiers after South Africa coach Mickey Arthur revealed that the batsman had been abused by the England players for his role in the claimed catch at lunch on Friday.

De Villiers slowly grew in confidence and a square cut for four after lunch even beat the fielder sweeping the cover boundary to the rope. A drive on the up through extra-cover against Andrew Flintoff to go to 132 was further evidence of his momentum.For the most part de Villiers, so often an aggressor, had played a supporting role to Prince and then Boucher. On 70 overnight, he spent an agonising 45 minutes in the 90s and was stuck on 99 for 14 balls.

Boucher was dropped by debutant Darren Pattinson off his own bowling in the first over after lunch. His next scoring stroke was an edge through the vacant fourth slip area for four in an innings devoid of any fluency.

Pattinson conceded just six runs from that four-over spell and his improvement would have been a relief to captain Michael Vaughan, enabling him to rest the over-worked Flintoff (40 overs) and James Anderson (43).

Boucher was bowled for 34 after playing on to Anderson attempting a pull shot, while Morkel was bowled by left-arm spinner Monty Panesar for a duck, missing a delivery turning into him. It was Panesar’s first success for 82 overs going back to the first Test at Lord’s.

Prince, who resumed the day at 134, was earlier caught behind off Pattinson one short of his 150. It was his highest Test score — surpassing the unbeaten 139 against Zimbabwe at Centurion in 2004-05 — after he batted for more than six hours with 17 fours and two sixes.

Scoreboard

ENGLAND (1st Innings) 203 (M. Morkel 4-52, D.W. Steyn 4-76).

SOUTH AFRICA (1st Innings, overnight 322-4):

G.C. Smith c Strauss b Flintoff 44

N.D. McKenzie c Flintoff b Anderson 15

H.M. Amla lbw b Pattinson 38

J.H. Kallis b Anderson 4

A.G. Prince c Ambrose b Pattinson 149

A.B. de Villiers not out 158

M.V. Boucher b Anderson 34

M. Morkel b Panesar 0

P.L. Harris not out 11

EXTRAS (B-2, LB-17, W-1, NB-7) 27

TOTAL (for seven wkts, 166 overs) 480

FALL OF WKTS: 1-51, 2-69, 3-76, 4-143, 5-355, 6-422, 7-427.

TO BAT: D.W. Steyn, M. Ntini.

BOWLING (to-date): Anderson 43-9-126-3; Pattinson 28-2-90-2 (1nb); Flintoff 40-12-77-1 (4nb); Broad 25-2-96-0 (2nb, 1w); Panesar 26-4-58-1; Pietersen 4-0-14-0.—Reuters