LEEDS (England), Aug 3: England made a solid start to their reply after South Africa stretched their first innings to 419 on the second day of the second Test at Headingley on Friday.

England were 48 for no wicket when bad light ended play with 22 overs still due to be bowled.

England captain Andrew Strauss and his opening partner Alastair Cook batted confidently, aided by some wayward bowling by the South Africans.

South Africa’s innings lasted until shortly before the tea break. Alviro Petersen made a career best 182 as South Africa ground out an imposing total, casting doubt on England’s decision to pick an all-seam attack and send them in.

After Petersen’s marathon innings ended in mid-afternoon, J.P. Duminy hit an unbeaten 48 as the last three wickets added 66 runs.

There was irony for England when part-time off-spinner Kevin Pietersen took his side’s first wicket of the day after Petersen and Jacques Rudolph had batted most of the morning in a stubborn sixth wicket stand of 59.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad sent down six successive maidens at the start of the day.

In the fifth over Petersen was given out LBW to Anderson by umpire Steve Davis without adding to his overnight score of 124 but, for the second time in his innings, he called for a review and was reprieved when replays showed the ball would have missed his leg stump.

Petersen went past his previous Test best of 156 against New Zealand in Wellington in March before he was caught behind off Stuart Broad after batting for 530 minutes. He faced 365 balls and hit 23 fours.—AFP

Scoreboard

SOUTH AFRICA (1st Innings, overnight 262-5): A.N. Petersen c Prior b Broad    182 G.C. Smith c Bell b Bresnan    52 H.M. Amla run out    9 J.H. Kallis c Cook b Anderson    19 A.B. de Villiers b Broad    47 D.W. Steyn b Finn    0 J.A. Rudolph st Prior b Pietersen    19 J.P. Duminy not out    48 V.D. Philander c Bresnan b Finn    13 M. Morkel c Cook b Broad    19 Imran Tahir c Cook b Anderson    0 EXTRAS (B-5, LB-6)    11 TOTAL (all out, 139.2 overs)    419 FALL OF WKTS: 1-120, 2-132, 3-157, 4-254, 5-259, 6-318, 7-353, 8-375, 9-414 BOWLING: Anderson 33.2-10-61-2; Broad 35-10-96-3; Finn 32-3-118-2; Bresnan 27-4-98-1; Trott 5-1-9-0; Pietersen 7-0-26-1. ENGLAND (1st Innings): A.J. Strauss not out    19 A.N. Cook not out    20 EXTRAS (LB-4, W-3, NB-2)    9 TOTAL (for no wkt, 18 overs)    48 TO BAT: I.J.L. Trott, K.P. Pietersen, I.R. Bell, J.W.A. Taylor, M.J. Prior, T.T. Bresnan, S.C.J. Broad, J.M. Anderson, S.T. Finn. BOWLING (to-date): Morkel 5-2-7-0 (1nb, 2w); Philander 6-0-21-0 (1nb, 1w); Steyn 4-0-15-0; Kallis 3-2-1-0.