Freddie leads fighback but Amla's let-off puts England on back foot

Headingley is the most bleak of Test grounds but the cricket here is never short of lively.

The big boy is back: Flintoff was furious at getting out but hit back by dismissing Smith

First we had the tale of the Australian approaching his 30th birthday being fasttracked into the England side, then a below-par England performance with the bat after Graeme Smith had bravely inserted them again despite the folly of his decision to bowl first at Lord's.

But there was no bigger talking point than an overturned 'catch' by Michael Vaughan that would have given Flintoff his second wicket on his comeback and reduced South Africa to 76 for four in reply to 203 all out.

All this on top of a controversy in the England innings which saw AB de Villiers claim a catch that he must have realised he had grounded and then a little spat on the balcony when South Africa batted, with England coach Peter Moores insisting that he and his assistants would not budge from their front-row seats.

Just another typical day at Headingley, then. South Africa could be the happier team last night, 102 behind with only three wickets lost.

England, meanwhile, were left wondering about the clarity of their selectorial thinking and the quality of their shot selection.

Not to mention their bad luck in the sun coming out just as South Africa started to bat, with the overhead conditions being as significant here as at any Test ground in the world.

For much of the time it seemed as if the call-up of Darren Pattinson would dominate the day.

This really is the most contentious of any decision to bring in players with overseas backgrounds, because he is Australian in everything except his Lincolnshire birthplace.

And it was hardly as if England were short of bowling options once it became clear that Ryan Sidebottom was unfit.

As it turned out, England's decision to pick Pattinson ahead of even Chris Tremlett, who was called into the squad as cover earlier on Thursday, became a sub-plot to the main event as the Grimsby-born roof tiler with only 11 first-class matches bowled only three non-threatening overs with the ball stubbornly refusing to swing once in English hands.

Before that, South Africa had produced a much better bowling performance than their shabby display in the drawn first Test at Lord's, with Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel taking four wickets each.

Yet despite assistance from overhead for South Africa, England were culpable in their own demise, with nine of their wickets falling to catches by the wicketkeeper or in the slip cordon as they repeatedly played at balls they could have left alone.

Alastair Cook became the second English victim in this series of a poor decision by Billy Bowden but none of the other England batsmen could feel blameless in his dismissal, Mark Boucher claiming five catches and four being shared by Smith and de Villiers.

It was a 'catch' from De Villiers that never was that provided the first flashpoint of the day as Andrew Strauss edged Morkel to slip, where the fielder spilled it before scooping it off the ground and claiming he had caught it cleanly.

A belated call to the TV umpire Richard Kettleborough overturned the decision but South Africa should never have claimed it in the first place.

It is stretching credibility to suggest that neither de Villiers nor any of his team-mates around him saw that the ball had been grounded.

History was almost repeated when South Africa replied and Flintoff, who had earlier fallen to a loose drive after making an unconvincing 17 on his first Test appearance in almost 19 months, dragged England back into a Test that was running away from them.

England's restored talisman claimed a low slip catch to send back Neil McKenzie and then produced the sort of fast, short delivery that England were lacking at Lord's to force Smith to fend to first slip.

Then, after Jimmy Anderson had bowled Jacques Kallis, Flintoff seemed to have taken a second wicket when Vaughan dived athletically at mid-off to 'catch' Hashim Amla and reduce South Africa to 76 for four.

Cue pandemonium from the raucous Headingley crowd before coach Mickey Arthur came running to the edge of the boundary to tell Amla to go back, in similar scenes to those at Lord's last season when Kevin Pietersen was reprieved by the TV cameras after England had urged him to stay where he was.

The catch looked sound to the naked eye and Amla seemed happy to walk, but the TV camera, which often lies in these circumstances, suggested a degree of doubt, leaving Kettleborough with no option but to rule not out. Gone, seemingly forever, are the days when players would accept the word of the catcher.

But when drops as obvious as de Villiers' are claimed then it is not exactly surprising.