Strauss puts England on course

The Middlesex left-hander entered the fifth day at the Brit Oval with his place in the side very much under threat having averaged just 20.33 previously in the npower series against South Africa.

But Strauss battled through the testing early stages to reach an unbeaten 38 as England progressed to a healthy 109 without loss at lunch chasing a victory target of 197.

Resuming on nought without loss, England always knew the early stages with a ball just 1.2 overs old would be the most testing of the day, and Strauss - who had scored just 122 runs from his previous six innings in the series - was aware it was a session which could define his international future.

While opening partner Alastair Cook quickly got into rhythm by pulling the fourth ball of the day from seamer Makhaya Ntini, Strauss was clearly struggling early on.

Before he had even scored, Strauss edged Morne Morkel just short of Paul Harris in the gully and there was a huge cheer from the healthy Oval crowd when he finally got off the mark with a clip off his legs for four off the same bowler from his 19th ball.

But Strauss was fortunate to survive in Morkel's next over when he turned a full-length delivery off his legs straight to Ashwell Prince at leg gully, who had only been placed there after the previous ball by captain Graeme Smith.

It appeared his run of low scores was set to continue but instead umpire Aleem Dar called a no-ball for over-stepping and Strauss survived.

Strauss continued to struggle but Cook began to flourish and punished anything which was short, hitting 10 boundaries en route to his fourth half-century of the series to provide England with impetus after they scored only 10 runs in the first 10 overs of the day.

South Africa, frustrated by their failure to make inroads, began to look ragged in the field and gifted Strauss five runs to his total when Hashim Amla's throw at the stumps flew to the boundary for four overthrows, but Cook, without a century for his last 16 Test innings, began to look in command and by lunch had reached an unbeaten 58.