Neil McKenzie sentenced England's bowlers to another spell of hard labour here today and guided South Africa ever nearer to safety in the npower First Test.

Having already batted for nearly seven hours in reaching 102 by close of play last night, McKenzie kept up the sterling work this morning as Michael Vaughan's attack found themselves once again running into a brick wall.

Pretty to watch, it was not. But the 32-year-old opener had no intention of trying to win marks for style and sparkling strokeplay. He scored 29 runs in the first two hours of play and gave Ryan Sidebottom, Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Monty Panesar precious little encouragement.

As a match-saving effort, McKenzie's innings was starting to resemble Mike Atherton's near 11-hour 185 in Johannesburg in 1995 which enabled England to draw a Test they had seemed destined to lose.

Here, with Hasim Amla's equally defiant half-century despite an attempt to fluster him with a bit of bodyline bowling, South Africa reached 312 for one by lunch, having not lost a wicket while adding 70 runs in the two-hour session. That meant they were just 34 away from wiping out the arrears after followingon.

The good news for England this morning was that Sidebottom took the field despite having struggled with a sore back yesterday. But, on the flip side, the condition of the pitch had not changed much from slow and flat.

Sidebottom's back is becoming a concern, given that he missed two onedayers against New Zealand a fortnight or so ago because of the same problem and also needed treatment during last month's Trent Bridge Test. The Yorkshireman, who has had a fabulous year for England, will be especially keen to turn up fighting fit at Headingley on Friday for the start of the second match of this series. If he is struggling, mind you, the selectors will be spared a difficult decision over who should make way for Andrew Flintoff.

This morning, at least, Sidebottom seemed to be moving reasonably freely and, after a couple of looseners, began operating at above 80mph. But the leftarmer was given only three overs and neither he nor Anderson could achieve the quick breakthrough Vaughan's men badly wanted.

Making South Africa bat again after bowling them out for 247 on Saturday had to be the right decision by England. But, whereas just about everything went right for them in that first innings and the visitors obliged with some poor shots, the follow-on effort turned out to be entirely different.

"We really needed to fight yesterday and it's terrific to have shown a bit of character after England outplayed us for three days," said captain Graeme Smith, who set the tone by making 107 and contributing fully to a first-wicket stand of 204 with McKenzie.

Not that Vaughan and Co should have been too surprised by the way things were going at the home of cricket. Since losing to Australia at the start of the 2005 Ashes series, five consecutive npower Tests at Lord's have been drawn; most of them after England had looked likely winners.

They made Sri Lanka follow-on two years ago, then dropped six second innings catches to let victory slip from their grasp. And, last summer, first the West Indies and then India left St John's Wood with smiles on their faces. As for South Africa, their grip on a draw was looking more secure by the minute. McKenzie continued to imitate an immovable object while Amla refused to be unsettled by Vaughan's decision to apply a modern-day leg theory.

Convinced that the right-handed No3 would perish to a lifting delivery, England's captain posted two leg slips, a short leg, a square leg and a short mid-wicket so that Anderson could bang the ball in as often as he liked. Amla, though, left as many deliveries as he could by moving inside the line and played what he had to with reasonable certainty.

Anderson is no slouch but this morning's little bit of bodyline might have been more effective if either Flintoff or Steve Harmison had been hitting the pitch hard. Time for Panesar.

Having been given one exploratory over at the start of the day, then watched Sidebottom and Stuart Broad fail to make any headway at the Nursery End, the man who looked to be Vaughan's biggest hope returned for a sustained spell.

But even Vaughan's potential trump card struggled to make any headway from either over or around the wicket.

Whatever the result today, there is more action to come at Lord's this week - albeit off the field.

Tomorrow's England and Wales Cricket Board meeting will consider the radical proposal for a nine franchise Twenty20 tournament in England to rival the Indian Premier League. And the signs are that, after initial hostility, the idea will at least be given a fair hearing.

Almost inevitably, the first reaction was one of outrage, especially from smaller counties who feared they would be frozen out. And ECB chairman Giles Clarke did little to encourage calm debate by saying: "It is fairly obvious there is no real support for this proposal outside a few counties."

But since the leaked document - drawn up by MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw and Surrey chairman David Stewart, with support from Hampshire and Lancashire - has been explained more fully by its authors, some anxiety has melted away.