Amla, De Villiers give South Africa some relief in 2nd test
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers gave South Africa some relief against England in the second test on Monday by batting through the first session of the third day to take the under-pressure home team to 199-2.
South Africa was still 430 runs behind England's mammoth first-innings total of 629-6 declared, a score built on 258 from Ben Stokes and 150 not out from Jonny Bairstow.
In reply, South Africa's two best batsmen both made half centuries and shared an unbeaten stand of 114 - although both survived dropped catches.
South Africa captain Amla was 91 not out for his first test half-century in 12 innings, and after having been missed by James Anderson at slip off the bowling of Joe Root. Amla was on 76 when the chance went down.
De Villiers, having been dropped by Root off Anderson early in his innings on Sunday, was 56 not out.
South Africa still faced an uphill battle at Newlands after a record-breaking partnership of 399 between Stokes and Bairstow on the second day took England to its second-highest score in a test in South Africa.
England, chasing a first series win over South Africa in 11 years, already leads the four-match series 1-0 after a strong 241-run win in Durban.
Amla eased some of the pressure on him after a lean year in 2015 with his first score of 50 or more since the New Year test in Cape Town against West Indies a year ago. He hit 14 fours on a Newlands pitch that was still a good strip to bat on, underlined by the fact that only three wickets have fallen in the last four sessions of the match, two of them to run outs.
De Villiers stroked eight fours, with much of top-ranked South Africa's hopes of dragging itself back into the match and the series resting on these two batsmen.
Stokes had 1-29 for England after removing Dean Elgar late on Sunday. England ran out South Africa's other opener, Stiaan van Zyl, for four.
Having missed the first test with a right calf injury, Anderson, England's leading wicket-taker, had 0-30 off 14 overs on his return to the team.
