By Andy Wilson
England Lions were made to suffer in the sun for the second match running by the hugely promising South Africa A batsman Theunis de Bruyn.
The 22-year-old from Pretoria, who had scored a career-best unbeaten 202 against the Lions in Paarl last week, followed up with another 161, taking his tally of first-class runs past 1,000 in only 20 innings.
He shared a fourth-wicket partnership of 210 in 46 overs with Temba Bavuma, who made 102, to wrest the initiative away from the Lions after early wickets from Mark Wood and Boyd Rankin had reduced the home team to 29 for three.
Rankin and Wood continued to ask plenty of questions throughout the day, beating the bat on numerous occasions. But by the time Rankin became the first Lions bowler to dismiss de Bruyn in the two-match series, South Africa A were already well ahead and at the close of the second day in Bloemfontein they had reached 389 for seven, a lead of 129.
Yet the tourists could not have made a better start as Wood, who had dismissed Stiaan van Zyl late on the first day, opened up with a beauty which nipped back to bowl the left-handed Gihahm Cloete as he shouldered arms.
In the next over Rankin had the right-handed Reeza Hendricks, fresh from South Africa’s Twenty20 series against West Indies, edging to second slip where Adam Lyth took a good low catch.
But there was no further joy for the Lions until well after lunch as Bavuma and de Bruyn counter-attacked, especially against the spin of Adam Riley and Adil Rashid.
It was the occasional medium-pace of James Vince which finally broke their stand immediately after Bavuma had reached a 160-ball century, as the tiny right-hander gloved an attempted pull to Alex Lees at slip.
Justin Ontong, who also played in the recent T20 series and came into this team as captain, joined de Bruyn to add a further 99 for the fifth wicket before Rankin induced a loose shot from de Bruyn, cutting at a wide one and edging to wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow.
That may not have been Rankin’s best delivery but the hulking Warwickshire seamer richly deserved the wicket, having bowled with pace and hostility throughout a demanding day. He also had Chris Morris caught behind to end with 3-61 from 23 overs.
Liam Plunkett took the other wicket when Ontong edged another catch to Lees at first slip after making 54 from 91 balls.
“It’s been a tough day for the lads bowling there,” said Rankin. “But I thought we stuck at it pretty well. It’s still a good wicket, so if we can come back tomorrow morning and get their last three wickets pretty quickly, I’ve still got all the confidence in our batters to get a big score.”
Of his own performance, Rankin said: “I felt in a pretty good rhythm pretty much all day. We wanted to start the day well and I think Woody and me did that. They had a good partnership after that and I did beat the bat a few times, but sometimes that’s the way it is.”