IN A tour cut to the barest bones like this one, any practice is better than none. Despite a violent thunderstorm shortly before noon, England and their accommodating hosts squeezed as many overs as were possible out of what was originally intended to be a game played, against the tradition of the ground, to the formula of 50 overs a side. That was reduced to 39 overs, but that England won comfortably in the 36th was of far less significance than the fact that the four fast bowlers who are expected to play in next week’s first Test all had a useful workout before Marcus Trescothick played himself into fluency on a dead , slow pitch.

So, rather more impressively, did Robert Key, but to what purpose? Despite a failure by Mark Butcher, it is not impossible that this will turn out to have been his first and last hurrah. Key played with due care at first before indulging himself and the crowd with five sixes in a half-hearted attempt to get himself out and give one or two others time in the middle. He eventually did so by walking across his stumps and missing a leg-side flick, only for Butcher to edge his tenth ball to first slip off Charl Willoughby.

“You don’t want to use up all your luck in one game and I had a fair bit before the end,” Key said after his 85-ball innings. “We decided more or less to have a slog once we’d got fifty, but it’s amazing how much you connect with the ball when you play without fear.” That, in fact, is a lesson he seemed to learn an hour or two into his double hundred against West Indies at Lord’s in July.

Although he played in England’s most recent Test at the Oval, Key might just have played his only innings before next season in England. Butcher is notoriously accident prone, but he is almost certain to get the first run at No 3, barring a pair or some physical setback this weekend in Potchefstroom. The plan is to play the probable Test team there against South Africa A.

If Butcher and the rest of the batsmen evade injury over the next two months — a big “if” — patience of a rare order will be required from the also-rans. Key, who has played in South Africa both for England Under-19 and on the 1998 A tour under Michael Vaughan’s captaincy, has at least made the point that he will be ready for the fray the moment that anyone drops his guard.

Never, before this winter, has a five-Test series been played without a single match to alleviate the diet of five-day, high-pressure cricket. Originally the programme included a three-day game between the third and fourth Tests in Cape Town and Johannesburg. That became a one-day game, which, in turn, was dropped from the itinerary without any official announcement.

It is a pity, but it is the way of things to come. When this spacious, elegant ground was laid out among featureless factories hidden away behind trees with no expense spared 13 years ago, it was intended to be another Arundel, but international teams increasingly want short tours packed with big matches. Thereby, they lose important opportunities to popularise the sport away from city centres.

Stephen Harmison and Matthew Hoggard set a disciplined example for the other fast bowlers from the start. The counter-attack was launched with a sweetly struck straight six off Andrew Flintoff by the much-travelled Neil Johnson, whose batting has aided not only Zimbabwe but four first-class provinces in South Africa and Zimbabwe and two counties in England. He hit a further three sixes on his way to 74 from 58 balls.

The rain and consequent extended lunch interval was anything but dull. The Super Stone Mining Band, complete with young dancers some 100 strong, filled the air with a colourful mixture of Heckmondwyke Works and Trinidad pan. The conductor controlled events standing on a white chair with flamboyant flourishes of white-gloved hands. For a while afterwards, the cricket was almost an anticlimax.

Neither Trescothick nor Key was especially fluent against some tidy bowling by Heath Streak and Willoughby, his left-arm opening partner and some time new-ball performer for South Africa. Once established, however, it was more or less a breeze.

SCOREBOARD FROM RANDJESFONTEIN

NF OPPENHEIMER’S XI
A J Seymore lbw b Jones 23
F du Plessis c Flintoff b Hoggard 1
N C Johnson c Key b Hoggard 74
*A G Prince c Thorpe b Harmison 26
J P Duminy not out 25
†W Bossenger not out 18
Extras (lb 5) 5
Total (4 wkts, 39 overs) 172
H H Streak, G Howell, W L Coetsee, C M Willoughby and L L Tsotsobe did not bat.
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-15, 2-33, 3-126, 4-127.

BOWLING: Hoggard 8-3-29-2; Harmison 7-2-8-1; Jones 8-1-47-1; Flintoff 7-2-30-0; Collingwood 5-1-30-0; Batty 4-0-23-0.

ENGLAND XI
*M E Trescothick not out 85
R W T Key b Tsotsobe 87
M A Butcher c Johnson b Willoughby 6
G P Thorpe not out 5
Extras (lb 2, nb 5) 7
Total (2 wkts, 35.3 overs) 190
A Flintoff, P D Collingwood, †C M W Read,
S P Jones, M J Hoggard, S J Harmison and G J Batty did not bat.
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-167, 2-175.

BOWLING: Streak 6-1-34-0; Willoughby 8.3-1-32-1; Tsotsobe 7-0-27-1; Coetsee 8-1-41-0; Du Plessis 3-0-21-0; Duminy 2-0-17-0; Howell 1-0-16-0.

Umpires: R B Tiffin (Zimbabwe) and S Wadvalla (South Africa).