Vaughan: expects strong response

The wicket did a little bit but not enough to suggest that someone shouldn't have got a hundred.

Michael Vaughan
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England captain Michael Vaughan paid tribute to South Africa after the tourists' 10-wicket win at Headingley.

Vaughan's men were comprehensively outplayed to lose with a day to spare in Leeds and go 1-0 down at the mid-point of the four-match series.

England never recovered from being bowled out for 203 on the opening day.

South Africa responded by piling up 522 with centuries from Ashwell Prince and AB de Villiers setting the platform for a comprehensive triumph.

Half-centuries from Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad saw England fare slightly better second time around, although South Africa were left to chase a victory target of just nine.

"Full credit to South Africa, they put us a under a lot of pressure, especially on the first day," Vaughan told Sky Sports.

"203 was not a par-score on that wicket. They then went out and batted beautifully, we threw everything at them but Ashwell Prince and AB de Villiers played two tremendous knocks.

Difficult

"Having a 300 deficit leading into the second innings was always going to be difficult.

"The wicket did a little bit but not enough to suggest that someone shouldn't have got a hundred."

England's selection at Headingley has come in for heavy criticism, especially the decision to pluck 29-year-old Darren Pattinson from relative obscurity for a Test debut in place of the injured Ryan Sidebottom.

The Grimsby-born, Australian-raised seamer failed to take his form for Nottinghamshire into the Test arena, leading to head-scratching over why he was preferred to more experienced options such as Stephen Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones and Chris Tremlett.

"It's all hindsight, this is not a time to talk about that," said Vaughan.

"There is a lot of work to do in the next week, we know that (third Test venue) Edgbaston is a good ground for England in the last few years and we hope to produce a better performance."

Flintoff praised

A rare highlight to come out of the game was the performance of Andrew Flintoff on his Test comeback following an injury-enforced absence of 18 months.

Flintoff was unlucky not to pick up more than a solitary wicket while delivering 40 overs in South Africa's first innings and also showed signs of form with the bat during an aggressive second-innings knock of 38.

"That is one of the positives of the week - Andrew Flintoff bowled tremendously and in the second innings looked to have found a bit of form with the bat," added Vaughan.

"Having him back in the side is a big positive for the team."

Vaughan remains upbeat about his side's prospects of turning things around in the final two Tests at Edgbaston (Jul 30-Aug 3) and the Oval (Aug 7-11).

England recovered from one down to win the Test series in New Zealand 2-1 last March, an experience Vaughan is calling for a repeat of.

"We were in a similar position in New Zealand a few months ago, 1-0 down with two to play, and we have to come back and put in the same kind of performance that we did over there," he noted.

"This is a team that contains a lot of character, we've come back from 1-0 down before and we can do it again."