Cape Town – Proteas all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius believes England are “around 70 runs short” of where they need to be at this stage of their first innings at Newlands. 

The visitors finished day one of the second Test on 262/9 on Friday having won the toss and elected to bat. 

A period that saw them slip from 185/4 to 234/9 changed the game quickly, with all five of South Africa’s bowlers in the wickets. 

There were two each for the four-pronged seam attack of Pretorius, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, while spinner Keshav Maharaj also picked up a wicket having bowled 27 overs on the day. 

A frustrating, undefeated 28*-run partnership between Ollie Pope (56*) and James Anderson (3*) for the 10th wicket did frustrate South Africa towards the end of the day, but Pretorius believes the hosts are still in a promising position. 

“I think we did quite well,” the 30-year-old, playing in just his second Test, said.

“That wicket is definitely better to bat on than the SuperSport Park wicket (for the first Test). We stuck to our disciplines quite well and I think that was a good day for us. We’ll take that.”

Pretorius believes that “around 350” was a par first-innings score for this Newlands surface, but he praised his team-mates and the South African bowling attack. 

“I think we complement each other quite well,” he said.

“We’ve got two guys who can bowl 150 kph and the other guys are really accurate.

“KG (Rabada) and Vern with the new ball is really tough for the batters and then I’ve got the privilege of bowling with Ana (Nortje) and he is bowling some serious gas at the moment.”

Pretorius also paid tribute to Maharaj.

“Kesh played a valuable role today with 27 overs and he took all the heat off the seamers on a tough wicket,” he said.

“He was very important for us.”