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Hash, AB standing firm at lunch

Cape Town - Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers continued the Proteas recovery on day three of the second Test against England at Newlands on Monday. 

At lunch, South Africa were 199/2, with De Villiers 56* and Amla 91*.

In a session in which the batsmen were largely comfortable, England let another big chance go by with their second dropped catch of the innings.

De Villiers had been put down by Joe Root off James Anderson when he was on 5 on Sunday afternoon, and on Monday morning it was Amla's turn for such good fortune. 

This time Root was the bowler and Anderson the fielder - the off-spinner tossing one up that Amla, on 76 at the time, went after with a hard drive. It found the edge, but the ball seemed to get to Anderson at slip too quickly for him to ever look like taking the catch. 

The pair put on 58 runs in 29 overs in the session, and their partnership now stands at 114, but the Proteas still find themselves an intimidating 430 behind the English first innings score of 629/6 declared. 

De Villiers went to 50 in the 65th over with a straight drive back past Moeen Ali that also saw him become just the third South African to move past 8000 Test runs. 

With the sun baking down on the Newlands wicket, there still appears to be very little assistance for the bowlers while De Villiers and Amla will both be confident of cashing in on their second chances.

By the end of the session the runs were flowing more freely, and while it may have been a far cry from the 196 scored by a rampant Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow in Sunday's morning session, the Proteas would have been thrilled to get through unscathed. 

FULL SCOREBOARD

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