ANDREW Strauss and Alastair Cook racked up twin hundreds as England drew with South Australia on a rain-affected day in Adelaide in their Ashes warm-up fixture.
Strauss (102) and his back-to-form fellow opener Cook (111 n.o.) put on 181 in 42 overs as the tourists moved from a start-of-play 94 to allow a declaration 20 minutes before lunch against a flagging home attack at the Adelaide Oval.
England therefore set SA an improbable 308 to win from a minimum 65 overs.
Rain intervened later in the day and South Australia negotiated 20.5 overs of English bowling to reach 48 for two to reach the draw, with James Anderson picking up both wickets.
Strauss already had three leg-side sixes to his name in his unbeaten half-century on Friday night.
He cracked on to complete his 118-ball hundred with his fourth maximum – another pick-up slog-sweep off slow left-armer Aaron O’Brien – to go with 13 fours.
It was his second century in successive matches. But O’Brien bowled the England captain, attempting another big hit to leg, immediately afterwards.
Cook, who had previously been short of runs, made the most of the opportunity after he and Strauss had done the harder work impressively late on Friday.
His run of moderate form had been one of the few areas of concern for England as they continue their preparations for the first Test in Brisbane, but Cook – like his captain – fed off a succession of easy scoring opportunities presented by a bowling unit minus the injured Jake Haberfield.
It took Cook 152 deliveries to reach three figures, and when he did so his mistimed pull – edged over his and the wicketkeeper’s head off Tim Lang for his 16th four – was no thing of beauty.
No-one in the England camp was complaining, though.