But when it came to chasing down the runs, Haddin (39 in an opening stand of 110 with Watson) and Michael Clarke, who made a boundary-free 36 in another big stand worth 107, could afford to take a back seat as Watson coped with tiredness and cramp to smash 12 fours and four sixes under the floodlights.

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The South African tail-ender deposited his five maximums over the short leg-side boundary, sharing a ninth-wicket stand of 71 with Naqaash Tahir, who was dropped twice on three by Dale Benkenstein at third slip.

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He dispatched a Graeme Swann long-hop to the mid-wicket boundary to bring up a half-century stand, and reached his own maiden fifty in his fourth Test from 47 balls, 44 of those runs coming in boundaries.

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Yet again Collingwood was the ideal foil, confidently pushing through the covers to the boundary early in his innings, and recording the fifty stand from 66 balls with Flintoff with a deft sweep off Botha.

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But he found found a willing ally in Luke Sutton (29) for a sixth-wicket stand of 77 and reached his first century for Lancashire with his 13th boundary shortly after Sutton departed to a smart catch at first slip by James Vince.

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An edgy late cut, again off Krejza, also disappeared to the boundary and at lunch Ganguly was on 80, Mahendra Dhoni 43, with their stand worth 101.

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When my family and I toed our way through the Boundary Waters of the northern reaches of Minnesota, my brother and I found a stand of pitcher plants growing out of a moldering mat of reeds and moss, and because of this book, I had the theory of ecological succession right in the front of my brain.

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They were bowled by Nuwan Kulasekara, who was also deposited into the VIP stand by Alam, and then it was left to the captain to hit the winning runs with his fifth boundary.

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