Date-stamped : 08 Jan96 - 10:33 Tour Match. Western Province v England. Newlands, Cape Town. 6 January 1996. Ramprakash and England fail again - Scyld Berry Western Province (200-7) beat England (196) by 3 wickets ENGLAND chose last night to leave the losing Test trail and to get on the losing one-day trail instead. In front of 15,000 spec- tators, in the game to compensate for the early finish of the Test, England lost by three wickets to Western Province and ended in rather a heap. Their experience this week was summed up by Mark Ramprakash. Whatever the form of cricket, Test match or 50-over bash like this one, he seems fated to fail. In the last six weeks he had made four runs, a total to which yesterday he did not add. Ramprakash - after making four and a second-ball duck in the Test in Johannesburg - had gone on to make nought again, against Bo- land, in his only other innings before yesterday. He entered after Mike Atherton, finding early boundaries elusive, had edged an outswinger. Graham Thorpe greeted him at the wicket, a friendly face. They were meant to be England`s bright young middle order things after the Perth Test a year ago. This game was staged on the Test pitch (another sensitive rem- inder to England of their downfall) and the first ball from Meyr- ick Pringle to Ramprakash might have bounced off one of the numerous cracks. Whatever part of the batsman`s anatomy or gloves the ball hit, it looped towards extra cover, where Faiek Davids began his man-of-the-match campaign by diving underneath it. You could not call it dissent. It was more like stupefaction, sheer disbelief that cricket could be so remorselessly cruel Ramprakash did not `walk`; he rubbed his forearm, even after the umpire had raised his finger. You could not call it dissent. It was more like stupefaction, sheer disbelief that cricket could be so remorselessly cruel. When Thorpe followed, lying back too much and driving to point, England were 13 for three and the launch of their World Cup foray was proceeding on the same lines as their Test match - the last nine England wickets on this cracked turf had been worth 32 runs. Indeed, it looked as though this beer match would end so early that another one would have to be arranged. But Craig White came in to cover drive and play his most confi- dent innings for England, 46 off 55 balls, and he bowled well later, too, hitting the bat hard and perhaps stealing a march over Dermot Reeve OBE. Neil Fairbrother, who had not come straight from the A tour of Pakistan, took 107 balls to make the same score. Western Province, like England, were not at full strength without Brian McMillan, Jacques Kallis, Gary Kirsten and Paul Adams but they have Paul Kirsten, the younger brother, a wicketkeeper who was not distracted by stumps of Day-Glo orange and he joined in a vital stand with Davids at 132 for seven in the 41st over. England steadily wilted under their assault: Mike Watkinson`s tour has been in no danger of euphoria and Neil Smith might be the one World Cup off-spinner; certainly, Peter Martin has forced his way into the party by improving with every game. Darren Gough`s comeback had begun with a second ball duck. He settled down with an opening spell of five overs for eight runs but Davids hit him and everyone else robustly, taking sixes off Watkinson and White, and he finished with 55 off 39 balls. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)