Fletcher, 57, accompanied his wife Marina back to their Cape Town home . . . a trip made necessary by her unspecified medical condition. He is expected to fly back to Goa in the early hours of Monday, the day of the third one-day international of the series against India.

Families of the England touring party have been in India for the past fortnight of the nine-week tour, on which unscheduled departures have been a feature.

Captain Michael Vaughan, Simon Jones and Steve Harmison all returned home through injury . . . while Marcus Trescothick quit two weeks in for personal reasons. In Fletcher's absence, assistant coach Matthew Maynard will be in charge for today's practice session as England look to get back into a series they trail 2-0.

The scoreline could be so different, however, because England dominated threequarters of each defeat. Only an horrendous batting collapse of seven wickets for 47 saw them fall short in the opening match in Delhi, and it took a century partnership for the sixth wicket between teenager Suresh Raina and Mahendra Dhoni to settle the Faridabad contest India's way.

"We feel we should be 2-0 up without a shadow of a doubt, " said all-rounder Ian Blackwell. "But we are a young side and we just blew it, I guess. I hope we have shown that they are not unbeatable. We are not bothered that half the team are not playing; we are just going out there believing we can win every game."

Elsewhere, four wickets fell in the afternoon session as South Africa's bowlers continued to get the better of Australia on the second day in Johannesburg.

Starting the afternoon on 47 for one, Damien Martyn was the first to go for 21 runs after the lunch interval when the ball caught the toe of his bat as he attempted a pull shot. It flew high into the air and allowed Andre Nel an easy catch at mid-on.

Then in-form Australian captain Ricky Ponting went four overs later for 34 runs as he tentatively prodded a Makhaya Ntini delivery and got an outside edge to AB de Villiers at second slip.

Ntini got his fourth wicket of the innings as Andrew Symonds played too late at the ball and was trapped in front of leg stump. The Proteas bowlers kept up the pressure with a succession of maidens, frustrating the hard-hitting Adam Gilchrist, who eventually fell hooking Nel to deep mid-wicket, where Jacques Rudolph took the catch. Michael Hussey (34) and Shane Warne (14) took Australia into tea on 141 for five, with opener Justin Langer unlikely to come back into bat after he retired hurt following the first ball of the innings. Ntini's delivery before lunch felled the Australian opener, playing in his 100th test, and he was taken to hospital for scans after suffering concussion.

Earlier Australia had bowled out the Proteas for 303.