BRENTWOOD School pupil Kishen Velani fell just one short of a half century during England Under 19s first Test of two against South Africa.
It was the 18-year-old's first taste of four day cricket as England were bowled out for 313 on the second day at Newlands.
Before leaving for the tour he told the Gazette: "I haven't played any four day games yet but I've played three day games so it's similar.
"It's going to be tough to play four days in a row but it's exciting, it's good practice for me when I come back and try to take things further with Essex."
On the opening day England were invited to bat and duly slipped to 14 for three.
However, Velani and Callum Jackson then steadied the ship with scores of 49 and 43, and Barnard held firm thereafter to move on to a century.
England then assumed a 119 run lead after dismissing the hosts for 194 which the action due to conclude today (Wednesday).
The second Test starts on Sunday, February 3 in Paarl before the One Day International series starts on Wednesday, February 13.
In other news Essex legend Graham Gooch will no longer coach the England ODI side and will instead focus on the Test Match arena.
Graham Thorpe will tak over as batting coach for the limited-overs tour of New Zealand.
Hugh Morris, ECB Managing Director, said: "Graham Gooch is going to focus now on Test cricket and on preparing batsmen for Test matches.
"We would like to focus on that area of the game. We've got back-to-back Ashes series coming up and a five-Test series against India in 2014. That's an enormous amount of very high-profile Test cricket and Graham will be focussing his attention on working one-on-one with our Test players."
