TAMALE (Reuters) - Substitute Elrio van Heerden scored from long range with two minutes left to give South Africa a 1-1 draw against Angola in the African Nations Cup yesterday.

Manucho headed Angola in front in the first half of the Group D game at the Tamale Sports Stadium which saw 2010 World Cup hosts South Africa stage an impressive late rally.

Fielding an experimental team in their bid to give younger players more experience for 2010, South Africa had the ball in the net shortly before their equaliser but it was disallowed for offside.

Angola goalkeeper Lama denied them an injury-time winner when he parried a thundering drive from substitute Thembinkosi Fanteni.

Earlier, Tunisia and Senegal drew 2-2 in the group's opening game.

"We played with a very good spirit in the second half and that has given us hope for the next match," said South Africa's Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira.

"When we put the ball on the ground, we created some chances.

"We have a young team and we were playing against a side which had eight players with World Cup experience. That's why I'm happy with the performance of my team today."

Angola coach Luis Oliveira Goncalves said: "We controlled the game for 88 minutes and then we made a mistake which cost us the game.

"As we say in our country, we had the bird in our hand and we let it fly away."

Angola broke through in the 30th minute when Andre found Flavio on the edge of the area and the striker held off his marker before chipping the ball across to Manucho, who headed into the top of the goal.

Angola had more chances early in the second half when substitute Ze Kalanga shot wide after a one-two with Flavio and when Flavio shot into the side-netting.

South Africa took control and, after a series of half-chances, had the ball in the net form Teko Modise's free kick, but it was ruled offside.

They finally equalised in the 88th minute when van Heerden, who replaced the unimpressive Steven Pienaar, crashed in a shot from 30 metres.