- England vs South Africa, 1st Investec Test, Lord’s, 4th day:
England swept South Africa aside to begin the Joe Root era with a crushing victory as 19 wickets fell in a day at Lord’s. Moeen Ali, taking full licence of the attacking brief given him by England’s new captain, ran through a mesmerised South Africa batting order to claim 6 for 53 on the way to a maiden ten-wicket haul in Tests.
Having been set 331 to win the first Test, with almost 150 overs in which to get them, South Africa were unable to even take the match into a fifth day. With the pitch offering appreciable assistance for the spin of Moeen and Liam Dawson, they subsided to 119 all out in 36.4 overs, with Temba Bavuma’s 41-ball 21 providing the most prolonged resistance. Faf du Plessis, looking on from the balcony having returned to lead the team at Trent Bridge next week, was left with much to ponder.
South Africa were in trouble early in their innings, going to tea on 25 for 3, with Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock their main hope of giving Root and England a fright. Only once had a team chased as many in the fourth innings to win a Lord’s Test, though Root may have recalled for a moment the occasion when he filled in as Yorkshire captain in 2014 and saw Middlesex ease to a target of 472 three wickets down on this ground.
That gained him the nickname “craptain” in the Yorkshire dressing room, but it looks like England will have to come up with something more generous. In truth, Root did not have to resort to much in the way of tactical genius, as his two spinners bowled in tandem for 24 overs to finish off South Africa with time to spare on another sun-drenched evening in north London. South Africa had not lost a Test at Lord’s since 1960 but they broke that record in style.
It meant their fight back during the first half of the day, when they claimed England’s last nine wickets for the addition of 114 runs became a distant memory. It could have been better still but Jonny Bairstow, who scored a vital half-century, was dropped on 7 as South Africa’s replicated the mistakes that were so costly to their chances in the first innings.
After James Anderson had made the initial breakthrough, Heino Kuhn removed via a fine, diving catch from Bairstow down the leg side, Moeen picked up his first wicket when he brilliantly held a reflex return catch off Dean Elgar. South Africa’s stand-in captain must have feared the worst at that moment, and their fortunes sunk further when JP Duminy pulled Mark Wood straight to midwicket on the brink of tea.
The selection of Dawson, who made a pair with the bat, was not widely lauded beforehand but he delivered for Root when he plucked out the key wicket of Amla shortly after tea. Moeen’s first four overs were maidens, bottling up South Africa from the Nursery End, and Dawson then produced a ripping delivery that pitched on middle and leg, spun past the groping bat and hit the back leg in front of off; Amla reviewed but in vain.
De Kock and Bavuma dug in for more than 10 overs, lifting the score from 28 for 4 with a 36-run stand, but an increasingly confident England had Mo-mentum on their side. When de Kock tried to relieve some of the pressure by pulling, he only succeeded in dragging the ball into his front leg, from where it fizzed back into his stumps. – Cricinfo
