ENG VS SA, 2ND TEST
South Africa squeezed the pulp from England’s attack in the second Investec Test with a resolution that has not only set them up for victory at Trent Bridge, but potentially left a few psychological marks for the matches ahead at The Oval and Old Trafford. England’s openers clung on for four overs at the end of an exhausting third day – and even that required Alastair Cook’s successful review, first ball, to overturn an lbw decision for Morne Morkel, and much desperate defending besides.
But that was about England’s only consolation as they contemplated a target of 474, assembled with utmost seriousness by a South African side determined to give no quarter. No side has made that many at Trent Bridge in the fourth innings, whatever the result, and the weather is set fair.
There was much for South Africa to like as they looked on from Trent Bridge’s characterful old dressing-room balcony. England’s spinners, lightly used in the first half of the day, found increasing turn in the final session, and there was both steep and low bounce for the second new ball.
Only in the hour before the declaration did South Africa bat in uninhibited fashion, adding 68 in 14 overs as their lead passed West Indies’ 418 for 7, the highest successful chase in Test history in St John’s 14 years ago, and 440, the highest fourth-innings in a Test in England, amassed by New Zealand in 1973 in the pluckiest of defeats.
The mood of the day, though, centred upon Hashim Amla, who was so relaxed in making 80 from 180 balls, he might have been a prized professor at a school of meditation. Not that he did much to de-stress the England attack as South Africa’s lead slowly advanced. His passivity told not of negativity but of an inner certainty that a South African win would ultimately unfold before him.
In reaching half-centuries, Dean Elgar and Faf du Plessis maintained similar self-control. Amla’s demise was somewhat unexpected. Joe Root had been markedly reluctant to bowl his spinners, especially Liam Dawson, who had been despatched with ease by Amla in two overs before lunch. But with the seamers needing time to graze before the second new ball, Dawson had to return and he had Amla lbw advancing well down the pitch in a bid to hit him down the ground.
Umpire Paul Rieffel had no option but to turn down the appeal, just as it was no surprise to find upon England’s review that ball-tracking technology suggested the ball would hit middle, halfway up. Dawson deserved it, if only for the precision of his review signal to his captain – the ‘T’ signal perfectly formed – which was either symptomatic of a Test cricket newbie eager to do things right or merely a young man of fastidious nature. As England took the field at the start of play, the Getty photographer Gareth Copley captured Stuart Broad staring at the Trent Bridge honours board, as if to build himself up for a supreme fightback, South Africa’s lead at start of play already being 205. -MD
