PLAYS OF THE DAY
‘The one that got away’ Remember when Keaton Jennings scored that hundred on debut in Mumbai and whole lot of people in South Africa carried on about how transformation meant South Africa lost another great talent? And look, South Africa has problems at the top of the order currently, but if Jennings were available for the Proteas, he wouldn’t be the solution to those problems, just like he isn’t for England. Jennings has a highest score of 48 in this series and has scored 127 runs at an average of 15.88.
Drops Dean Elgar finds himself at slip these days, and he shouldn’t be there. Elgar’s one of the senior players, but he’s not a good ‘slipper’ and it’s time he was positioned elsewhere. He’s dropped three slip catches in this series and the one he did catch at The Oval, he nearly dropped. South Africa missed five catches yesterday - Elgar’s being the simplest while a hobbling Kuhn, a flying Bavuma and diving Du Plessis all grassed very hard opportunities.
Pitch This surface is looking very worn out - and has aged much more than a day 3 pitch should have. Balls are shooting through low, and the likes of Morkel and Rabada were still getting deliveries to bounce awkwardly. There’s a huge amount of rough out there too for Moeen Ali when SA bat again. Rain’s been forecast for the last two days, and that is all that will save South Africa here.
Stat Morkel dismissed Cook for the 12th time yesterday, making it the most dismissals of one batsman by a South African bowler. Allan Donald dismissed Mike Atherton 11 times (it should have been 12 - remember Trent Bridge in 1998?) while Athol Rowan also dismissed Len Hutton 11 times. No one has dismissed Cook more than Morkel, the next best is Mitchell Johnson who’s gotten him out nine times.
Quote “This team, is the best balanced one for England. The questions for me coming into today was about batsmen no.2 (Jennings), no.3 (Westley) and no.5 (Malan)... their temperament and technique. And I’m sorry they all failed that test. England will win this series, that’s nice, but we know nothing about batsmen no2, no.3 and no5.” - Geoffrey Boycott points out all the holes in the England team.