PLAYS OF THE DAY

From the sublime in Nottingham last week to the ridiculous in a few days, Chris Morris has shown all parts of his game in this series. He was wild and lacked control with the ball, giving his skipper headaches about where to place his field. After Philander and Morkel had built pressure in the first 40 minutes, Morris let the advantage slip going for 14 runs in his first over, giving Stokes three easy boundaries. He finished with 1/91 from 17 overs, with just one maiden. Then he played a lousy shot amidst SA’s collapse, gifting his wicket to Anderson.

STILL SEAMING

Elgar got one from Broad that pitched on middle and off, and seamed and bounced away from in the fourth over of SA’s innings. Under overcast skies batting remains extremely hard with the ball moving this way and that. It’s a lot different from the last time South Africa were here. In 2012, the pitch (the English claimed) was flown in from the sub-continent. South Africa notched up 637/2 decl. It was the opposite yesterday.

KEEPING UP WITH ROLAND-JONES

Tobias Skelton Roland-Jones had quite the Friday at The Oval. A run-a-ball 25 where he cashed in on some freebies from Morris in particular was followed by a dream spell in which he took Elgar, Kuhn, Amla and De Kock’s wickets. With The Oval crowd roaring in approval, he posted bowling figures of 4/39.

SIZZLING STOKES

Stokes, as former England captain Michael Vaughan explained, played the perfect Test innings. He could barely lay a bat on it in gloomy conditions on Thursday evening, but under slightly brighter skies yesterday, he was able to take advantage, thumping the bowling to all parts. He occupied the crease for four and a half hours, faced 153 balls, scoring 112, hitting nine fours and four sixes

QUOTE:

“He’s just providing bowling machine deliveries,” said former SA captain Graeme Smith on the BBC’s Test Match Special of Morris’s performance with the ball. Asked to explain, Smith replied: “When you go to the net and you want to groove your cover drive you ask for bowling like that.”

CONDITIONS

Slightly warmer than day one, but that only served to help the bowlers – or at least it should have done so for the Saffers. More overcast is forecast for today which will help to retain some of the moisture in the surface. Expect it to keep seaming.