Broad gains on day of attrition

short at Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock. Broad though can feel satisfied with his day’s work even if he shared the general frustration at the way South Africa’s tail were allowed to wriggle from the hook. On a day like yesterday, shifting their two best batsmen, Amla and De Kock, out of the equation had dragged a match inching away from England back towards them after they had put on 113 for the third wicket. If you were pointing fingers at all, had Jimmy Anderson, Mark Wood, Liam Dawson and Stokes bowled with similar discipline England might last night.

Broad has always had the ability to run hot through a side – witness that blistering Ashes spell here in 2015 or his 6-17 against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2015-16.

Since then, he has not been able to plug into the same sort of electricity but his position in the side has never been in question and yesterday suggested he may not be far away.

As expected, South Africa had rang the changes following the defeat at Lord’s, shifting De Kock up to four, bringing in skipper Faf du Plessis, who missed the first Test to attend the birth of his first child, and drafting in Chris Morris and Duanne Olivier to beef up the bowling.

So changes aimed at harnessing De Kock and Amla for a more telling have been batting period and also getting the lower order to show some resolve can already be deemed a success.

Du Plessis’ decision to bat first was a decision made with the fourth innings more in mind not the first – and he was vindicated, particularly in the first session.

Root, who said he would have bowled under smothering cloud, would have considered 56-1 at lunch a failure.

And two burned reviews either side of lunch did nothing to improve the mood. The second, when he chose to challenge a not out lbw decision off Broad against Heino Kuhn which was too high, was acceptable, just. But first was a lesson learned.

Root and his vice captain Stokes could have been forgiven for their eagerness to dismiss Amla who had 14 at the time but in acceding immediately to his bowler’s request, Root eschewed the normal bowler-captainwicketkeeper confab.

Replays showed the impact outside the line and the ball missing.

Broad’s first intervention brought De Kock to the crease and the wicketkeeper went on to show just how dangerous a batsman he will be during the remainder of this series with a pearl of an innings.

Only two batsmen, Steve Smith and Virat Kohli, have averaged more than the South African since 2016 which is illustrious company indeed.

On his dismissal of De Kock alone, Broad’s day was a productive one.