South Africa defy Broad’s heroics
England relief as local hero rips out three
IT WAS not as spectacular as the last time he bowled in a Test at Trent Bridge, but Stuart Broad showed again just how much he relishes the green grass of home by stepping up just when England needed him most yesterday.
It was here in Nottingham two years ago that Broad produced one of the great displays of Ashes fast bowling to take eight for 15 as Australia were blown away for just 60 before lunch on the first day.
There was not quite as much excitement on the first day of this second Test, but Broad’s intervention was just as welcome for the new England captain, Joe Root, who found the kind of scrap he insists he craves.
South Africa were justifying Faf du Plessis’s bold decision to bat first, on a ground where Broad and Jimmy Anderson reign supreme, when Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock guided them silkily to 179 for two at tea.
But with England fearing they had wasted their chance to take control in conditions made for their big bowling beasts, Broad swapped ends to claim the scalps of South Africa’s best two batsmen in a 22-ball spell that cost just three runs.
First De Kock, promoted to No 4 after South Africa’s fourth-day collapse at Lord’s, cut Broad’s very first ball from the Radcliffe Road End straight to Alastair Cook, who grasped a straightforward chance at slip at the second attempt.
Then Amla, dropped low by Cook off a difficult chance on 56, finally perished to the hook shot. He had earlier got away with three mistimed pulls in only his second halfcentury in nine innings since making a hundred in his 100th Test.
How important it was to Root, who had been helpless to stop the pair adding 113 classy runs, Amla passing 8,000 in Tests and De Kock showing why he is regarded as the best batsman-keeper since Australia’s Adam Gilchrist.
The stage appeared to be set for England to apply the killer blow to a South Africa team beaten in both the one- day and Twenty20 series and eliminated limply in the Champions Trophy before their capitulation at Lord’s.
But, even though Anderson immediately gained the swing that had seen him take 53 wickets in eight previous Trent Bridge Tests, and Broad steamed in from the same Pavilion End where he wreaked Ashes carnage, South Africa held firm.
Far from taking all 10 wickets in the session, England could manage only one before lunch this time, Dean Elgar picking the wrong ball to attack and being caught athletically by Liam Dawson to give Anderson his 300th home wicket.
Heino Kuhn, dismissed cheaply twice on his Test debut at Lord’s at the age of 33, hung on grimly despite being rapped on the fingers by Broad and the helmet by Mark Wood.
But after he had battled his way to 34 off 87 balls, Nottinghamshire’s Broad struck for the first time when he bowled Kuhn off an inside edge to give England their second wicket of what became a hard-fought day.
After Broad’s double strike there were two wickets for England’s least consistent bowler, Ben Stokes, both with the assistance of catches by Jonny Bairstow, who was immaculate throughout.
First Bairstow pulled off his second exceptional left-handed diving catch in successive games after Stokes had taken the glove of South Africa’s returning captain Du Plessis. Then he gathered a more straightforward chance when Temba Bavuma edged a delivery he was attempting to leave.
It left England on top but South Africa found a doughty partnership in Vernon Philander and Chris Morris, who lifted them from the depths of 235 for six to give them parity by the close and perhaps even a small advantage. Bairstow’s verdict was ‘pretty even’.
The pair added an unbeaten 74, Philander moving to his second half-century in successive matches, and with the second new ball doing little for England in the late afternoon sunshine, Du Plessis will feel he has steadied his ship after missing the first Test.
This was the sort of challenge Root said he wanted after everything went his and England’s way at Lord’s to give him a perfect start as captain. It is expecting an awful lot for Root to get everything right in only his seventh first-class game in charge of any team and there were lessons to be learned here, with South Africa proving such a hard nut to crack.
Root will have to be more discerning in allowing reviews after England’s were wasted at an early stage yesterday by Stokes and Broad, when both were far too eager to question the not- out decisions of umpire Paul Reiffel.
And Root’s handling of his spinners was curious, the new captain again using Dawson first and only turning to Moeen Ali as his sixth bowler for the 45th over when he had demolished South Africa with 10 wickets at Lord’s.
It is seam and swing that will continue to prove the most dangerous weapons in this Test, though, with all to play for at one of England’s happiest hunting grounds.