ENGLAND MOVE IN FOR THE KILL
Stokes turns screw and ruthless Root homes in on victory
Nothing is more predictable with England than their unpredictability. Momentum? it is clearly a myth, at least where this test team and this fluctuating series against an equally inconsistent South Africa are concerned.
the extreme highs and lows of Lord’s and trent Bridge have been followed by a mightily impressive display here from England just when South Africa had climbed off the canvas and seemed poised to inflict a killer blow of their own.
England, after four days of compelling test cricket, stand just six wickets away in the oval’s 100th men’s test from an unassailable 2-1 lead which would quickly disperse the clouds that gathered around them in nottingham.
it was Ben Stokes who said before this third investec test: ‘one game you all say we’re the best team in the world and then the next we’re the worst. We don’t know where we stand with you guys.’
Well, that’s because England play like the best team in the world one game and then the worst the next. now, just when an England side including three debutants had looked at their most fragile, they are on top of the world again.
none more so than Stokes, who yesterday followed up his brilliant first-innings hundred by removing two of South Africa’s most important batsmen in successive balls to leave their hopes of survival hanging by a thread.
First Quinton de Kock was beaten by a superb inswinging yorker from Stokes and then captain Faf du Plessis inexplicably shouldered arms to his first ball to fall in identical fashion to the first innings. And again he wasted a review.
it left South Africa, set a notional 492 to win by Joe Root, reeling at 52 for four with yet another fourthinnings capitulation in prospect and England suddenly and brilliantly pushing for victory within four rainaffected days.
Dean Elgar, dropped by Keaton Jennings on nine, and temba Bavuma stopped the rot and battled through to the close with an unbeaten stand of 65, but it would be another huge surprise if England were denied today.
this was a near perfect day for England and captain Root, who was utterly ruthless in batting on until tea to ensure any remote possibility of a South African victory had been completely extinguished.
there were many who expected Root to be a more attacking, less conservative captain than Alastair Cook but in his selectorial influence so far and now with his first big declaration, he has been nothing if not pragmatic.
that is not to say Root was too cautious because there were still 138 overs of the test to go when he called time on England’s second innings at 313 for eight, after Jonny Bairstow’s enterprising 63 off 58 balls came to an end.
this was the best batting of the innings from Bairstow, who brilliantly upper-cut Kagiso Rabada for four and then executed an equally skilful dab cut off Chris Morris for another boundary as the runs flowed between lunch and tea.
if Bairstow’s perfectly timed push from where he seems well suited at no 7 had confirmed England’s superiority, it had been set up by two of the less established players battling to cement places in the top order. Jennings never looked comfortable and could have been dismissed five times in his 48 but he showed fight and character before being bounced out by Rabada and looks certain to be given another chance at old trafford on Friday.
there are no such question marks over tom Westley, who showed real composure yesterday to add to his first-innings flair when South Africa repeatedly bowled wide of off stump to try to exploit his supposed vulnerability.
Westley proved up to the challenge in his 59 before falling trying to attack the spin of Keshav Maharaj and has made big strides on his debut towards filling a gap at no 3 that has become as wide for England as a chasm.
First Root and then Stokes and Bairstow upped the scoring rate, with the only disappointment coming when Dawid Malan was dismissed cheaply by an inswinger for the second time in the match.
Malan is the only one of the three debutants to have a bad match but he will have at least the fourth test to further press his claims.
the only remaining question was whether South Africa would collapse in the final innings as quickly as they had done at Lord’s, when they were dismissed in 36.4 overs, and England had at trent Bridge, where they went down in 44.2. For a while they seemed to be heading for just as rapid an exit.
heino Kuhn is struggling in his debut series and Stuart Broad was too good for him before toby Roland- Jones, the most impressive of the three debutants, trapped hashim Amla for the second time in the match.
Amla scored the small matter of an unbeaten 311 the last time he played test cricket at the oval five years ago but has managed 300 fewer over two innings in which he has offered no answer to Roland- Jones.
When Stokes, touching 90mph and bowling as well as he has done all season, struck that double blow, England were rampant but Elgar, nursing an injured finger, hung on in there with the impressively composed Bavuma.
South Africa can fight another day but it is England who are well on top this time, as this rollercoaster ride of a series enthrallingly rolls on.