ROOT’S A SPINBALL WIZARD
Skipper claims his best bowling figures as South Africa crumble to leave England on verge of victory
If the mark of a true all-rounder is a lower bowling average than batting average, then Joe Root can now lay claim to that exalted status after the best day of his life with the ball.
the unlikely figure of Root the off- spinner ripped through a shambolic South Africa yesterday on a brutally one-sided fourth day of this pivotal third test to leave england on the brink of completing the mother of all thrashings.
So emphatic was england’s advantage after a day when 10 South Africa wickets fell for just 103 runs — four of them to the occasional bowling of the captain — that only a whole day of rain today can stop Root’s men taking an unassailable 2-1 lead.
how dominant england were at St George’s Park yesterday and how dramatically the narrative of this series has changed since South Africa won the first test and the questions over Root’s captaincy started to build.
he has answered them with his best game as skipper in Cape town and such a comprehensive and quite ruthless dismantling of South Africa here that their coach Mark Boucher was asked yesterday whether this was their worst side since readmission.
Root could have been expected to make a big contribution with the bat or provide another display of improved tactical acumen to get his side back into this series, but few would have thought he would be his side’s most potent weapon here with the ball. the england captain has always been a more than capable offspinner but he has so much else on his plate, not to mention a back condition that is hardly helped by bowling, that he has not featured nearly as much in the england attack as he might have wished. Yet here Root was firstly backing up his off-spinner Dom Bess, so impressive in taking five first-innings wickets, then out-bowling him to finish with four for 31 as South Africa crashed to 102 for six after following on a massive 290 behind. And Root did it by bowling much quicker than a spinner would usually do, touching 60mph to gain appreciable turn and even bounce on this subcontinental but slow surface against a clueless South Africa line-up. Not that Root was the only england player making a claim for all-rounder status. Mark Wood smashed five sixes when england piled up 499 for nine and now grabbed an outstanding catch after taking the first two wickets of the South Africa second innings in his principal role as a genuinely fast bowler. And it all followed a rapid end to the South Africa first innings when Stuart Broad took three of the last four wickets to fall for just one run in 25 minutes, with Sam Curran claiming the key scalp of Quinton de Kock. What a return with england this has been for the popular Wood. the last time he played test cricket, he was man of the match in the victory over West Indies in Saint Lucia a year ago. And the last time he played in any game was the World Cup final in
July. that day he suffered the latest in a long line of injuries that have cruelly interrupted his international career — a side problem that ruled him out of the Ashes. Now he has been rewarded for all the hard work he has put in to get back yet again.
Wood, who was brought here with the last two tests in mind, touched 93mph in the first innings to provide the perfect foil for Bess and now he displayed as much skill as pace to bowl Dean elgar and have Zubayr hamza caught down the leg side.
that opened the door for england and Root of all people barged through against a South Africa line-up who contributed to their own demise by seemingly having little idea of the basic disciplines required to face spin.
De Kock, heralded for his counter-attack in Centurion, now gave it away trying to play in the same manner with a quite awful loose drive that was sliced to the leaping Wood.
Under-pressure captain faf du Plessis, meanwhile, was so scrambled that he reviewed his bat-pad catch when he must have known he had touched the ball before it reached Ollie Pope.
Pope the batting star had earlier distinguished himself in the field with a diving one-handed catch to send back Rassie van der Dussen, while Pieter Malan’s Chris tavarelike vigil was ended on 12 off 79 balls when he was trapped lbw by Root.
Only by wasting two reviews in their impatience to get the job done on Van der Dussen and Du Plessis did england err on what was close to the perfect day, despite three hours of rain in what will surely today become close to the perfect test.
And if Ben Stokes had managed to hold on to a Vernon Philander pull off Wood that instead cannoned into his chest, england could have taken the extra halfhour and conceivably wrapped up victory in four days.
As it is, they can only hope another uncertain weather forecast does not hold them up today as Root goes in search of his first five-wicket haul in test cricket and england pursue the four wickets that would give them a hugely important win.
there was even the sight of Jofra Archer bowling quickly on the outfield at lunchtime for the second day running, with england confident he will be fit for the final test in Johannesburg on friday when Kagiso Rabada will be suspended for South Africa.
Suddenly everything is going england’s — and Root’s — way.