ROOT MASTER
SKIPPER TURNS THE SCREW ON SOUTH AFRICA
Two young men in hoodies, wrapped up against what was by the end a chill wind, were packing up the bouncy castle early. It will not be coming back on the final day.
Neither will South Africa, in all likelihood, weather permitting. England have four wickets to mop up to win this Test by an innings and plenty, and the same target in yesterday’s morning session was met at the cost of one run.
Providing rain does not offer an escape, this will be an emphatic win, leaving England in command of the series heading to the final Test in Johannesburg. Yet the result seems almost the least of it.
Even if Joe Root and his players were to sit looking at three sessions of frustrating drizzle today — and forecasts make that increasingly unlikely — this still feels like an occasion of significance. A way forward has begun to emerge in the gloom of Port Elizabeth, solutions to long-standing problems.
English cricket being as changeable as the coastal weather on the Eastern Cape, it may be unwise to read too much into a single Test.
Yet with resilience in the top order, a century for ollie Pope, five wickets for Dom Bess and Mark wood fit again, this has been an important Test for England.
And, true, things have gone for them here, too. Ben Stokes was dropped on 10 and went on to make 120, transforming the match in the process.
The news that Kagiso Rabada would be banned for the decider in Johannesburg broke on the morning of day two and he, and South Africa, did not look the same after that.
The weakness of the opposition must be taken into account as well. This is not the South Africa of old and the fact Root finished day four with the best bowling figures of any England captain since Bob willis against New Zealand at Headingley in 1983 suggests the hosts’ defensive strategies left much to be desired.
Root is a handy support player with the ball, but that’s what he is.
Batsmen are very much in the majority for England captains but even so it is still surprising that in their combined 15 Tests, former captains John Emburey, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen did not bowl a single four wicket stint in any match.
So this has been one of those games in which the planets have aligned for England. They have even looked the part, considering how many times poles were sent flying in the morning session.
As England brought South Africa’s first innings to a sudden and spectacular end, Stuart Broad bowled a fabulous spell, taking three wickets, two bowled, for no runs.
Each time, a stump was sent flying. off stump first, then leg, finally middle. It was beautiful to watch. It is the minutiae of sport that makes it special.
Some years ago, when Nike signed a deal to make the kits at Rangers, the company researched what held special appeal for their supporters.
A blue shirt, obviously, was the priority, yet Nike were surprised by how attached Rangers fans were to the socks. And not just that they had to be black. what they loved, what they were absolutely married to, was the red trim. It’s the little details that often contain sport’s essence and that is certainly true of cricket. The best dismissals are those that take the stumps out of the ground. There is something wonderful in such savage demolition. The last four wickets of South Africa’s first innings and the first of their second all saw the batsmen lose a stump. one fell like a chopped tree, others cartwheeled like a lit Catherine wheel loose from its mooring. Cricket spends so much time getting bails to light up and other gimmicks, yet nothing elicits such simple pleasure as the old-school dislodging of wood from earth. And a follow on, too. Not many of those about these days, not since Steve waugh invited India to have another go in Calcutta in 2001 and Australia subsequently lost. It seems so rare in the modern game that some were wondering the etiquette of how it was done. would Root invite South Africa to bat again, as is the traditional terminology? This implies they could politely decline. Actually, for all the civility the beleaguered captain has no choice. Neither did Root, really. with conditions so fluid, he couldn’t have risked adding a superfluous 100 to England’s lead, only to lose time to rain and end up with a draw. If South Africa didn’t take on the run chase challenge in Cape Town, they certainly weren’t about to locate the cavalier spirit here.
Their only ambition from the moment play resumed after another significant rain delay was survival, although lemmings have better instincts around how to pull that off.
Mark Boucher, South Africa’s head coach, described his team as broken after this and having watched England snapped like twigs on Ashes tours on several occasions, it was good to see them applying similar pressure here.
The bowling was outstanding, but South Africa were woeful. Good batsmen played poor, unthinking shots and Pope took another brilliant catch to twist the knife. what a Test he has enjoyed.
His performance has been the greatest positive, obviously. A brilliant foil for Stokes and a lovely, technical stroke player once in command.
It may be that Pope is promoted up the order in future but, for now, he presents a genuine threat at six. England’s top three will need to be trusted with greater freedom before the caravan reaches Australia in 2021 but they built a solid platform here.
As for Bess, he has turned a battlefield promotion into the answer for England, who have been looking for a spinner with matchwinning potential since Graeme Swann retired. Some games grow in import with hindsight. England’s victory over Pakistan in Karachi under Nasser Hussain certainly did and maybe this will.
For the moment, let’s not get carried away. This is one Test, even though momentum is building after the victory in Cape Town.
No team has ever survived on the final day from South Africa’s position and Boucher’s players do not look to have history in them.
So, all things equal, England will advance on Johannesburg leading 2-1. And even if by some meteorological fluke they did not, they head north in better shape than could have been hoped coming out of the first Test. Even if there are clouds today, they will have the biggest silver lining.