Wood’s late show leaves England sitting pretty

MARK Wood moved England into an impregnable position on day two of the fourth Test against South Africa, scoring important late runs before helping himself to three wickets at the Wanderers.

Having posted exactly 400 Joe Root’s side reduced their hosts to 88 for six, well set to enforce the follow-on for the second game in a row and replicate last week’s heavy win at Port Elizabeth.

Root (59) and Ollie Pope (56) set the tone with fluent half-centuries in the morning but it was a lastwicket stand of 82 in just 50 balls between Wood and Stuart Broad that really hurt South Africa.

The pair shared seven sixes and four boundaries as they turned a competitive score into a powerful one, hammering away at their opponents’ morale with every blow.

Wood was 35 not out at the change and was on hand to take advantage personally, breaking 94mph as he took three for 21.

After a 45-minute rain delay England resumed on 192 for four, with Pope on fire in a dominant first hour. He timed the ball masterfully from the off, slicing Vernon Philander and Beuran Hendricks through the infield for four, then allowing both feet to leave the ground as he carved the ball to the third-man boundary.

He reached his fifty in 61 balls, stepping inside the line of Anrich Nortje’s bouncer and pulling into the gap between two boundary riders.

Root had started quietly but soon got the bug, taking Dane Paterson for three boudaries in an over as he followed along to his 47th halfcentury. The pair’s stand was worth 101 at the drinks break and that was as far as it went, Nortje fighting back on his way to a career-best return of five for 110.

As the last recognised batsman Jos Buttler should have been the one to take control, but with 20 under his belt he aimed a horrible hack at Nortje and was caught at cover.

A master of the white-ball game, Buttler’s output in the Test arena continues to trend downwards and a change may now come in Sri Lanka.