A DREAM DEBUT
Toby has a ball as England’s new hero
TOBY Roland-Jones might have been excused for thinking he would never top the hat-trick that won the County Championship for Middlesex last season at Lord’s.
Yet nothing could compare to a dream Test debut yesterday that saw Tobias Skelton Roland-Jones — to give him his full moniker — play his part with the bat before taking the first four South African wickets on a tumultuous day for England.
It was a second day that started with a superb and thoroughly mature century from Ben Stokes that took England up to what looked, in the conditions, like an above par 353 after Joe Root had made the brave decision to bat.
Then, after Root had taken his main man in Jimmy Anderson out of the attack after three indifferent overs, Roland-Jones emerged to make England’s score look truly formidable with a first Test spell that will stay with him forever.
And when Anderson returned, this time from the Pavilion End, and struck with his very first ball to remove Faf du Plessis, South Africa were in big trouble and everything the new England captain touched had turned to gold.
South Africa, unable to cope in the bowler-friendly conditions in which England had shown the application and discipline so lacking at Trent Bridge, ended the day in complete disarray after being reduced to 126 for eight.
What a start to the 100th men’s Test played at this famous old Oval ground and what a response from England to the justifiable criticism that followed their capitulation to a thumping serieslevelling defeat in Nottingham.
England remain the most maddeningly inconsistent and unpredictable side but what is not in doubt is that, when the force is with them, they are a mighty talented, hugely exciting team in the long as well as short forms of the game.
None more so yesterday than a debutant in Roland-Jones, who has waited for a Test debut that has come, at the age of 29, only because of injuries to Chris Woakes and Jake Ball, the decline of Steven Finn and the fragility of Mark Wood.
How he took advantage of his opportunity to knock the stuffing out of South Africa, with a spell of four for 15 in just 24 balls either side of tea that has put England in the perfect position to push for an unassailable 2-1 lead.
Not only that but it has brought a place on this winter’s Ashes tour into view for a bowler who may seem more suited to English conditions but who, in county cricket, has developed a reputation for getting good players out on good pitches.
Roland-Jones has long been considered to be cut from the same cloth as his mentor Angus Fraser and there was something about the old warhorse in the metronomic way the Middlesex man probed away with accuracy and menace.
It was almost as if Roland-Jones could not believe it when he barely appealed after having Dean Elgar caught behind to claim his first Test wicket on the stroke of tea, with his 10th delivery at the highest level.
But it was the spark Roland Jones needed and, having come within a whisker of dismissing Hashim Amla first ball, he removed Heino Kuhn, Amla and Quinton de Kock in quick succession to rip the heart out of South Africa.
There was no way back after that, especially when Anderson was stung into action to take the wickets of du Plessis and Chris Morris before Stokes chipped in with the ball to add Keshav Maharaj.
Only the gloom that forced Root to bowl the spin of himself and Moeen Ali released the pressure on a South Africa side who were just about able to limp through to the close and avoid what looked like an inevitable follow-on last night.
As it is, with Vernon Philander in hospital for tests on the stomach complaint that severely restricted his involvement, Root will still probably have to decide today whether to go again at South Africa to try to force a three-day finish or, in the modern way, bat them out of the game instead.
It is a choice he will relish after the extreme highs and lows of the first two Tests in this Investec series and it is a position of superiority that was set up almost exclusively by the brilliance of his vice-captain.
Stokes arrived at the Oval bristling about accusations of a lack of respect towards the Test game that were levelled at England when they were bowled out for 133 in Twenty20 style on that horrible fourth day at Trent Bridge.
Now he played possibly an even greater knock than his double century at Cape Town against South Africa 18 months ago just because the dice was loaded so heavily in favour of one of the best fast-bowling attacks in cricket.
It was a hundred sealed with three sixes in succession off Maharaj, the first caught by du Plessis before he tumbled into the boundary, after Stokes had done much of the hard work against an attack badly missing Philander.
With him in a stand of 37 for the eighth wicket was Roland-Jones, who hit 25 of them to prove himself a more than capable tail-ender and play his part in England adding 74 for the last three wickets as South Africa began to wilt.
They were almost horizontal by the close when Root made another profitable change by bringing back Stuart Broad when the gloom lifted and saw him bowl Kagiso Rabada with a beauty to end a stand of 53 with Temba Bavuma.
So, with South Africa still trailing by 227, it is advantage England after another thrilling episode in the rich history of this ground. And one that Toby Roland-Jones will never forget.