Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WOOD YOU BELIEVE IT!
Tail-end star thanks missus after record stand ... then pace ace destroys hosts’ top order
MARK WOOD thanked his wife for helping him to spank it with the bat before he cranked it up with the ball to put England streets ahead at the Wanderers. The sight of Wood bowling 94.4mph rockets and watching the ball fly through to the keeper up on the high veldt was a joy to behold and it earned him three deserved scalps as South Africa slumped to 88-6 at the close.
His extreme pace was to be expected, but it was his second successive cameo with the bat in making 35 not out that put South Africa to the sword and they are yet to recover.
Together with Stuart Broad, who made 43, the pair added a record 82 for the 10th wicket for England to top 400 in the first innings for the second game in a row.
“I’m still a bowler, not an allrounder,” said Wood. “But I have been working behind the scenes, getting my dad Derek and my wife Sarah to feed the bowling machine to me. She pinned me a couple of times and told me to get in line, but my dad is probably the better coach! I want to affect games for England. That is what I aspire to do, with the ball especially, but it is nice to slog a few too.”
Both Wood and Broad, though, are in the team for their bowling and, when Pieter Malan received a thunderbolt from the former, he did well to get an edge as it took off towards Jos Buttler.
It was the second fastest wicket-taking delivery ever recorded by an England bowler, with just his great mate and fellow North-East speedster Steve Harmison in front of him.
“I should have known!” added Wood. Sam Curran, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes all enjoyed a wicket-taking moment in Wood’s wake as the South African batsmen capitulated.
Rassie van der Dussen was squared up by Curran and edged behind for a duck, while Dean Elgar played an astonishingly poor shot to gift Stokes a wicket.
Faf du Plessis had to leave the ground thanks to a generous lbw decision.
Then Temba Bavuma edged Wood low to Stokes at second slip.
Joe Denly took the catch for Wood’s third wicket at fourth slip to remove Anrich Nortje to end the day on a high.