Pope’s masterclass
England in control after Test fledgling hits maiden century
England are all over South Africa, in cricket if not rugby. The hosts have lost two wickets, they are 439 runs behind, the ball is turning for the off-spinner Dom Bess, and Mark Wood is striking sparks from the slow surface.
The question is whether rain will significantly reduce the time available for England to force a second victory in this series. Eight overs were lost on the second evening, while more is forecast for the third morning and fourth afternoon. One major South African partnership on the lines of that between Ben Stokes and Ollie Pope, who made his first Test century, might be enough to balk England.
Anything like three full days, however, and England will win because the home side are visibly fragmenting. England piled on 275 runs in only 62 overs yesterday, smiting nine sixes in the process, before hunting down South Africa’s immature batting line-up with speed and spin.
As South Africa were being simultaneously trounced by Afghanistan in the opening match of the Under-19 World Cup, their foreseeable future is not bright.
For visiting supporters – and they were again the vast majority – what was so delightful about the stand of 203 between Stokes and Pope was that it was modern English batsmanship at its best. Their defence was solid, head right over the ball, their balance poised, their technique devoid of quirks and idiosyncrasies, before they unleashed shots of the Twenty20 era, notably the slog sweep in Stokes’s case and reverse scoops in Pope’s.
Stokes – although he does not have the figures to prove it, because he does not care about figures – should now be considered the best left-handed middle-order batsman England have had. No point comparing him with opening batsmen, especially dogged ones such as Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss and John Edrich; not much point either in comparing him with pre-war figures Maurice Leyland and Frank Woolley because the sport was so different when the stock ball was below bail height.
But Stokes, surely, marries the best of Graham Thorpe and David Gower, being as accomplished as
Thorpe in defence and Gower in attack within the same innings. His unbeaten, and unparalleled, 135 at Headingley was the classic case of combining the best of both, whereas his century here saw a brisk start followed by steady acceleration which rendered South Africa more or less impotent.
Such is his unconcern for statistics that Stokes may have been unaware that he was reaching 4,000
Test runs; and such is his unconcern that he has amassed only four “not outs” to bolster his average. In ages past, it was a primary objective for many England batsmen to finish not out, but not in this age, when selflessness is the fashion.
The most valuable part of Pope’s career, apart from his sheer quality, has been that he has made his runs in England’s first innings.
First, it was his 75, in a long stand with Joe Root, which ensured a face-saving draw in Hamilton, where he also had to keep wicket; then his 61 not out at Cape Town, which was the innings that turned the tide of this series, and therefore more precious than his maiden hundred.
After Stokes had sliced a drive to point against Dane Paterson (the last bowler to be used on day two, having been given the new ball on day one), Sam Curran took the long handle to Keshav Maharaj while Pope nudged singles to progress his 81 to 94. Jos Buttler had missed the opportunity to offer a substantial contribution. It is six Test innings since he made more than a quick 20-odd; whether keeping wicket or not, he has scored one 50 in almost a year.
Buttler’s hitting powers were not required, though, because Curran smacked 44 off 50 balls, Mark Wood smote 42 – thumping five sixes off Maharaj – from only 23 balls, and Pope himself added 35 from the 36 balls after reaching three figures, especially deft in his cutting. All this hitting made possible by the wearing down initiated by Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley.
Kagiso Rabada missed out on Wood’s wicket by no-balling, which should have been the extent of his punishment in this game. Rabada had overstepped the line on day one when celebrating Root’s wicket, but only to the extent that the match referee should have pulled him aside for a word in his ear at close of play, reminding Rabada he was on thin ice with three demerit points.
But for the International Cricket Council to ban him for the next Test was all too typical. Was Rabada in Root’s face making eye-contact? No. Was he directing any words at Root at all? No.
It is often a good argument to ask what happens if everyone does the same. And yes, the risk of anarchy and physical confrontation would increase if every bowler kneels and screams beside the batsman after dismissing him. But if anyone copied Rabada, it would not be a spontaneous reaction. That is the key. It was genuine emotion, raw drama, cricket at its most red-blooded, and the ICC has banned him for it.