BESS IS YET TO COME...
Spinner takes five wickets to put England in box seat
WHETHER England go on to win this third Test against South Africa or not, they at least unearthed a new hero on this rain-interrupted third day in the form of young spinner Dom Bess.
The 22-year-old was only included on this tour at the last minute when a sickness bug swept through the camp in the run-up to the opening Test at Centurion.
Yet, after a solid showing in Cape Town where Bess took two wickets while holding up an end to help Joe Root’s team to a series-levelling victory, he came to the fore here with his maiden five-wicket haul in Tests.
That saw Bess become the third-youngest England spinner to achieve the feat, behind only Pat Pocock and Derek Underwood, and the youngest to do so overseas.
It is some achievement for a player who is not even first-choice at his county, Somerset. But with Jack Leach, the No1 slow bowler both at Taunton and for England, sent home having failed to fully recover from illness, Bess has stepped into the void and delivered when England needed him most.
‘I’ll cherish this for a long time because I’ve worked very hard for days like this, but also knowing that, hopefully, there’s a lot more to come,’ said Bess. ‘It’s just the start of a journey. It’s funny how cricket happens, how the ride goes.’
Despite this star turn from Bess,
England still face a battle to win this match and take a 2-1 series lead into this week’s final Test in Johannesburg. The weather, which saw almost three hours of play wiped out on day three, appears the biggest threat to victory for Root’s men, especially as the forecast for the final two days also looks bad.
If South Africa escape with a draw, England will blame themselves, too, given they put down six catches. Two were difficult chances for Ollie Pope at short-leg, one a regulation opportunity for Root at slip.
Yet it is the three that were spurned by Ben Stokes in the final session that threaten to hurt England most given they reprieved Quinton de Kock on 30, 58 and 63. The fact they were all put down by Stokes, England’s best fielder and a hero for his country on so many occasions, will add to their pain.
South Africa, revived by a 54-run seventh-wicket stand between De Kock and Vernon Philander, reached the close on 208 for six, still 291 behind England’s first-innings total but in with a fighting chance of saving this Test.
Having racked up 499 for nine declared in their first innings, and reduced South Africa to 60 for two in reply, England started the day in bullish mood. Bess had taken the wickets of Pieter Malan and Zubayr Hamza the previous evening.
However, his best work was to come. With Mark Wood bowling consistently in excess of 90mph from one end, Bess cleaned up from the other.
Dean Elgar was first to succumb in the fourth over of the day, the opener sending a chance via bat and pad to Pope at short leg. Bess claimed an even bigger scalp in his next over in the form of Faf du Plessis.
South Africa’s captain looked to impose himself on Bess as he started his innings by coming down the pitch and dispatching him for successive fours. That aggression didn’t last as, two balls later, he sent another chance Pope’s way, the hosts slipping to 71 for four.
Such was England’s dominance, South Africa were restricted to just 18 runs in the first hour of play.
Nightwatchman Anrich Nortje offered stubborn resistance but had an escape when Root dropped him at slip off Bess. Pope also spilt a chance manufactured by Bess to hand Rassie van der Dussen a life. Two balls later, though, Bess had his fifth wicket, bowling Van der Dussen via an inside edge after extracting sharp turn from outside off-stump.
At 109 for five, South Africa were in big trouble. Yet resistance from Nortje and De Kock held off England’s charge before rain brought an early halt to the first session 14 minutes before lunch.
Frustratingly for the tourists, it took another three hours and 45 minutes for the players to get back on the field.
Unlike the first session, opportunities were then few and far between. So Root brought himself on to bowl and his part-time spin should have brought the wicket of De Kock — Stokes shelling his first chance at slip. Given the all-rounder had bowled England to a series-levelling victory on the final day in Cape Town, it was baffling why Root waited until the 61st over to bring him into the attack.
That Stokes then got a wicket in his second over, Nortje fending to slip, made Root’s reluctance to bring him on earlier even more baffling.
Whether that scrambled Stokes’ brain or not is unclear. But the two further catches he spurned, off Root and then Joe Denly in the penultimate over of the day, were distinctly out of character.
Stokes has given enough to England over the past few months, including his first-innings century in this match, to be excused the odd lapse. He is human after all. Just don’t count him out from making up for it by inspiring England to victory over the remaining two days here.