Proteas bowlers prosper
LONDON: South Africa captain Faf du Plessis didn’t mind losing the toss at The Oval yesterday. He probably wouldn’t have been too concerned to bat, but he also said he was very unsure how the pitch would play so, having a bowl suited him.
Du Plessis mentioned in the build-up to the third Test against England that his top order didn’t mind playing on grassy, seaming pitches because that’s what they asked for in SA last summer when they took on and beat Sri Lanka.
Of course, with all due respect to Suranga Lakmal & Co. James Anderson and Stuart Broad provide a significantly more challenging examination on grassy surfaces. SA’s batsmen proved in Nottingham they could prosper, however.
Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel are pretty adept themselves at bowling in conditions which aid their seam and pace. Given the rollicking his batsmen have taken from former players since the second Test, it has to be said that England captain Joe Root’s decision to bat first on the Oval surface under cloudy skies was a brave one. It almost demanded that his batsmen show more application and nous.
Keaton Jennings may not have appreciated that, his nineball nightmare against Philander again exposing a technique where hands and eyes are not aligned.
Perhaps due to the fact that Philander only bowled four overs in his first spell – the result of a “tummy bug,” – the rest of the attack didn’t have a guide for which areas were most troubling for the English batsmen.
Morkel was too short, while Kagiso Rabada, back after suspension, didn’t control the swinging ball.
Alastair Cook and his Essex buddy Tom Westley – one of three England debutants – dug in, with Westley perhaps given too many easy balls to hit off his leg. Cook was characteristically resolute, defending stoutly and leaving well outside his off-stump. That forced the South Africans to straighten their lines, which played right into Cook’s hands.
SA improved after lunch, with Westley removed with a gem by the otherwise erratic Chris Morris. It was a short spell from Morkel to Root which set the tone after the interval. Root had been playing fluently against Morris, but suddenly couldn’t lay his bat on the ball as Morkel tore into him from the Pavilion End. Morkel deserved the wicket. Philander, sufficiently recovered from whatever ailed him, produced a jaffer to snare the England captain, with Quinton de Kock’s stunning one-handed diving catch rounding off a picturesque dismissal.
In that same category was Rabada’s destruction of another of England’s debutants’, Dawid Malan, stumps. While an embarrassment for the batsmen, it’s a glorious sight for any fast bowler when, besides the stumps, the opposing batsmen is also floored as Malan was.
SA won’t be displeased with their performance. They bowled enough wicket-taking balls that they probably feel their efforts weren’t sufficiently rewarded.
The mini-session after tea in which Cook, who finished the day unbeaten on 82, and Ben Stokes played out seven overs may yet be a key period in the context of the match. That Stokes was able to survive a testing burst from Philander may yet prove beneficial for the home team.
The tourists, meanwhile, will want to be on point like they were in the last two sessions and hope the ball will find the edge more often than was the case yesterday evening.