Stokes in SA’s crosshairs

Claiming Ben Stokes’s wicket will be top of the list of priorities for SA as they look to make an impact on day two of the third Test against England at St George’s Park today.

It was a slow day of Test cricket as England battled their way to 224 for the loss of four wickets. That effort, at a runrate of 2.5 per over, came on a surface where runs obviously proved a scarce commodity.

The predicted easterly breeze, the one that locals will tell you brings the wickets, failed to pitch yesterday and that made it hard for both batsman and bowlers to garner success.

Stokes (38) and Ollie Pope (39) survived the new ball to end as the not-out batsmen overnight.

Faf du Plessis’s South Africans will know that nipping out Stokes as early as possible will be of key importance lest they run the risk of him taking head coach Mark Boucher’s “wounded buffalo” by the horns.

That lack of wicket-taking opportunities during the opening session required some innovation and Du Plessis came up with a plan.

The first two wickets fell to an unconventional field placing. Short backward square-leg, or leg gully if you will, is not a position every captain looks to employ.

But Du Plessis identified an opportunity and his quicks Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortjé targeted back-of-length in the direction of the thigh pad and it worked on both occasions.

First, and just after lunch, Dom Sibley turned a delivery from Rabada to Dean Elgar, who snaffled a good catch. Sibley made 36 and contributed to a 70-run stand for the first wicket with Zak Crawley.

Next man down Crawley was a near carbon-copy dismissal of Sibley’s but this time it was off Nortje with Rassie van der Dussen, in almost the exact same position, taking a blinding catch diving low to his right.

Crawley was workmanlike for his 44 that came off 137 deliveries and included nine fours. England took the tea break on 117 for two off 58 overs with Joe Denly and Joe Root looking to continue the patience game.

But it was case of them both getting in and then getting out.