Sun sets on Faf as SA lose the plot again
● Just when SA seemingly bowled themselves back into the contest and the series here yesterday, England delivered a sting in the tail.
It was the kind of denouement that didn’t just affect the contest and series, but the direction the Proteas are headed.
On the evidence of the England tail’s savagery perhaps mercifully SA only have two more red-ball engagements for the remainder of the year.
Having broken the back of the England batting yesterday by reducing them to 269/7 thanks largely to the sterling work of Anrich Nortje who took his maiden Test five-wicket haul, SA, like a lion cub, let go of the tourists’ throat.
Chris Woakes (32), Mark Wood (35 not out) and a suddenly emboldened Stuart Broad (43) swung lustily against an increasingly listless SA attack to help England reach 400 in their first innings.
Wood and Broad’s 82-run 10th wicket stand was a record for this ground. After Nortje, who had just about bowled himself to a standstill, SA’s one-dimensional attack didn’t know how the 10th wicket would be captured.
Just this week Cricket SA’s director of cricket Graeme Smith said new heroes needed to be found. He knows the well-trodden paths aren’t the only ones worth pursuing.
Vernon Philander, who will bow out of Tests with a bowling average at a ridiculously impressive 22 and a bit, also had to use a side entry to get into the Test team.
His former agent Jeremy Fredericks, a SuperSport commentator and erstwhile SA Schools selector, recalled what got Philander to the highest level.
“Gary Kirsten who had taken over as coach put a simple question to the best batsmen at the respective franchises at the time,” said Fredericks.
“‘Who is the best bowler in the domestic four-day competition?’ They all said Vernon Philander and the rest is history.”
If the SA bowling was a letdown, their batting was lamentable. They finished the day on 88 for six, and in a heap of trouble chasing England’s first innings tally of 400.
Under-fire captain Faf du Plessis came to the crease feeling both the pressure of the scoreboard, and especially his most recent scores. His stay at the crease under glorious late afternoon sun looked that of a man craving the anonymity of the shadows.
His Test career is in the balance and his departure here at 17.29 for just three necessitated an especially long walk back to the dressing room, into the setting sun.