Stokes douses Protea fire
SURVIVAL: HOME SIDE MAKE A DECENT FIST OF IT BUT FALL SHORT
The hosts made England’s bowlers work for 137.4 overs before finally wilting.
The valiant Proteas came within 8.2 overs of staving off defeat in the second Test against England at Newlands yesterday, but the pressure of final-day batting and the brilliance of Ben Stokes eventually did them in as the tourists levelled the four-match series.
The winning margin was ultimately 189 runs, but the figure that most reflected the determination of the South Africans and how hard the English had to work was the 137.4 overs that the Proteas faced.
The final score read 248 all out, but the defiance shown by the debutant opener Pieter Malan, who batted for more than six hours in scoring 84 off 288 deliveries, Rassie van der Dussen (17 in 194 minutes, 140 balls) and Quinton de Kock, who made his slowest Test 50 in two hours and 107 balls, ensured that the English were kept waiting until after 5pm for their victory.
The irrepressible Stokes delivered the final blows as he roared in from the Wynberg End, combining skill and great perseverance to take 3/1 in 28 balls. But the key wickets fell before that with captain Faf du Plessis (19 in 79 minutes), De Kock and Van der Dussen all falling not due to the brilliance of the England bowling but because of the lapses of concentration that are cruelly lethal in the situation they found themselves in.
Du Plessis opened up the middle-order to the second new ball half-an-hour before lunch when he swept the fairly innocuous off-spin of Dominic Bess and hit a catch straight to square-leg. The left-handed De Kock, who had survived some torrid deliveries into the rough outside off from Joe Denly, pounced on a short delivery from the leg-spinner, but his firmly-struck pull-drive was snapped up by Zak Crawley at short mid-on.
Van der Dussen, as solid as a rock, watched Jimmy Anderson run past him to field at leg-slip and tickled the next delivery, fired down leg by Stuart Broad, straight to him.
Du Plessis said after the defeat he felt a mixture of pride at the fight his team showed and disappointment that they came so close to pulling off a remarkable draw.
“There were a lot of small margins in this Test match and I’m extremely proud of how the team fought. We gave everything we had, they threw the kitchen sink at us today but we gave back almost as good as we got. It was a fantastic five days of cricket and England were probably a bit better than us overall,” he said.