Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Fired-up Philander torments England
Five straight maidens, figures of 4/16 as tourists fail his exam
DAY 2 OF 5: SOUTH AFRICA 284 and 72/4 ENGLAND 181
ENGLISH County Cricket is getting blessed with one heck of bowler.
Vernon Philander has signed for Somerset and he’ll be giving batsmen nightmares throughout the ‘Shires if they watched this performance yesterday.
The crowd ran out of “oohs” and then “aahs” as Philander produced a first spell of five overs of such precision that a surgeon would have been proud had he showed similar technique in an operating theatre.
Only two balls – his first and his last of that spell – provided moments of comfort for the batsmen as they could comfortably leave deliveries well wide of the off-stump alone. Other than that, their minds and techniques were microscopically examined and they scored no runs.
One ball would leave the righthander, another dart back into him and others stayed straight.
Rory Burns faced just one ball, but he wasn’t good enough to pass this tough exam; a delivery that left him slightly off the pitch and kissed the shoulder of his bat, giving Quinton de Kock the first of six catches.
Joe Denly and Joe Root only just survived, for that was all they could do against the new ball and two spells of outstanding quality. Dominic Sibley succumbed to Kagiso Rabada’s ferocity, and KG should have had a second when Denly edged behind but De Kock’s dive put off Rassie van der Dussen at first slip, although the fielder still should have grabbed it.
Rabada too looked back to his best. His was less a surgical examination of the batsmen, more one of their courage and Denly and Root showed plenty of ticker to get through that period. The England captain copped a nasty blow flush on the helmet in Rabada’s fifth over, that saw the ball ricochet to the boundary.
There was a notable easing of the pressure in the hour before and after lunch when the new ball pair were replaced as Root and Denly added 55 runs for the third wicket. But then Philander returned, hit what he referred to as the “right area”, and got Root to nick off.
Denly made a gutsy 50 adding 72 for the fourth wicket with Ben Stokes, but just when there were concerns starting to grow about the support bowlers, Dwaine Pretorius produced a beauty to end Denly’s stay at the crease. That was the start of a collapse that saw England lose their last seven wickets for 39 runs in 15 overs with Nortjé in particular finally finding the right length to exploit the assistance the pitch was providing.
South Africa’s lead was 103, a substantial advantage on a surface where the bounce was getting marginally inconsistent – although it really wasn’t disconcerting.
The home team could have done without losing quite so many wickets when they returned for the second innings. Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram once more wasted a review with the latter plumb lbw. There will be question marks about Markram heading into the second Test regardless of the outcome here.
Jofra Archer picked up Elgar and then Faf du Plessis gifted his wicket with a terrible stroke as the hosts stumbled to stumps. They will resume today with their lead at 175 runs. Philander reckons 300 or more should be enough for the Proteas to go one up.
The way he bowled yesterday, it will be.