Battling Prior is just the man for a crisis

MAYBE the cloud cover helped and maybe the second new ball did more than the first. But South Africa showed much more energy and purpose on the second day at The Oval. If the opening day of this first Test was the time for short stuff to try to unsettle England on a flat pitch then yesterday cried out for the bowlers to pitch it up and be boring and that is pretty much what the South Africa attack did to great effect. They came out fighting and showed what a mentally strong side they are after a pretty average first day. Their bodies would have been aching after bowling all day at Alastair Cook but they proved their fitness and had England in real trouble until Matt Prior came along. Yet if South Africa had hit back strongly then so did England in the form of their wicketkeeper, who has developed into a substantial and very impressive cricketer. In the past, with some of the tails England had, we would have been all out for 300 after losing three quick wickets in the morning. But that just doesn’t happen with England these days. There is never a total collapse. Time and again we have seen England’s tail make important contributions and in Prior (above) they again had someone who could lead the resistance by being positive rather than retreating into his shell with his team in trouble. Yes, he seems to have quite a lot of fast-twitch muscles and was a bit frenetic at the start of his innings but it was down to him that England got up to a par score rather than slip to a sub-standard one. England’s tail, marshalled by their No 7, could prove the difference between these sides as the series unfolds. Yet so too could Jacques Kallis, who ended up dismissing both Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell and is such a key man for South Africa. Here is a frontline batsman who is nearing 300 Test wickets and England simply have no-one like him.