UNFIT FOR PURPOSE
15 wickets fall on day of chaos aswoeful England need a miracle
It would not even excuse England if they pull off another Headingley-type miracle here this weekend and win this first test with a ludicrous secondinnings run chase.
that would simply camouflage issues that are becoming more deep-rooted.
Yes, England’s bowlers came flying back at South Africa in the final session of the second day to leave them on 72 for four, a lead of 175.
And remember, England were bowled out for 67 in Leeds last summer before Ben Stokes defied all cricketing rhyme and reason to lead the chase to 359 and defeat Australia in the most extraordinary fashion.
But it is not good enough to rely on test cricket’s capacity for the near impossible.
Miracles cannot be relied on all the time. the damage here had already been done by a totally familiar, totally woeful and totally abject display of test batting from England. Enough is enough now. this cannot keep on happening. England are supposed to be prioritising test cricket again and trying to replicate the success of Eoin Morgan’s World Cup-winning white-ball side.
Instead, they are in danger of starting yet another away series in the worst possible way — with an embarrassing defeat.
And not an overseas series against a very good side either, as when they toured New Zealand.
they are facing a shadow of the great South African teams of the past; a side that has been robbed of so many of its best players by the shameless financial pulling power of county cricket. And a team who had lost their last five tests before this match. For goodness sake, surely the appointments of Graeme Smith as director of cricket and Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis as coaches have not improved South Africa this dramatically so quickly.
Have they? Or is England’s test batting simply not fit for purpose?
We have been down this path so often it is becoming boring. Collapse is following collapse and England are not learning from their mistakes.
Once again we dared to dream when Joe Denly and Stokes were going well and England stood at 142 for three, just 142 behind and in real danger of a crucial first-innings lead.
So what happened? Quick as a flash, in the face of admittedly superb bowling from Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and new tearaway Anrich Nortje, England were gone, seven wickets crashing for 39 and with them realistic hope of victory.
the most disturbing aspect of it all is that it was not even unusual.
It was not even a surprise. It does not even rank in the top five worst England collapses of recent years. Perhaps not even in the top 10.
Batting that is lacking any semblance of common sense or
resolve is not the be-all and end-all of england’s problems either.
The captaincy of Joe root will have to become an issue if this series continues on the same sorry path as in the first two days.
root lost in West Indies earlier this year, drew the ashes after the urn had gone and lost in New Zealand. he also has started this series in highly questionable fashion.
his decision to bowl first here looked contentious at the time and now looks palpably wrong.
history tells us this centurion pitch gets more uneven and worse for batting as the Test goes on and yesterday there were clear signs of erratic bounce, as Jonny Bairstow will testify after being bowled by one that kept low.
If you go into a Test with an allseam attack perhaps you have to bowl first. But not when it leaves your side facing a last-innings run chase when anything over 200 will be mightily hard to reach. and not when the bulk of your attack is recovering from flu. Some of root’s field placings and ‘funky’ tactics when South africa batted again last night were curious too and had former england fast bowler Steve harmison tearing his hair out in the talkSPORT commentary box.
The worry is root is not getting any better.
None of which should take any credit away from South africa.
Philander, the old campaigner who at 34 will retire at the end of this series to take up a contract with Somerset, was quite superb by just bowling good old length and line, with speeds that did not even touch 80 miles per hour, and let the pitch do the rest.
he did not concede a run until his 34th delivery and ended up with four for 16 off 14.2 overs of the perfect demonstration of the seam bowler’s art. With pace coming from rabada and Nortje, england were out-bowled as well as out-batted.
They did give themselves a sniff when they reduced South africa to 62 for four second time around to take the tally up to 15 wickets in the day and it could have been better had Stokes’ low catch to dismiss rassie van der Dussen not been ruled not out by technology.
how often is the camera going to lie before we stop using these foreshortened images?
If england were unlucky then they did receive a stroke of good fortune when square-leg umpire Paul reiffel appeared to signal a second no-ball in consecutive balls when Jofra archer’s attempts at slower ‘knuckle’ balls turned into beamers.
To england’s relief, reiffel appeared to change his mind and archer was allowed to continue — for now. But his presence in england’s attack remains on a knife’s edge.
as does their hope of emerging with anything better than another largely self-inflicted defeat at the start of a series root and england cannot really afford to lose.