England give themselves another mountain to climb
Just as England seemed to have clawed their way back into this first test through the force of Ben stokes’s personality, along came the giant Marco Jansen to provide another twist in what is becoming a compelling tale.
It appeared England had given themselves a real chance of another come-from-behind victory when they took four quick wickets after tea, with their captain at the forefront of everything they did, to keep south Africa’s lead within manageable proportions.
But the 6ft 8in Jansen built on the impression he had made in taking two wickets with his left-arm swing — as England were bundled out for 165 — by adding a potentially match-winning 72 with Keshav Maharaj.
At the close of an absorbing second day, south Africa had reached
289 for seven, a lead of
124, with Jansen still there on 41. But the second new ball is due in three overs and England know all about winning from unlikely positions this year. they will believe they can do it again.
England would certainly have been all but out of it already were it not for a captain who never knows when he is beaten. south Africa were well on top and England staring down the barrel of a first defeat under their turbo-charged new management at tea. But that is when stokes decided to make one of his significant all-action contributions.
How gloomy things looked for England when south Africa stood at 158 for two, just seven behind, and their bowlers were struggling to match both the speed and movement their opponents had found. But one of the biggest features of stokes’s mightily impressive start as captain is his ability to make things happen rather than let a game drift and now he dragged England back into this LV= Insurance series.
First Jack Leach, admittedly introduced belatedly by stokes just before tea, struck in his first over after the break to have Aiden Markram caught behind poking at one that turned.
then, when the attacking tactics that saw stokes employ five slips even with south Africa at 148 for two failed to bring any more breakthroughs, he turned to Plan B.
It could not have been more obvious that stokes was in enforcer mode and going to try to bounce out the obdurate sarel Erwee when he grabbed the ball and completely changed his field. But that did not stop Erwee, the epitome of south African diligence in making 73 off 146 balls, gloving a brute of a short delivery high to Ben Foakes from in front of his face. then, six balls later, stokes struck again just after the first ball change of the test — Dukes told us they had solved their early season problems and the evidence at Lord’s suggests they were right — when he trapped Rassie van der Dussen lbw.
When stuart Broad, having an otherwise indifferent day, took his 100th test wicket at Lord’s as Kyle Verreynne edged behind, south Africa were 210 for six and honours were just about even in another enthralling red-ball contest. Jansen, who looked at least two places too high when promoted to No 6, and Maharaj, preferred here to Essex’s prolific simon Harmer despite his mauling at the hands of England’s Lions last week, changed all that. What an all-round prospect the 22-year-old Jansen is. Here he took stokes’s shortpitched policy in his stride before going on the offensive, pulling the England captain for six to add to his four boundaries and belying south Africa’s reputation for a lengthy tail.
With him was Maharaj, who had not bowled in England’s innings after conceding 169 in just 22 overs against their second string at Canterbury but now added 41 priceless runs of his own before giving stokes his third wicket just before the close.
the day had started with Ollie Pope trying to lift England somewhere near respectability and he was given a life in the first over when Erwee somehow juggled and dropped a straightforward slip catch after four attempts.
But it was far from costly for the tourists as Pope played on to the excellent Kagiso Rabada, who got his name on the Lord’s honours board when he trapped Jimmy Anderson to take his third wicket of the day and fifth in all as England were dismissed all too cheaply.
south Africa skipper Dean Elgar made his distaste for England’s new- found all- out aggression perfectly clear before this series and now he went about his more traditional approach to give his side a solid platform in reply. Elgar was wrongly given out by Richard Illingworth off Broad on seven and then saw Zak Crawley tip a slip chance off Matt Potts ‘over the bar’ before he fell somewhat freakishly to Anderson, bowled via his back leg and elbow.
Keegan Petersen fell to his Durham team-mate Potts but with Erwee, who had prepared for this series by playing club cricket for Weybridge in the surrey League, continuing his late blossoming as a test opener at 32, south Africa made good progress.
that was until stokes, throwing himself into the fray despite supposedly protecting his long-term knee injury, refused to allow this first of three tests to move away from him.
England, who recovered from a first-innings deficit of 132 to beat India in their last test at Edgbaston, are still in it. But they will have to defy the odds again to make it five test wins out of five this summer.