LETTING IT SLIP
England wasteful as Amla hits back
IF England want to return to the top of the world rankings, they cannot afford the sort of shoddy fielding that yesterday saw them squander the chance to put South Africa under severe pressure in this second Test.
The team who are still, for a little longer at least, ranked No 1 were in utter disarray by the time Ben Stokes had finished with them on the second day and the door was wide open for England to take control of South Africa’s fortress.
The early, comical run out of Stiaan van Zyl was f urther evidence of scrambled South African minds and a more ruthless team than England would surely have taken f ull advantage of t he home s i de’s new- f ound vulnerability.
Instead, England followed up their reprieve of AB de Villiers on the second evening by dropping two absolute dollies to let South Africa captain Hashim Amla, who finished unbeaten on 157, off the hook when he was at his lowest ebb.
Make no mistake, Amla is under the sort of scrutiny here that almost engulfed Alastair Cook in the aftermath of his Ashes whitewash in 2013/14 and England could have tightened the screw on the South African captain twice yesterday. Firstly, Jimmy Anderson proved unusually fallible at slip in dropping Amla on 76 off the first ball bowled yesterday by Joe Root, a reversal of the roles that saw Root drop de Villiers on five on Sunday.
Then, Nick Compton was the guilty party when he put down another chance that really should have been taken at point off Steven Finn once Amla had moved on to his 24th Test century — but his first in more than a year.
It was a performance that will not go down well with England coach Trevor Bayliss, who puts particular emphasis on good fielding. He will know just how expensive missed chances can be against world-class batsmen.
And it leaves England in danger of wasting the chance to mark one of the greatest performances in Test history from Stokes with a first Test victory at Newlands since 1957 and an unassailable 2-0 lead in this four-Test series.
Not that anything should be taken away from Amla. He has struggled with both bat and tactical acumen since stepping into the giant captaincy shoes of Graeme Smith and looked a leader de void of ideas when Stokes cut loose.
It is barely an exaggeration to say he is playing for his captaincy future during a series that will see South Africa lose their long-held status as top dogs if England can convert their 1-0 lead into a series success.
So it was hugely important to Amla and South Africa for their captain to take advantage of England’s carelessness to take his side to within 276 of England’s massive 629 for six declared by the close of a third day during which only 212 runs were scored.
Only the wicket of de Villiers, who was far from his fluent, normal self throughout, fell on a day of attritional Test cricket in stark contrast to the pyrotechnics of the Stokes and Jonny Bairstow second-day show.
While an incredible 196 runs were scored on the first morning of the second day alone, just 58 were made in yesterday’ s opening session as Amla and de Villiers went about climbing a metaphorical mountain every bit as big as the one that provides such a stunning backdrop to this iconic ground.
It was not that England bowled badly. Finn, in particular, was unlucky on a pitch that seemed to slow up and certainly did not deteriorate as England expected and hoped it would do when they won the toss.
There has been no swing from the Kookaburra balls throughout this Test, while Moeen Ali and Root did not find anything like enough spin to trouble two of the few world-class players left in this declining South African side.
De Villiers was actually given out on 85 lbw to Stokes by Aleem Dar, standing in his 100th Test, but the Decision Review System overturned the umpire because bat touched the ball before pad.
It did not prove costly f or England as Finn finally made the breakthrough 20 minutes before tea, Anderson catching de Villiers’ pull to mid-wicket and the mood of the day by grabbing the chance at the second attempt.
South Africa’s batting pillars had added 183 for the third wicket and taken advantage of their slices of good fortune to give their side a realistic chance of heading to Johannesburg next week only one down and still in the contest.
It is a measure of South Africa’s batting woes that this was their first score of 300-plus in seven Tests but a sign of the class of Amla that he went on to his seventh score of 150-plus in the ultimate form of the game.
If England felt the departure of de Villiers would be the catalyst for a cluster of wickets they were to be disappointed, even though Faf du Plessis came perilously close to lobbing Anderson to a flat-footed Finn at mid-on on 35.
By the end, Cook had even turned to the very occasional off-spin of Alex Hales but his first three overs in Test cricket — including one maiden — did not serve to break the concentration of Amla, who scored 94 runs in the day.
It was in stark contrast with Stokes, who hit 130 in the first session alone on Sunday, but it was just as important to his side.
And it gives South Africa, 77 short of avoiding the follow on with two days left, every chance of denying England a Cape Town win for a little longer.