Test of strength Broad strikes before South Africa put brakes on England
Misfiring tourists miss out on century chances Root hopes resting on Anderson and Broad
South Africa passed the “test of character” which their restored captain Faf du Plessis said the second Test would be for the tourists. Their traditional grittiness was manifested as they took the first-day honours – by a short head – with 309 for six on a pitch that was damp and difficult at the outset, making it a brave decision by Du Plessis to bat first.
South Africa did not pass the more cerebral test of shot selection quite so well.
An individual century would have given them control of this match, as England will have the task of batting fourth on a pitch that is expected to have indentations – arising from the ball’s impact on the surface when it was initially damp – and therefore considerable unevenness. England cannot afford a match, like Lord’s, of four ever-diminishing totals.
Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock, however, rather gave their wickets away when three figures were in their grasp.
If Vernon Philander does not convert his overnight 54 off 76 balls – and England on the second morning might finally decide to try him with bouncers – and if no South African scores a century in their second innings, it will make a run of five Tests without any of their batsmen making a hundred, which is a relatively long sequence in this run-glutted age.
England will hope that James Anderson and Stuart Broad, equipped with a ball only 10 overs old, can work the oracle as they have so often done together, and more so at Trent Bridge than any other ground.
There is a Test match here next year, against India, but in addition to 91 wickets at Trent Bridge, at a cost cheaper than chips and more like grains of rice, they do share 65 years – one more at the end of this month, when Anderson turns 35. Together they have taken more wickets than any pace-bowling pair in Test history other than Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, and need only two more to notch 700.
At one point, however, during the slightly abbreviated morning, it looked as though the weight of expectation might tell upon the pair.
Spinners can wobble in the fourth innings when expected to run through opponents on a turner; seamers can wobble in the first innings when expected to run through opponents on a greentop. Joe Root had not sent in South Africa, but would have done so had he won the toss, so the onus was on Anderson and Broad – and the odd ball dragged short and wide suggested they were all too well aware.
South Africa therefore progressed to lunch for the loss of only one wicket – for 56 runs off 23 overs, owing to a shower – and that was the first of their self-inflicted dismissals. Dean Elgar chased a wide half-volley and slashed it to the right of point, where Liam Dawson enjoyed the highlight of his day. When he bowled, Dawson was not the first England spinner to find Trent Bridge unsympathetic.
It was De Kock, in a stand of 113 with Amla, who turned the tide that had been flowing in England’s favour since the opening session at Lord’s.
His free left-handed strokeplay – after Heino Kuhn had chopped on – got South Africa into this match, even if his poor shot-selection after tea got England back into it.
Promoting him three places was a second bold move by Du Plessis, and it worked, though in the long term it may be no more sustainable for De Kock to continue at four than Jonny Bairstow at five. Wicketkeepers may be the least considered cricketers but even they need a break.
At Lord’s, De Kock had scored more freely than anyone, even Root. He hared away again, scoring at a run a ball, impervious to any sluggishness in the pitch and South Africa’s run-rate hitherto.
He was fuelled by a three-over spell from Dawson – because the wind was slightly across the ground, the left-armer was more suited to bowl into it than Moeen Ali – which cost 19, of which Amla too had a slice when straightdriving a rare six.
Mark Wood has yet to dismiss a left-handed batsman lbw in Tests – he seldom gets close enough to the stumps in delivery – and Root had to resort to a 7-2 field before he could prevent De Kock driving Wood felicitously through the covers. But De Kock got himself out to the first ball after tea, trying to cut Broad who had switched to the Radcliffe Road end to have the wind at his back.
If Anderson has been ineffective against Amla, Broad has now dismissed him more often than anybody else in Test cricket, eight times: thus does a bowling partnership work.
It was only the second time since January 2016 that Amla had reached 60 but he did not capitalise, because he kept on mishooking, for all his familiarity with Trent Bridge as a former Nottinghamshire player.
Ben Stokes weighed in by reducing South Africa to 235 for six before the second ball: if the wicket of Temba Bavuma was unexpected luck, in that he was caught in the act of withdrawing his bat, Stokes succeeded in brushing Du Plessis’s glove before the ball hit the captain’s thigh pad and was caught left-handed by Bairstow.
Not quite so fine a catch as Bairstow made at Lord’s to catch Kuhn down the legside, as it was slightly higher from the ground, but it demanded an equal wingspan. Philander and Chris Morris then nosed South Africa ahead.