JENNINGS’ LUCK IS IN YET AGAIN
IF Keaton Jennings ends up opening the batting in Australia this winter, he may look back on the third day at The Oval and conclude that good fortune comes in many guises.
When rain swept in around 2.45pm, Jennings had moved to 34 not out in England’s second innings, with Joe Root’s team in complete control of the third Test against South Africa.
But it was the subtext which told the story. It was no exaggeration to say he could have been out five times.
Few innings come without their slices of luck, especially when you are an opener in England.
Seven years ago at this ground, Alastair Cook saved his career with a century against Pakistan more scratchy than a 1960s LP.
A few months later, he was hitting it to all parts of Australia.
Jennings is some way from both scenarios, but he will know that he tested the gods’ whims to the full. The contrast with Tom Westley, who for the second time in his debut Test batted with assurance and poise, was hard to ignore.
The bottom line was that by the time play was abandoned at 5.15, Jennings was still there. England, bolstered by a five for 57 from Toby Roland-Jones, led by 252 with nine wickets and two days to go.
With the forecast set fair, it will be a surprise if they do not go to Manchester this week armed with a 2-1 lead and eyeing up victory in Root’s first series in charge.
Jennings has now reacquainted himself with the feel of bat on ball and it will be only slightly less surprising if he isn’t there, too.
But with just three Tests against West Indies standing between the end of this series and the start of the Ashes on November 23, it is hard to shake off the worry that days such as this are delaying the inevitable. As England set about their second innings with a lead of 178, having taken an hour and a quarter to pick up the last two South Africa wickets, he faced up to Vernon Philander, back from a night on a hospital drip because of a viral infection to assume the role of nemesis.
During the first two Tests, Philander had removed him three times at a cost of two runs, and how close he came to tightening his stranglehold. Jennings moved from two to six with a Chinese cut, from six to 10 with an edge through the hands of Dean Elgar at third slip, and from 10 to 14 with another Chinese cut — all off the luckless Philander.
On 18, Jennings was all but bowled by Morne Morkel, who had already bowled Cook for seven, leaving the former captain one short of 1,000 Test runs at The Oval. And on 33, Jennings was given out caught behind off Kagiso Rabada, only to be reprieved by technology. In between, he produced reminders of why he was picked in the first place. Rabada was hit twice in three balls through the off-side, and Morkel tucked through square leg. Here was the poise that had brought Jennings a debut century in Mumbai last December. For Westley, the early signs are promising regarding Ashes selection. He got going with a fine drive off Philander. Earlier, Roland-Jones completed the first five-wicket haul by an England bowler in his first innings since Graham Onions against West Indies in 2009. Temba Bavuma and Morkel extended their ninth-wicket stand to 47 before Jimmy Anderson had Morkel caught by Cook. When Roland-Jones had Bavuma caught behind for 52, South Africa were all out for 175 — feeble, but more than they looked like getting when struggling at 61 for seven.