South Africa v England: 2nd Test, Day 5
England Struggle and Amla Goes
January 6th
2016
After
dominating the first two days of this Test, England have made a real pig’s ear
of the last three, including giving a fair impression of letting South Africa
in with a real chance of winning. It has continued the good Test/bad Test
sequence of the last year, which cost a series win in the Caribbean, a series
win against New Zealand, nearly lost the Ashes and turned a fighting chance of
a shared series in the UAE into a heavy defeat.
In
reality, there was never any real danger of losing. People talk about how
scoring 160 to win in 20 overs is easy now thanks to T20, forgetting that Tests
have no over limits on bowlers, no fielding restrictions, no guarantee that the
overs will be bowled and no stopping time-wasting.
In the 1st
Test v Pakistan in the UAE, England were set a nominal 99 to win from 19 overs:
they got 11. South Africa’s slow over rate during the morning meant that the
full number of overs were never going to be bowled, particularly as the sun had
given rise to far more bowler-friendly, but darker, conditions. Once England
got 150 in front there was not going to be time to get the runs. South Africa
were also seven overs behind schedule by Tea. With two overs to be lost to the
change of innings and the light fading, there was no chance that anywhere near thirty
overs more would be bowled, even without an inventive use of time-wasting.
What was
worrying is that a South African team who should not have got close to saving the
follow-on, where able to claim that they had finished on top and pushing for a
win, despite conceding 629-6 in under 126 overs in the first four and a half
sessions.
Compton,
Root, Taylor and Stokes all got in… and
got out.
South
Africa can claim a moral victory and that their bowlers were far more effective
– despite some fans calling this a South Africa “C” side while they were
struggling – but, had Amla fallen for 21 (the first of four lives) and AB de
Villiers on 5, they would have struggled to reach 300. Sky count one fewer missed
chance than TMS (nine instead of ten), but calculated that they were worth 360
runs to South Africa, which would have left South Africa on 267-7.
The
importance of the last day was that it allowed South Africa to claim the
momentum in the series and to re-build some confidence.
With Dale
Steyn to come back and Vernon Philander also possibly available, the South
African side for Johannesburg will be strong, more confident and more united as
there is nothing like reversing a run of bad results to build unity. Hashim
Amla has found his form. AB de Villiers has lost the gloves, du Plessis is in
the runs: England watch out!
It seemed
an odd time for the predictions that Hashim Amla would not be captain for the 3rd
Test to be proved right. He resigned shortly after the Test finished. Early
reports that he had decided to go two weeks ago were de-bunked: it was a
decision taken today. It was also strange that when AB de Villiers had
threatened to retire if he did not get his load reduced, that he should take on
the captaincy when South Africa need to win both remaining Tests to hold onto
their #1 ranking.
Suddenly,
all the problems are England’s and there is no game before the 3rd
Test (who agreed to this schedule? Surely England would welcome some match
practice for Jordan, Woakes, Patel, Ballance & Buttler and some batting
practice for Cook, Hales and Compton at least?)
Knives
are already being sharpened for Alex Hales. Scores of 10, 26, 60 & 5 have
not silenced the doubters. After a promising start, the opening partnerships
have fallen away dramatically. It is not ideal to have had opening partnerships
of 55, 17, 13 & 3. However, one statistical quirk that
has been missed is that Alistair Cook has been the first wicket to fall in
every innings so far. When you have an inexperienced opener, losing your
captain and opening partner quickly and facing bowlers with their tails up is
not ideal.
England
do not want another opener crisis. Having set their stall out with Alex Hales,
he needs a run to the end of the summer at least. However, unless he can get a
century in one of the two remaining Tests, the pressure to drop him may become
irresistible.
The other
area that pundits are seeing as a problem is Nick Compton at #3. It seems odd
when the batsman is averaging 49 in the series and only centurions Stokes and Bairstow
have more runs for England, but his manner of getting them – strike rate 37.5 –
is said to be putting undue pressure on the rest of the batting (whisper it
softly, but Alex Hales actually has a slightly inferior strike rate!)
The fact
that Nick Compton has come in three times after both openers had failed and the
fourth time in bowling conditions, has not been seen as a mitigating
circumstance. He has also got out trying to change gear twice and is seen as
too one-paced.
Part of
the problem is that, although England desperately need a solid #3, crease
occupation needs to produce a commensurate number of runs. Nick Compton is not
being very successful at turning long periods at the crease (he has faced more
balls in the series than any batsman other than Hashim Amla), into big scores.
So far,
in eleven Tests, Nick Compton has had twenty-one innings. In fourteen of those
innings he has got a start – defined as reaching double figures – yet only four
of those fourteen starts have becomes fifties. Have a look at the distribution
of his scores:
2x100, 2x50, 2x40, 3x30, 5x(10-29).
Five times he has got out in the 30s and 40s without pushing on past fifty.
Nick Compton needs to start capitalising better on the starts that he is getting. His position in the side will be very vulnerable until he does.
His batting average was a more than respectable 47.2 after 6 Tests. However, after three poor matches it dropped down to 31.9, far below what is expected of a specialist and, despite his reasonable returns in this series, has only recovered to 35.4. To make his place in the side secure, he needs to convert 20s and 30s into fifties and 40s and 50s into centuries and to get his average back over 40.
Back in the early 1980s England had a #3 crisis that was solved by calling up Chris Tavaré, who proceeded to score some of the slowest fifties in Test history. At the time, Mike Brearley recounted how, after watching yet another forward defensive from Tavaré, Bob Willis turned round and exclaimed “I do like watching Tav bat!” He was not being sarcastic. The bowlers genuinely appreciated someone playing solidly and allowing them rest and recovery and ensuring that the good work of the bowlers was not wasted. Tavaré responded with two crucial fifties in the win that sealed the 1981 Ashes. Nick Compton needs to give England that solidity.
Day 5 to South Africa
Key Player on Day 5: Jonny Bairstow
It is a bit absurd to say that Bairstow saved England, but at the same time is uncomfortably close to the truth.
There is some small mitigation in that England had by far the worst of the conditions: the only day that the pitch had anything in it for the bowlers was on Day 1 and on Day 5, atmospheric conditions were helpful to the bowlers for at least part of the day. In retrospect though, the declaration of the first innings came at least an hour too early. After their efforts in the 1st Test, the South African bowlers and fielders needed to be punished for longer to tire them. England were completely on top and should have pushed on further rather than letting the South Africans off the hook by declaring. By batting almost two full days, England could have set their stall on an innings win, knowing that the bowlers had a week’s rest to come, or a short second innings to set up a mammoth target. Similarly, the decision to play Jimmy Anderson remains debatable: he was extremely economical, but lacked fire. True that the conditions would not have favoured Chris Woakes either. However, looking at the fragile catching in the slips, one wonders if Alistair Cook is not wondering that maybe, just maybe, Chris Jordan with his extra pace and brilliant catching, might have been a better choice.
Much will be made of the roasting that the England bowlers got in the field but, one of those odd little statistical quirks that comes up is that, by playing five front-line bowlers, all three of the South African seamers actually bowled far more overs than their England counterparts. Morne Morkel has bowled far more overs in the series so far than Steve Finn and Stuart Broad and Morris and Rabada have bowled almost as many overs in one Test as Ben Stokes has in two.
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