South Africa v England, 3rd Test, Days 2-4: A Bizarre Series Swings Again

 

South Africa v England, 3^rd Test, Days 2-4: A Bizarre Series Swings Again

July 30^th 2017

What a weekend to go away to a mountain retreat for two nights!

If a series that shows such violent swings of fortune can be said to show a pattern, one is emerging. The side that bats first edges what appears to be a tight first day before dynamiting the match on the second and third days, setting up a huge chase that, despite declarations of intent, turns horribly one-sided.

Plenty of pundits and fans questioned Joe Root’s sanity in setting the declaration target. A lot thought that 300 would be enough to defend but it seems that Joe Root was only interested in the time equation: he wanted to declare at Tea and did so.

Of the twenty-five successful fourth innings chases at The Oval, only two have been over 250 and the largest of them was 263-9 by England back in 1902. Maybe to set 492 was overkill. It challenged South Africa to survive at least 130 overs to draw (nominally 138, assuming that England actually bowled all their overs both days).

Only twenty-three sides in Test history have ever batted out 130 overs or more to draw a Test. South Africa are specialists, having managed it four times: more than any other side apart from the eight times of England and India, who have also done it four times.

There were a few fantasists who thought that in what seemed easy batting conditions, South Africa might get seriously close to their target: after all, records are made to be broken.

At 47-1, with Elgar and Amla battling, South Africa had a chance. If they could get through this tough spell. If they could get to the Close, anything would be possible.

Three wickets in eight balls. Thanks very much. Talk of the extra half hour and the match ending already on the fourth day. When you are facing a record fourth innings chase the one thing that you do not want is to find yourself 57-4 with close on 120 overs more to survive.

That the extra half hour has not happened thanks to what could yet turn out to be one of the great backs-to-the-wall defensive innings from Dean Elgar. He has looked in terrible trouble, has been hit time and again, but somehow is still there at the Close, 72* and battling. With Temba Bavuma, no stranger to battling innings in this series, the stand has reached 65 and England have a sizeable problem in the morning. Basically, they need to get one of these two in the first hour. If they do not. If they cannot, belief will grow in the South African camp that they can make another amazing escape. With another 375 needed in 98 overs and two set batsmen, they could even entertain enticing thoughts of making a tilt at the target if this pair were to be together at Lunch.

Realistically though, even saving the Test is a very long shot. Only three sides have ever batted through the last day to save a Test when starting it four wickets down, but one of those sides was South Africa v Australia in 2012. On that occasion, South Africa were 45-4 before AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis engineered one of the greatest rear-guard actions of all time.

One or two of the other South African batsmen could do with a share of the gumption that Elgar and Bavuma are showing. Heino Kuhn’s demeanour is increasingly one of “what am I doing here?” when he bats. Faf de Plessis, incredibly, has been out LBW twice in the match playing no shot (connoisseurs of Mike Gatting’s career will remember that he went through a similar phase). With Chris Morris’s awful match and Vernon Philander’s illness, the SS South Africa is carrying far too many passengers and the ship is sinking because of it.

While we are on the case of Faf du Plessis, one wonders how he ever permitted a visibly sick Vernon Philander to be included in the final XI. Apart from having his spearhead struggling when on the field and frequently off it with his head stuck in a toilet pan, which led to him spending a night in hospital on a drip and then being released to bat and then take the new ball when he should have remained in hospital, Philander’s problems have forced Chris Morris to have to continue bowling when it was the one thing that England most wanted. Morris’s 28 overs have gone for 161 runs so far and have allowed England to score freely when free-scoring has been at a premium. It has released pressure when it existed. While it is true that, in the 2^nd Test, Chris Morris bowled superbly, here he has been the weak link in the attack and with limited other options, du Plessis had to bowl both Philander and Morris far more than should have. Most likely this is going to cost South Africa the match and leave them needing to win the final Test to save the series. Whatever the rights and wrongs of Philander’s selection though, he has shown guts that go far beyond anything that anyone could reasonably ask of him and has bowled superbly, albeit at reduced pace. One hopes that his efforts have not done him serious physical harm.
 

England should win before Tea tomorrow but, the longer that the fifth wicket partnership continues, the greater the nerves will be. England know though that one wicket should open the floodgates.

 

South Africa v England, 3rd Test, Day 1: Cook the Difference in the Glo

 

South Africa v England, 3^rd Test, Day 1: Cook the Difference in the Gloom

July 27^th 2017

It is amazing how opinions have shifted. Just three weeks ago a well-known pundit who goes by the pseudonym of The Analyst was confidently predicting a 4-0 win to England in the series. The 3^rd Test has opened with England in some disarray and hoping to avoid somehow going 2-1 down.

What is more, with South Africa able to field their strongest side and wondering who to drop, England have fielded three debutants: two forced and one in a strategy change.

With Gary Ballance out, one change was always going to happen. Tom Westley may wonder if Joe Root did him a favour by electing to bat on a grey day, with a slightly green pitch, in conditions likely to favour the bowlers. A report on his innings would make you wonder what has changed: shaped up competently, got into the 20s nicely, gave it away. It is almost as if Gary Ballance had never gone. Early Lunch due to rain. Did not play himself back in. Nice catch through to the slips straight after the interval.

Westley was not made to wait long. Keaton Jennings is clearly struggling for form recently (innings of 12, 5, 4, 35, 20, 27, 43, 0, 57, 71, 6, 39, 8, 33, 0, 3 & 0 in First Class cricket since mid-May). Vernon Philander, fortunately for England, was off the pitch almost as much as on it, vomiting and sick but, when he had the ball in hand gave England the holy terrors, taking 2-3 in his first six overs. Jennings reads Philander like I read Linear B.

We know that Jennings will get a least one more Test, but the pressure has ratcheted-up further and the air-heads within fandom who have been on his case all series are now positively willing him to fail to get their own man instead. The schedule is very unforgiving for players out of form these days. Back in the 1981 series Mike Brearley complained that Middlesex did not have a game between Tests that would allow him some middle practice: Jennings may not play another innings for Durham all summer.

England’s second debutant, Dawid Malan, came to the wicket after Philander had come back briefly and removed Joe Root. The poor forecast and likely seaming conditions sealed Liam Dawson’s fate. It became increasingly likely that Malan would play and England, duly, made a pragmatic selection. Malan in at #5. Stokes pushed down to #6, Bairstow at #7 and Moeen Ali, a slightly over-qualified #8. It means that South Africa have to work their way through an awful lot of batting to get at the tail, such as it is, with Toby Roland-Jones, a more than capable batsman with a First Class century and averaging 22.6 , likely to bat at #9 and Stuart Broad,  who has 11x50 and 1x100 in Tests, batting at #10.

The upshot is that even if the extra batsman failed, the bowlers would have the scant consolation of seeing the batting go on and on, as unkillable as the Terminator. On difficult batting days you know that a couple of batsmen will get a lethal delivery and you want to make sure that the bowlers know that taking a wicket will not necessarily make their job much easier.

The strike rates of all the England batsmen are within a lick of 50, showing what a battle it was. At 113-2, with Cook and Root dug in, England were slowly, but surely, getting on top. De Kock’s phenomenal catch to a superb Philander delivery put a stop to that. Malan was given a searching examination of technique, finally got off the mark with a single and immediately received an in-swinging Rabada yorker. Slightly off balance, he fell as he tried to jab the bat down, lost his dignity and, worse, his middle stump. The betting is that Rabada will have noticed his difficulty and may try something similar in the second innings.

From the fall of Malan to the rain-sodden Close, Cook – who looks in wonderful form – and Stokes have played proper Test cricket. Even though there has been a little, late acceleration, the run-rate over the day has been well under 3 and, instead of the crash-bang-wallop-OUT of the 2^nd Test, England actually look as if they are trying to construct an innings. With conditions likely to be a little easier on Day 2, followed by an increasingly difficult and miserable Day 3, it is an approach that could pay dividends if the batsmen can keep at it.

Stokes is playing with admirable self-denial so far – always a bad sign for the bowlers – and Cook is mixing crashing boundaries – half of his runs have so far come in 4s – with watchful defence. The 168 deliveries that Cook has not hit to the boundary have produced just 42 runs so far. Without Alistair Cook’s efforts in scoring almost half the day’s runs and more than half the runs off the bat, England would have been in a sorry mess.

England will hope that Cook can maintain his obduracy, going on to his century and beyond and that Stokes can maintain his defiance in the morning. By the same token, South Africa know that if they can remove both in the first hour, they will be well on top in the match. England will know that if both Cook and Stokes survive the first hour, they will be well set. Score 350-380 and make South Africa bat in increasingly difficult conditions on Saturday. Now that is the theory…

Day 2 should see the wonderfully named third debutant in action. Tobias Skelton Roland-Jones will be the first player named Tobias and the first named Skelton to play a Test match. He will be hoping that his debut innings is delayed until well after Lunch. Despite that fact that Mark Wood had been given the all-clear last week after a scan on his sore heel, it was no great surprise that Toby Roland-Jones was told a few days ago that Wood would again fail to play three consecutive Tests and that for the first time in many years England would be able to intimidate the opposition by fielding a player with a doubled-barrelled surname (I believe that there have only be three since the war). Unlike Wood, Toblerone is a seam and swing merchant at a healthy  pace.  He may have been looking enviously at the pitch and thinking that he could have done with bowling on a few like this one at Lord’s over the last couple of seasons.

Womens’ World Cup Final: Another Extraordinary Win for England

 

Womens’ World Cup Final: Another Extraordinary Win for England

July 23^rd 2017

Having held their nerve to beat Australia by 3 runs in the group stages and, again, to sneak past South Africa in the Semi-Final with 2 balls to spare, England produced the heist of the tournament to win the Final against India.

The Indians had already shown that if you let Raut, or Mandhana, or Kaur, or Raj get a start, they would take the game away from you. India did that to England in the first game of the tournament and inflicted a crushing defeat. In that game England were never at the races. The only occasion when the Indian batting failed in the tournament was in their group game against Australia: apart from that they had been a revelation and had made a billion Indians believe that their women could reign supreme, just as their men do. Sweet revenge against Australia in the Semi-Final, in which the Australians suffered a defeat far heavier than the run margin suggests, made one think that maybe this was going to be India’s year: the first time that someone outside the big three won the tournament.

England’s struggles to set a competitive target on a used strip suggested that we were in for one of those low-scoring classics that are so much tenser, so much more thrilling than a 400 plays 400 game with short boundaries and neutered bowlers. And so it proved.

When a side is 191-3, needing just 29 to win from 44 balls, you expect them to win 19 times out of 20. This though was the twentieth time and just as they had in the Semi-Final, when England looked to have lost the game, suddenly calm nerves prevailed… on one side at least. India panicked. No other word for it. There was no reason why the fall of Raut, who seemed to be leading a rout, should lead to the fall of six wickets in thirty-six balls. Anya Shrubsole thundered in like a train with headlights so bright that the Indian rabbits were dazzled and transfixed. Logic went out to lunch. 191-3 became 191-4, then 196-5, then 200-6, then 201-7. Surely India couldn’t lose this? Surely?

Well, they did.

Pandey and Sharma seemed to be inching India to victory until Pandey got over-excited, charging down the pitch after a non-existent run. Had Sarah Taylor failed to capture the bad throw, India might yet have scrambled home. Yet Hurricane Shrubsole was not to be denied.

Penultimate over of the match. England managed to shell a catch and yet Shrubsole still took just four balls to finish it off.

Even if Anya Shrubsore and Nat Scriver and Tammy Beaumont took the headlines, none of them was THE true match-winner on the day. However, the match-winner was not eligible for the Player of the Match award because it was the sell-out crowd of 27000. When Raut fell, 27000 throats – more than half of them women (surely a first for Lord’s) – roared as one. The energy levels were amazing. It was not Anya Shrubsole delivering her thunderbolts: they were propelled by 27000 fans who believed as one, shouted as one and drove their team, as one. Lord’s has never seen or heard anything like it and it was about time that they did.

Cricket is changing. Womens’ cricket is changing even more. For the first time, a Womens’ World Cup was watched by proper crowds, from the first group game to the Final. And they saw some brilliant performance including:

·       14 centuries, three of them 150+,

·       Four five-wicket hauls and Shrubsole’s 6-for,

·       The first completely new shot – the Nat-Meg – since Kevin Pietersen invented the switch hit,

·       And a player who scored an astonishing 208 of her 269 runs (77.3%) as fours and sixes (46 of 260 deliveries faced).

In the end, the best team – just – won the tournament – just!

Well done England! You were brilliant!

3rd Test, Squad Announcement: And the Winner is…!

 

3^rd Test, Squad Announcement: And the Winner is…!

July 22^nd 2017

We have had a couple of days to digest the bomb(s) that the selectors have dropped.

First and most important, they were spared the embarrassment of having to admit to error and drop Gary Balance thanks to his broken finger. Ballance is conveniently unavailable for the 3^rd Test and that debate can wait.

In his place plays Tom Westley. This is an interesting call and one of the less expected names in the sense that there were plenty of calls in the press for him to be called up, but you rather thought that he might be pipped at the post and get a call from the selectors beginning “awwwwwfuly bad luck Tom. You were so close.”

If you just look at his career average, you see under 38 – a useful player, definitely a county stalwart, but nothing exceptional. He has spent several seasons in the more relaxed climes of Division 2 cricket, where pitches are often not so good and attacks are friendlier after some lively new ball overs. Last season though, his runs at 53 were a large part of the reason why Essex were promoted and he is now averaging 53 half way though his first Division 1 season: last season was not a flash in the pan.

What is more, when newly promoted Essex started fast, largely due to the quantity of runs from Alistair Cook and Tom Westley, people nodded wisely and thought that it would not last. We are now more than half way through the season and Essex are sitting pretty at the top with a healthy lead and five wins from eight matches. Yes, they could suffer a late meltdown but they have already enough points in the bank to ensure that those who bet on them to go straight back down can throw away their betting slips and, after several seasons where the County Championship title has gone down to the last round and even the last day, or last session of the season, there is every chance that this season the title will be wrapped up with at least one round to spare. Westley’s recognition is recognition that Essex have hit a winning formula and that their players deserve recognition too.

However, Tom Westley’s elevation was the result of a delicate and complex ballet.

Question 1: Do we persist with Keaton Jennings?

This should not even have been a question given that he has only played 4 Tests and his first 3 were marked with a century, a fifty and a battling 33 in the second innings of the 1^st Test when conditions were at their most difficult, which helped set up the win.

Dropping him so quickly was not an option. However there was a permutation that would have seen Mark Stoneman selected as an opener and Jennings dropping to #3. This was in line with the original Plan A of the selectors to square the Cook-Hameed-Jennings triangle by playing Jennings at #3 and let Hameed open. Social media are still full of calls for Hameed to open, but his recent run of 0, 9, 10, 18, 38*, 0, 2, 17 & 23 really does not broke argument. He has hardly scored a run since leaving India as injury, illness and expectation have taken their toll. Jennings is hardly in sparkling recent form, but a fifty in each innings for the Lions sealed his spot. Hameed managed just 0 & 2 against South Africa A.

It seems though that the selectors stated firmly that Jennings would open. That, apparently, ruled out Stoneman, who was not considered a suitable option for #3. Westley thus was considered the best fit as a specialist #3. This allows Jennings to find his feet against what is proving to be an extremely testing new ball attack (ask Alistair Cook, whose scores of 3, 69, 3 & 42) are some way short of the form that he has shown for his county: 3x100, 2x50 and no score lower than 31 in his last eight matches). It also allows Joe Root to stay at his preferred  #4 position.

So, Part 1 of the England conundrum has been resolved with

       1.     Cook

2.     Jennings

3.     Westley

4.     Root

Part 2 involves the bowling.

Moeen Ali has bowled 59 overs and taken 14 wickets.

Dawson, Broad, Stokes and Wood have bowled a total of 213 overs and taken 15 wickets.

Wood’s only wicket of the series came when he bowled a token over before Tea on the final day of the 1^st Test and JP Duminy decided to end his Test career with a rash shot.

While the series bowling averages are topped by Moeen Ali and Jimmy Anderson, the next five slots are all held by South African bowlers. The England support bowling has been very disappointing. Stuart Broad has bowled well and has been a fine foil for Jimmy Anderson, but with limited luck. Stokes, Dawson and Wood though, all too often, have released pressure.

Having six bowlers does give the captain many options. It also means that bowlers have relatively light loads through what is a very compressed series. With several bowlers who are carrying long-term injuries, or who are approaching the end of their careers, or both, not over-bowling them is a major concern. In theory, Joe Root can call on a bowler of high pace (Wood), two of the best seamers in world cricket (Anderson and Broad), an X-Factor bowler (Stokes), a decent off-spinner (Moeen) and a Slow Left-Armer (Dawson). It should be an attack that can prosper in any situation.

That though, is only a theory. The reality is that something is holding Mark Wood back. In the ODIs, the knowledge that he would bowl a maximum of ten overs in two or three spells allowed him to release his aggression. In the Tests, the thought that he may need to bowl 20 or even 25 overs in a day (so far he has been nowhere near that), have caused him to hold back. He is bowling neither fast, nor aggressively. He is not giving control. His only wicket was due to a piece of rank bad batting. While not bowling badly, he is not achieving what his team needs, which is to exploit breakthroughs with incisive bursts of aggression.

Wood’s place is under threat for other reasons. He is carrying a heel injury and although passed fit, it may be that he is not risked. Get him through the series. Get him ready for Australia. One option is to play Toby Roland-Jones at The Oval and at least see what he can do. Is he a plausible option for Australia if others are unavailable? Most likely Woakes (probably unavailable until the West Indies series) and Ball would be picked ahead of him, but Roland-Jones is probably only an injury or two away from going to Australia. With the lack of any kind of meaningful practice in modern tours of Australia, the best time to find out about him before the Ashes start will be in a Test. The West Indies series will be needed to re-commission Ball and Woakes and perhaps as a confidence builder for Wood. If England are serious about Toby Roland-Jones, they have to bite the bullet and play him.

The impression is that TRJ or Toblerone – as he is known – has had a discrete season. He is though the leading wicket-taker for Middlesex in the Championship by a clear margin and in the top dozen Division 1 wicket-takers, although his average of 35.6 is poorer than any of the top fifteen wicket-takers apart from Neil Wagner. He has also laboured with what BBC Radio London’s Kevin Hand has called “Five Day pitches”, on which bowling out sides once, let alone twice, has been a real battle. This though may be an advantage in Tests as he has learnt the skills to winkle out batsmen on good pitches.

A look at the leading wicket-takers in Division 1 does reveal some reason for hope. Two South Africans in exile: Harmer and Abbott lead the way with 44 and 40 wickets respectively. Behind them, Ben Coad on 39 has surely earnt a ticket to Australia. Seventh on the list, with 24 wickets, is a name who probably no one would have guessed: Somerset’s Jack Leach, apparently getting his mojo back. Hovering around the top 20 are Stephen Parry of Lancashire, Liam Dawson, Dom Bess (17 wickets at 19.5 in just three matches) and Ollie Rayner. Leach and Bess will surely go on tour with the Lions and it is not impossible that one or other may be in the party to Australia. Yes, there are some spin options. Maybe no one in the Shane Warne class, but then, who is?

Despite Liam Dawson’s success this season for Hampshire, his place is under real threat. England picked him, not as the best spinner, but as an able batsman who can bowl tight overs and relieve the pressure on Moeen Ali. Since his battling 66* in the 1^st innings at Channai his scores have been: 0, 0, 0, 13 & 5* and his bowling: 2-129, 2-67, 2-34, 0-26 & 1-42. Looking at the cold numbers and an economy that has only been below 3.7 in his last four innings as South Africa collapsed at Lord’s, you would have to say that he is not supplying what England need. It is hard to avoid the feeling that he is batting at least one place too high in the order and that England would be better served by having a specialist batsman in his place and pushing Bairstow, Stokes and Moeen down a place.

Although the name of Dawid Malan had been mentioned – after all, he has made his T20 debut and averages over 40 this season, as well as being an under-rated leg-spinner – his naming was unexpected and definitely not universally approved. A common complaint is that England are addressing an all-too-real batting issue by picking a T20 specialist. Yes, Malan made his name with a remarkable T20 century in 2009 and made his debut for England in T20, but he has been a Lions regular for several seasons without ever quite making it into the Test team. He has also got a solid record in what has frequently over recent seasons been a dysfunctional Middlesex middle order.

If I had to take a bet, I would say that the selectors will baulk from three changes and three new caps, but two is a very good bet. Right now, I would bet good money on one of Dawson and Wood missing out, with Malan for Dawson the most likely swap. The only reason why it may not happen is that if The Oval pitch looks like being a big turner, as it has at times in the past, the selectors may think that Dawson is necessary. If, however, the weather is likely to be grey and cool, encouraging seam more than spin, Malan will slot in at #5.

2nd Test, Day 4: Awful, Awful England

 

2^nd Test, Day 4: Awful, Awful England

July 17^th 2017

Even if winning was inconceivable, the idea was to make South Africa fight for every wicket, wasn’t it? This was going to be like Dunkirk, like Mike Atherton in 1998, like Brisbane 2010. We might go down, but let’s show the South Africans that they have been in a proper brawl.

Even if you had a sinking feeling about what would happen in reality, hundreds of thousands of fans and, we hope, all eleven of the England team had, before the start of play, the image of England 300-4 at the Close today, setting up a thrilling final day. Someone, probably Alistair Cook or Joe Root would score a big century and enough players would rally around to give England at least some hope of producing an extraordinary result.

Of course, having seen so many England foul-ups over the last nearly fifty years (and heard about others, going back to the early 1950s, from my father), I ended my column yesterday suggesting that the most likely result was the game ending around Tea. How right that caution was! England were awful in a way that made the South African surrender at Lord’s seem far less tame. No side should be bowled out in 44.2 overs on a pitch where only the odd ball did something untoward. Nothing summed it up better than the last three wickets going down in four balls as England failed to survive long enough for the Trent Bridge tea lady to put the kettle on.

England needed Keaton Jennings to show the same determination that he saw in India. He was bowled, either to a wonderful Philander delivery (for the more generous), or through the gate, with bat and pad embarrassingly far apart (for the less generous). Patience with Jennings is wearing thin among the fans, although he was sawn-off in the innings of the 1^st Test (his LBW was both missing the stumps and pitched outside leg), played a battling knock in the second innings to help set up victory and, in India, managed a century and a fifty in consecutive Tests. Hence, Jennings’s bad run is really just the two innings in this Test, yet many fans think that he has already had “far too many chances” (honest! I’m not making that one up!)

Ballance is another facing opprobrium. What better way to justify his place than with a fighting century? He was, once again, dismissed LBW playing back, in front of the stumps, completely missing the ball… again. In three of his four innings of the series he has reached 20, yet his top score is only 34 (20, 34, 27 & 4). Get in. Get out. Can the selectors justify sticking with Ballance? Giving him two Tests and dropping him is getting perilously close to the revolving doors policy of the 1980s and ‘90s that, hopefully, no one wants to return to, but not too many people were convinced with Ballance at #3 in the first place.

The key moment was Root’s dismissal. Bowled. Wonderful delivery. Off stump cartwheeling. That made it 55-3, ending a mini-recovery. That was the moment when you knew that it was hopeless. Then Cook went. Rather poor shot, wonderful catch.

From there the principle mode of dismissal should have been recorded as “hari kiri”: Bairstow, miss-timed slog; Moeen Ali, miss-directed slog; Stokes, miss-timed slog; Broad, miss-timed slog. Going down will all guns blazing is one thing but 84-4 is a bit early to give up playing for survival. It was if seeing first Root and then Cook fall convinced the rest of the batsmen that it was hopeless to resist.

Whereas after the 1^st Test it seemed that all the problems were with South Africa, now it is the other way round. In truth, the easy win for England hid a lot of unpalatable truths: among them, an unreliable top order, an unbalanced attack with at least one passenger and a captain who seems not to trust his most threatening wicket-taking bowler (that he may have learnt from Alistair Cook) and who, in general, has not handled his bowlers well and has been as awful with DRS in this Test as Dean Elgar was in the 1^st. Whereas Root out-thought and out-maneuvered Dean Elgar in the 1^st Test, Faf du Plessis made him look like the class dunce in the 2^nd. Whereas South Africa addressed their failings from the 1^st Test (sloppy fielding, lack of energy, poor use of DRS, no fight, …), England’s remained and a few new ones appeared to compound them.

Four players in particular will be awaiting the squad announcement for the 3^rd Test on Sunday with some trepidation. In order of degree of nervousness they are probably: Dawson, Wood, Ballance and Jennings.

Dawson has convinced no one. 18 runs in 4 innings and 5 wickets at 33.8. Apart from Olivier, who has only bowled 10 overs so far in the series, Dawson is the most expensive bowler on either side. Supposedly Moeen Ali is #2 to him, but Moeen has 14 wickets at 15.1 and 139 runs to boot. Time and again Dawson has been the one that Root has turned to first, as if the idea was to justify his selection, but his main threat has been a rare ability, at least in this team, to produce successful DRS reviews. Adil Rashid – still to play a home Test – or even Mason Crane, may feel expectant.

Mark Wood bowled 90mph thunderbolts in the ODIs but, in the Tests, has looked much tamer. 1-197 in 56 overs is not what England wanted from their main shock weapon. With Chris Woakes and Jake Ball training at Trent Bridge – maybe as a subliminal message to Mark Wood – the prospect that one or both may appear in the squad for the 3^rd Test is very real (if both, Toby Roland-Jones will take a break from being drinks waiter). However, at very most they will get one or two T20 games before the Test: how match-fit will they be?

Gary Ballance has shown the same failings as in his previous incarnation. He gets starts and then gets out and he seems to have photocopied a couple of standard dismissals that he tries to perfect, innings after innings: not “eliminate”, he perfects them with constant practice. If he is to be given another chance, it may be down the order at #5, with an extra batsman coming in.

Dropping Keaton Jennings so soon would be harsh, but you feel that yet another opener is living on borrowed time, despite the fact that he scored 7 centuries last summer, playing at Chester-le-Street and arguably should have gone to Bangladesh as first choice. The selectors would be reluctant to drop him so quickly, but one option might be to drop him to #3, hopefully away from the new ball and play Stoneman (currently flavour of the month with the press), or even Sam Robson, who has had some excellent form this summer as opener. Is the Sam Robson of 2017 better than the Sam Robson of 2014, who struggled against India? He has had two summers of heavy run-scoring, although a pair in his last First Class outing may count against him, as may the memory of recalling Ballance and, before him, Nick Compton. Mark Stoneman moved to The Oval to enhance his chances of Test cricket and has responded with heavy run-scoring, but a career average under 35 should count against him. Names who may also be mentioned could include Dawid Malan and Alex Hales.

How many changes will the selectors make? It is inconceivable that it will be none. If they make as many as four, it will look like panic. The most likely thing is that it will be two or, just possibly, three. What is clear is that the fans will expect a whole lot better from the players next time out.

2nd Test, Day 3: The South African Desire to Humiliate England Could Just Rebound on Them

 

2^nd Test, Day 3: The South African Desire to Humiliate England Could Just Rebound on Them

July 16^th 2017

On the face of it, today has been every bit as humiliating as anything dished out by Bangladesh or India during the winter. However, there is just a hint that South Africa may have been too greedy. For much of the day South Africa’s batsmen accumulated runs without fuss. There is no great devil in the pitch: the odd ball misbehaved, but Elgar, Amla, du Plessis and Philander scored with no great difficulty. Until the late slog added 61 in 10 overs, the run-rate was kept well in check. England stuck to their task; South Africa scored at exactly 3-an-over.

There were two likely outcomes: a South African declaration, leaving England a huge target, or South Africa to be bowled out. One school of thought was that with so much time left no declaration was likely much before Lunch on Day 4. On this scenario an England win would be utter ruled out with a target of close to 600 in 5 sessions. With no rain likely until Wednesday, the risk of England escaping with a draw seemed negligible. However, with conditions seeming likely to get better for batting as the weather improved and the groundsman suggesting that the pitch would flatten-out under the Sun, there was the danger that the bowlers might be made to work a lot harder than necessary for victory. The alternative was to declare in the evening: give the bowlers a short burst against an exhausted England side, hopefully take a couple of wickets and come back refreshed in the morning with a still new ball and finish the job. A declaration 45 minutes before the Close would have left England chasing an unlikely 400+ and with a really difficult session to survive.

Faf du Plessis went, though, for an intermediate course, something that was neither fish nor fowl. A large slog for runs, allowing Moeen Ali to take his series haul to 14 at a modest average of 15.1, which only made one wonder more why he did not get more bowling in the match (in contrast, the declared #1 spinner has 5 wickets @ 33.8 in the series), followed by a late declaration, allowing just 4 overs at the openers. In that brief time Cook was given out LBW, reviewing successfully and there were two other huge LBW shouts. Du Plessis must have felt that with two or three more overs he could have removed one or both openers and made England’s difficult task almost impossible.

Instead, England will come back in the morning, all wickets remaining, with a tiny bubble of hope. If Cook and Jennings can give England a good start and allow the Sun to work on surface, batting should get easier and not harder. Just taking the match into the fifth day would be a victory of sorts. Whatever happens, England must make South Africa work for every wicket and show the fight that they did not show in the first innings.

If truth be told though, the most likely result is that South Africa win some time after Tea on Day 4.

England v South Africa, 2nd Test, Day 2: Roobish!!!

 

2^nd Test, Day 2: Roobish!!!

July 15^th 2017

The seamers delivered 75 overs – 450 balls on Day 1. Just 24 would have hit the stumps. That was a pretty damning statistic as it almost ruled out bowled and LBW as means of dismissal. It helped South Africa score far more than they should have done on Day 1. When Jimmy Anderson got his length right and scythed through the South African tail you feared for the England reply. Be very afraid! And when the batting lacks discipline and application, wickets are offered and not earned, the result is all too inevitable. At the end of the England innings, Geoff Boycott, to the delight of his colleagues, could be clearly heard on the microphone entering the box ready for his stint and exclaiming loudly “Rooooobish!!!” He was smartly directed by Ed Smith, who acted as his straight man and fed  him lines, while Sir Geoffrey vented steam, condemning the England batting performance. The fact that the TMS team knew that was coming and were hugging themselves with delight predicting his fury, only added to the fun.

As so often, Sir Geoffrey was absolutely right. Once the openers fell to a couple of really good deliveries, too many of the rest of the batsmen gave it away.

Conditions were perfect for bowling. The South African attack saw and understood the England mistakes and only some very determined batting, such as that on the third evening at Lord’s could have countered it. Facing the South Africans, an Alistair Cook who has been scoring runs for fun for Essex – 667 at 66.7, with three centuries and in Division 1 – so no one can say that he is not in prime form and Keaton Jennings, who had an extraordinary 2016 and a very successful winter, but who has struggled a little in the last couple of months, with just 2x50 in his last fifteen First Class innings. Twenty-five balls. Out to consecutive deliveries and England 3-2.

The knives are already out for Jennings. His triumphant start in India – a century and a fifty in his first two Tests – seem a long time ago. England fans are naught but fickle and, to them, a player is only as good as his last innings. Two failures and a modest score in the first two Tests and the fans see more than ample proof that he should never have been picked in the first place. And Jennings is followed by Gary Ballance, whose 815 runs at 101.9 for Yorkshire seem to convince no one that he is plausible England bat (the only player with more runs in Division 1 is some unknown called Sangakkarra). At Lord’s, Ballance produced just the sort of innings that England needed on the third evening to grind out runs in difficult conditions. Here, he did it again. Unfortunately, just as the ship seemed to be steadied, he wafted at the wrong ball: inside edge, back pad, off stump – indirect route, the sort of dismissal that if you are feeling in a charitable mood, everyone agrees that it was terribly unlucky because the ball could have gone anywhere. However, as it is Ballance and it was yet another unfulfilled innings: 20, 34 and now, 27. You get the feeling that even if he were to produce a fifty, or even a miraculous century in the second innings, his detractors would say that it in no way compensates his failures and they might well be right, but at least it would be a step in the right direction.

Joe Root seems to have taken on the idea that having the captaincy makes him Superman. Why else would he come in at 3-2 and hit a 40-ball fifty?

With Jonny Bairstow batting solidly at the other end and the innings prospering, you could see England getting close to or even overhauling the South African total. Root tried to whack one too many, Stokes prodded, Bairstow at least got a really good ball, Moeen self-destructed, as did Dawson. Broad was out-thought and Wood and Anderson were just defenceless. As collapses went, it was painful. There are times when judicious counter-attack will turn a match on its head. There are others where it is plain suicide and, in one session, England threw away the match.

We have played two days. No significant rain is expected before Wednesday. South Africa are 205 ahead and cruising. They could well wrap up this game tomorrow. Only if they are greedy and go for a huge lead, far past what is necessary, might the game go significantly into Monday. Already England would need to pass their first innings score to win. Stranger things have happened, but not often. England’s one, remote chance, is to take the remaining South African wickets for around sixty runs in the morning and get easier overhead conditions for batting after Lunch. It is hard to imagine that England can chase more than 280.

In the 1st Test, England got (almost) everything right and South Africa (almost) everything wrong. Here the roles have reversed: South Africa have done (almost) everything right and England (almost) everything wrong, right down to England making as awful use of reviews in this game as South Africa had in the 1st Test. Both sides are strangely vulnerable and the series may come down to which has fewer bad days.

2nd Test, Day 1: South Africa Toughen-Up

 

2^nd Test, Day 1: South Africa Toughen-Up

July 14^th 2017

The best possible news for England was that the South Africa of Faf du Plessis is a much tougher nut to crack than that of Dean Elgar. Joe Root had to think through how to break partnerships and how to take wickets when little was happening. He was fortunate to have some help because not all his answers to the questions posed by South Africa have pleased watchers. Basically, the mistakes that he got away with at Lord’s, he has not been allowed to get away with twice: at least, not so freely. This has been a learning experience.

However, you should never judge a game until both sides have batted – and sometimes not even then – and South Africa’s innings still has some time to run, despite what looked initially like being a post-Tea meltdown. With South Africa at 179-2 and cruising, despite losing an early wicket, Joe Root started to get a taste of life at the top when things are going wrong. With batting conditions expected to be best on Days 2 and 3 and their two best batsmen playing without concern, the shadow of a South African total of 500+ was writ large.

It would also have been deserved. In general England did not use the pitch or the conditions well. Trying to avoid over-pitching and giving free hits, they dropped a little too short and failed to threaten the stumps enough. When something happened it was either because (a) Stuart Broad had the ball and his understanding with the Nottingham turf gives him the right to take cheap wickets or, (b) a South African batsman threw it away.

Apart from England burning both their reviews early with bad reviews (a thick inside edge on a ball pitching outside off does not make for a great LBW candidate), the worst review of the day was still possibly South African, which took some doing today. With du Plessis and Bavuma seemingly consolidating after de Kock and Amla fell quickly after Tea, du Plessis gloved the ball down the leg side, Jonny Bairstow took a magnificent catch (not too many people moaning about his ‘keeping now, are there?) and du Plessis reviewed immediately. He may have thought that he had got away with it as the replays showed a big impact on the thigh-pad and the commentators gave the on-field decision as an error and started chatting about other things, until the TV umpire feed reported that Ultra Edge showed a clear noise and the close-up showed that the ball had hit the glove. You heard the TV Umpire tell the on-field umpire that there was glove, the commentators back-peddling furiously and then a certain satisfaction as the umpire was told that he was on camera and could stick with his decision. Discussion then turned to whether or not the captain’s gloves were so padded that he did not even notice when the ball hit him!

With six bowlers, someone was always going to going short on overs. Joe Root’s handling of his bowlers – and particularly of Moeen – needs some work. It did not go unnoticed that Liam Dawson got first use of the ball again, but that Moeen looked far more threatening and was more economical. The comment was made, and not for the first time, that Liam Dawson seemed to be being bowled to justify his being in the side. Mark Wood looked better and more threatening than in the 1^st Test, but there still seems to be a plan to bowl him back into form, even if it gives away cheap runs and Ben Stokes is Ben Stokes: two valuable wickets to leave South Africa 235-6 and struggling, but far too many cheap runs too. The seventh wicket stand is now 74 and growing alarmingly serenely. Thoughts of rolling South Africa for under 300 have gone and the batsmen must be thinking that if they can see off the first half hour, they could post a total of 450+ and present some real problems to England. If you are Joe Root that may be an uncomfortable thought to wake up to.

2nd Test Preview: 4-0? A bit premature!

 

2^nd Test Preview: 4-0? A bit premature!

July 13^th 2017

Some pundits have already come out and, predictably, gone for a 4-0 England win. However awful South Africa have been so far in England – and they have been pretty poor so far in all formats and in all competitions – they have not lost a series in England since the Mike Atherton heist in 1998. Since then, both England series wins have been in South Africa. South Africa have won twice in England and once at home and one series in each country has been shared. Since re-admission, South Africa have won 14 Tests and England 13, with 17 draws. Only in 2012 has the margin been more than one Test. In other words, even when, on paper, one side appeared to have a huge advantage, the series have ended up being very close. After two Tests of the 2003 series you would have backed South Africa to win 3-0 at least: somehow it ended up being 2-2.

While England are unchanged and look to have few, if any real issues, South Africa will have a different captain, the leader of their attack suspended and one of their key middle-order batsmen dropped. In fact, they are still not sure of the exact configuration of their XI.

Faf du Plessis returns, hopefully reassured of his wife’s wellbeing and faces the job of restoring some discipline and pride to a side that seemed to be thinking more of catching the next plane home  than of catching England cold. Their pre-Test fielding drills have been sloppy, their energy in the field, inexistent and they got just about everything wrong at Lord’s. It might yet be that the Lord’s match gave a false impression: one wonders if the roles would have been reversed had South Africa won the Toss and batted, but their surrender on the last afternoon was abject and the South African slump since losing the #1 ranking in Tests has been going on for two years now with no obvious signs of reversing.

England have the luxury of going into the Trent Bridge Test with four seamers and two spinners, knowing that they have an attack suited for all conditions. They know too that Chris Woakes and Jake Ball are nearing fitness and that Mark Wood can feel them breathing down his neck, which is an incentive for him to perform at his favourite ground.

If South Africa win the Toss and Faf du Plessis instils some discipline and fight in the side, England may yet have an unpleasant surprise.

Yet England have not lost at Trent Bridge for ten years: in fact, since India won in 2007. Since then they have won six of the seven Tests played in Nottingham, five of them by huge margins and then that amazing match in 2013 when Australia’s last pair almost saw them home. However, the problem with sequences like that is that they end sometime although, at the moment, England feel like supermen each time they turn up at Trent Bridge: they have won there both after winning the Toss and losing it, batting first and batting second. Right now they need to keep the initiative and keep South Africa down. Win and the best South Africa can do is share the series. Right now you would have to back England to go 2-0 up unless the weather intervenes.
 

England v South Africa: 1st Test, Day 4

 

Awful, Awful South Africa, Embarrassing Fans

July 9^th 2017

There was only one thing more painful than the performance of South Africa today and that was the opinion of many of the fans posting on social media. Brought up on the junk food of T20 cricket, the howls of protest at the solid start by Jennings and Cook turned into pure derision when, as wickets tumbled as soon as batsmen tried to force the pace, it was suggested, as the lead approached 250, that England might already be more than enough. “Get this clown off commentary and bring in a cricket expert” was one witty, but by no means unique, sally. What that particular poster would have thought a couple of hours later is not on record.

It was already clear on the evening of the third day that batting was becoming increasingly difficult and that scoring was hard work. There was variable bounce and some big turn. Anyone who thought that South Africa were going to chase 400 was ignoring reality. Quite apart from the fact that 300+ targets are rarely chased down in the fourth innings of a Test, the last time that a completed fourth innings at Lord’s passed 235 was in 2012 and, even then, it did not reach 300. Since then, the totals have been: 68, 235, 201-9, 223, 220, 103, 207 and, now, 119. Lord’s may serve up dead surfaces in the County Championship but, in Tests, successful fourth innings chases are becoming as rare as feathered unicorns.

England were approaching an unassailable position at 139-1 and then, finally, South Africa started to bowl better. When they did so the magnitude of their task when they had to bat themselves became evident. England started to try to force the pace and batting suddenly became a lottery. When England’s batting order melted away, you knew that unless de Kock or Amla played the innings of his life and made the majority of the runs, the chase, whenever it happened, would hopeless. Still the condemnation of England’s tactics and the celebration that Cook and Jennings were out to allow some proper batting to start rolled on. Later, Joe Root hailed Cook’s 69 as “probably worth double” and may still have sold him short. The top-order runs from Cook, Jennings and Ballance won the game for England: they put the game out of reach and broke South Africa.

When you are already facing the largest total to chase at Lord’s since the 1984 West Indians broke all records, the last thing that you need is the tail to wag: the 45 runs that Wood and Bairstow added were just adding insult to injury. England only needed to keep calm and to bowl well, which they did in spades.

One of the focal points for many was Moeen Ali. Often, despite his excellent fourth innings figures, fans claim that he fails to deliver when he needs to. Early breakthrough from Jimmy Anderson. Moeen is brought on with a still new ball and starts with a wicket maiden. 12-2 and South Africa were already fading fast.

Sometimes nice guys do do well and few will begrudge the fact that Moeen celebrated the Test in which he became the second fastest Englishman to 100 wickets and 2000 runs by destroying the South African top order and getting his name on the honours board. Few others will begrudge Liam Dawson, who had had a chastening Test so far (dismissed twice in four balls and, at times, roughly treated when bowling), the boost to morale that dismissing Hashim Amla will have given him. Yet still you feel that it will only take one Test in which he has a modest performance for the armchair experts to argue that Moeen “has demonstrated time and again that he is not good enough”. If he is not, what of others before him with similar, or poorer figures like Tony Greig and Trevor Bailey?

By 28-4 it was obvious that only a miracle could save South Africa and that the four-day result was coming into play. Watching Moeen scythe through the South African middle order like an angry Ninja was the best possible answer to those who have constantly questioned his right to a place in the side, derided his performances and stated smugly that England went into the Test without a front-line spinner. 6-53 in the innings, plus a catch. 10-112, 87 & 7 in the match. Only Joe Root scored more runs for either side in the match. Moeen took exactly half the South African wickets to fall. His was as complete a performance as you can hope to see. Back in his debut year Moeen was affectionately called “The Beard that is Feared”. Amla would have expected to take back that title but, in the end, Moeen gave the sort of whiskered performance  that even W.G. Grace might have struggled to emulate.

Vague, half serious speculation about a four-day finish became open thoughts of the extra half hour being requested and then, puzzled suggestions that it might not even be necessary. In the end, it was not even close to being required. 36.4 overs and South Africa’s suffering was over. In terms if balls bowled, it was the 39^th shortest completed fourth innings in the history of Test cricket and the 14^th shortest ever against England.

An indication of just how completely South Africa were outplayed is to look at the five highest scores in each of the two innings.

·       1^st innings: Root, 190; Moeen, 87; Bavuma, 59; Broad, 57; Stokes, 56.

·       2^nd innings: Cook, 69; Bairstow, 51; Ballance, 34; Jennings, 33; Wood, 28.

With the honourable exception of Bavuma, the best performers in both innings were all England batsmen. Eight South African batsmen passed 20; not one of them reached 60. For England the respective figures were nine and three. Too many South African batsmen got in, but did not make it count.

The 2^nd Test starts at Trent Bridge on Friday. South Africa have no more cricket between the Tests: not even a game in the nine days between the 2^nd and 3^rd Tests in which to re-group, score some runs and to regain confidence. It is assumed that England will now field an unchanged XI at Trent Bridge. South Africa must make room for Du Plessis and a replacement for the suspended Rabada. They will have to think about the balance of their attack: even before Philander’s injury he looked to be struggling to bowl as many overs as his team needed, putting more pressure on the rest of the attack. More than anything though, they need to find some answers. Losing the Toss at Lord’s did not help their cause – the rapidly declining successive innings totals of 458, 361, 233 and 119 make that clear – but South Africa did not help themselves with poor decisions and slovenly fielding. England could and probably should have been limited to under 300 in their first innings – had either of the chances that Root offered before reaching 15 been taken and the Broad LBW been reviewed, England might not have reached even 250. Quite possibly England would still have won if they had been bowled out for 280 in the first innings, but at least the margin of defeat for South Africa would have been smaller.