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.