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.