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.