South Africa v England, 4th Test, Day 3: Moeen sets-up the series win

 

South Africa v England, 4^th Test, Day 3: Moeen sets-up the series win

August 6^th 2017

Quite apart from how odd it feels to be listening to the cricket in bed at almost midnight, while fighting sleep, listening to England set up a big win in the final Test of a series is also a fairly bizarre experience. Since beating India in the final Test in 2013 England have almost never failed to lose a Final Test: a sequence too long and too well-established to be put down simply to chance. In those four years, series wins have been thrown away. Series that were level have been lost and narrow losses have become heavy defeats.

England lead by 360 and only rain can save South Africa from a heavy defeat. The South Africans were claiming last night that they can chase 380 or 390, but that was the mantra in the 1^st and 3^rd Tests and both times they folded as feebly as did England in similar circumstances in the 2^nd. The wicket is increasingly difficult to bat on. There is plenty of turn and, right now, Moeen Ali must think that he can walk on water.

It is hard to recognise Moeen as the man who came back from India with many fans saying that England needed to search elsewhere for a spinner. The reasoning continued that his batting alone would not keep him in the side. So far, Moeen has 20 wickets – more than anyone else in the series and only Jimmy Anderson can deny him the honour of being leading series wicket-taker now. He also has 244 runs and counting. The double of 200 runs and 20 wickets in a series is a rare one; 250 runs and 25 wickets has only been managed by such as Ian Botham, in 1985, in a 6-Test series, yet must be on.

Assuming that Moeen and the tail eke-out two more runs in the morning, South Africa will be left to score the largest score in the match on a surface where batting is becoming steadily more hazardous. England’s second innings has been poor (Jennings, Westley and Malan all failed, again, which puts a big dampener on celebrations), but any lingering thoughts that South Africa may have of competing were snuffed-out by Moeen taking the long-handle to the bowling.  67* from 58 balls has been the "et tu brute?" for South Africa. South African heads have dropped and they know in their interior that the game is up.

If rain had not come, England might well have declared before the Close. With Day 4 and most of Day 5 seemingly set fair, Joe Root may now want to let Moeen have a dart at scoring a century before declaring. Having them chasing leather for 40 minutes or so more will do no harm to England’s prospects of rolling over South Africa cheaply once more, particularly in the knowledge that Moeen was dropped early in his innings. A century for Moeen and a lead of over 400 with nearly two days to go would set things up nicely for the captain.