South Africa v England, 4th Test, Days 1 & 2: England set to both win and lose

 

South Africa v England, 4^th Test, Days 1 & 2: England set to both win and lose

August 5^th 2017

After a very long flight the news on re-connecting to the Internet has been good and bad: one is delighted to discover that England are set for another thumping win and that, for the first time since 1998, England will win a home series against South Africa; one is less pleased to hear that Usain Bolt has been beaten into third in the stadium where I will watch his last race in a week’s time and by someone who has been banned twice for doping.

Unfortunately, the good news comes with a very large and unsatisfactory, “but…”: the three players under pressure have all failed. Jennings, Westley and Malan all got into double figures, but none of them reached 30.

Of the three, Westley has done best with his 2^nd Test 50, but you cannot avoid that he has a touch of the Ballance’s: he gets a start every time, but does not quite make it count.

Jennings is following the trend of so many others: an early 100 and a 50 and you think that all our opening problems have been resolved (Lyth, Robson, Compton, Root, …) all have had big early runs before falling into a sequence of low scores. It now seems almost inconceivable, for all the fact that he has started to look in much better form, that it will not be someone else who will open against the West Indies.

What about Malan? 1, 10 & 18. He desperately needs second innings runs. Unfairly classed as a T20 specialist, he has been a solid middle-order rock for Middlesex for years. He has fallen to some good balls, but he has fallen.

However, Joe Root is, barring divine intervention, going to walk away with a comfortable 3-1 series win. Win the Toss. Get runs on the board and watch the opposition self-destruct. All four Tests have followed the same pattern. And in all four Tests there has been hot debate after the first day as to who was on top: by the end of the second day, there was no debate… each time that match has been well on the way to being settled.

This has been no exception. At the end of the first day, England 260-6 and South Africa thinking of finishing the tail for well under 300. At the end of the second day, England 362ao (thanks to a bizarre 10^th wicket partnership) and South Africa 220-9 and sinking fast. Even a plethora of half-chances missed could not make a game of it. South Africa came, saw and conked-out: vini, vidi and very weaky.

Everyone bar Elgar and Olivier got into double figures. There were five partnerships of 30+, but only one batsman passed 30 and no one reached 50. It was the same story as the 3^rd Test. At 131-3 you thought that South Africa had a chance of getting close to parity. At 146-6 it was close to “game over”.

The England bowlers have hunted as a pack – yesterday the star bowler was Jimmy Anderson, previously it has been Moeen, or Toby Roland-Jones – but everyone has backed them up. Rarely has there been respite for the South African batsmen, unlike the situation when England bat when, with some honourable exceptions, the change bowling has lacked the menace of the new ball attack.

Sadly, apart from one Test where South Africa won the Toss, batted and put runs on the board, they have not really challenged England. The England batting line-up has several serious weaknesses, but are still scoring enough runs to win the series comfortably. Several of the South African batsmen are struggling for form and, even when a stand starts, you know that three wickets could fall at any moment. In one sense, hearing Graeme Smith talking so much about England’s problems has been a good reality check; in another it has been a desperate attempt at bravado watching the side that he has captained until recently make a mess of, successively, the ODIs, the Champions Trophy, the T20s and the Tests. They have managed token wins, but always in the context of overall defeat.

South Africa are still the ICC #1 side in ODIs and were, until recently, the #1 side in Tests too, but are struggling desperately and seem to have internal problems, with various players such as ABdV making themselves unavailable, or with long-term injury problems (there has been a lot of undisguised criticism that Vernon Philander could recover completely from his stomach problems and then declare him unfit with a muscle strain). How South Africa could have done with Dale Steyn and ABdV in this series!

Unless England have an absolute nightmare Day 3, this series will be entering its last rites by the end of the day. However, England will be no clearer about probably half a dozen of the names to go on the ‘plane to Australia. This will leave the selectors experimenting against the West Indies but, will runs and wickets against an over-matched side be a reliable guide to form down under?