ENG v SA, 4th Test, Day 2 Review: Proteas batsmen stumble; England take a major leap in the game

The England team is enjoying their time at Manchester as they pulled the game very much into their favour. Jonny Bairstow’s spectacular effort with the bat helped them post a decent total and James Anderson’s spell ripped the visitors’ batting line-up apart. South Africa are now 142 runs away from levelling the opposition’s first innings total.

The South African quandary didn’t seem like ending soon as wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow took complete charge of the innings. Resuming at 260/6, Kagiso Rabada removed Toby Roland-Jones soon after the start of the day. Wickets kept tumbling at the other end while Bairstow was on a counter attack to amass as many runs as possible.

He realized a fact that the lower order will find it incredibly difficult to cope with these conditions. And thus kept striking boundaries at regular intervals and the scoreboard was running. A boundary towards gully brought up Bairstow’s half century. Moeen Ali looked good when he played a few beautiful strokes to get boundaries but he soon succumbed and gave his wicket away to Rabada.

Broad fell a couple of overs later which meant England were nine down for 312. None of the lower order batters stuck around for a long time but the 27-year-old’s onslaught was on and though it lasted for a short period, enough damage was inflicted on the visitors to worry about. He spanked Olivier for 2 fours and a six and he was into his 90s.

Tragedy struck the Old Trafford as thousands of fans who were expecting Bairstow to register three figures were left heart broken. Keshav Maharaj picked up the final wicket by bamboozling Bairstow and though he had reviewed the LBW decision, he was declared out by the third umpire. With a hard heart, he walked off a standing ovation as he scored a splendid 99 off 145 balls.

England registered 362 runs in their first innings and on Day 2, they scored 102 runs in just 18.4 overs. Rabada was the pick of the Proteas bowlers as he finished with figures of 4/91. Morkel, Olivier and Keshav Maharaj picked 2 wickets each.

James Anderson’s master class

There’s a reason why people tout him as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time as when he gets going, he wins matches for England all by his own. Dean Elgar was flabbergasted with a beautiful in-swinger and South Africa had lost their first wicket in the very first over, all thanks to Anderson.

Hashim Amla (30 off 35 balls) walked in with an entirely different mood and he was attacking right from the outset. Some vivacious drives and cuts through the off-side boundary pushed England on the back foot a little, but skipper Joe Root was not willing to take away the catching fielders. His ploy eventually worked as Amla tried for an audacious flick and he nicked it straight to the keeper.

Opener Heino Kuhn (24 off 76 balls) and Temba Bavuma (46 off 93 balls) then showed some class with the bat and ensured his side was out of the initial trouble. Bavuma was solid as a rock with his defence and Kuhn too gave nothing away. They did bat sensibly in the context of the match and all South Africa needed was their partnership to grow and turn into three figures.

But that wasn’t the case as Kuhn first fell in Moeen Ali’s spin trap and skipper Faf du Plessis (27 off 39 balls) was on the field to accompany Bavuma. The worst part about their innings was, everyone got starts but no one stuck in for a long time. After both these players struggled hard for 13 overs at the crease, Anderson was back on and what followed was absolute magic.

He first cleaned up Bavuma’s stumps with an absolute peach and two balls later, du Plessis suffered the same fate as his stumps were dismantled as well. All-rounder Theunis de Bruyn was Anderson’s fourth scalp of the day as he nicked it straight to the slips where Root had to take a regulation catch.

The agony just kept increasing for the visitors as Keshav Maharaj was trapped in front of the stumps by Ali. A poor shot selection from Quinton de Kock (24 off 66 balls) with just five overs left in the day’s play saw another set batter lose his composure to throw his wicket away.

Kagiso Rabada (23 off 27 balls) and Morne Morkel did face some high voltage music in the final few overs of the day and exactly with three more balls left, Rabada was outdone by Stuart Broad and that brought the day to a close. South Africa finished at 220 for the loss of nine and they will have to try and condense the trail as much as they can on day 3.

Brief Scores

England first innings: 362 all out in 108.4 overs (Jonny Bairstow 99, Ben Stokes 58; Kagiso Rabada 4/91)

South Africa first innings: 220/9 (Temba Bavuma 46, Hashim Amla 30; James Anderson 4/33, Moeen Ali 2/57)