England announce unchanged squad for the second Test against South Africa

Continuing their dominance over the visitors from limited-overs to Test cricket English beat South Africa in the first match at Lord’s by 211 runs and took a lead of 1-0 in the series. It was a remarkable performance by the England team to clinch an authoritative victory. It was England’s biggest victory against South Africa in terms of margin of runs since 1912.

Backing the same group of players for the following game England named an unchanged squad for the second Test against South Africa in Nottingham. Fast bowler Toby Roland-Jones, who did not play in the first game, was retained in the 12 for the match starting at Trent Bridge on Friday. Most of their players pitched in with their part to contribute to the team’s win in the 1st Test.

Story of the match

England captain Joe Root won the toss and opted to bat first on a pitch which looked to be a good Test match wicket. The hosts, though, didn’t have a best of starts as they lost their first four wickets for just 76 runs. But then, the newly appointed skipper and his deputy Ben Stokes had a good partnership of 114 runs. The all-rounder got out after scoring a crucial 56 runs. At the end of the first day, England were pretty aggressive and concluded the day in a strong position as the skipper Root was not out on 190* with Moeen Ali at the other end having scored a half century.

The second day of the Test match was very important for South Africa as they had spoiled the start they got in the first session of the first day. South Africa started off well and bowled England out for 458 runs, but Stuart Broad and James Anderson had a crucial 10th wicket partnership of 45 runs as Broad scored 57 runs off 47 balls.

In their reply, the Proteas could never get themselves in a position to post a big score and lost wickets at regular intervals. Their skipper Dean Elgar, Temba Bavuma and Quinton de Kock, all got starts but couldn’t convert their fifty plus scores into a big score that the team desperately needed.

Eventually, South Africa were bowled out for 361 runs in the first innings with off-spinner Moeen Ali picking 4 wickets. England got an important 97-run lead in the first innings.

In the second innings, the English had a quite start as they were cautious in scoring their runs. At the end of third day’s play, England were 119/1 as former Test skipper Alastair Cook was standing tall with a half century and the team had extended their lead to 216 runs.

On the fourth day, the Proteas fought back remarkably as they dismissed 7 batsmen for just 63 runs in the first session and bowled England out for 233 runs. For South Africa, left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj claimed four wickets and pacer Morne Morkel picked seven wickets in the Test match.

It promised to be a great match but South Africa spoiled the run chase and were bowled out for a paltry 119 runs in the second innings. Moeen Ali got 6 wickets in the second innings and was awarded Player of the Match for his match-winning performance.

England squad:

Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Gary Ballance, Joe Root (C), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Liam Dawson, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, James Anderson, Toby Roland-Jones (12th man)