SA v Eng 3rd Test Review: Broad's imposing spell crushes South Africa

Stuart Broad was England’s impact bowler in the second innings as he produced an astonishing spell of 6 for 17 in his 12 overs spell which included six maidens. The Test match was completely in balance when South Africa went for the lunch session at 23/0.

But, little did anybody expect that Broad would bend the entire match in favor of England in just one session. The lanky pacer destroyed the South African top order, bringing them down to 35/5 within the first hour of the second session.

Coming back after lunch, Broad initiated his wicket taking spree with the dismissal of Dean Elgar. His second wicket came in the form of Stiaan van Zyl who edged a slightly fuller delivery to the fielder at gully. This was for the first time that Elgar was dismissed before van Zyl in the innings the two have batted together. The crowd was left silent when Broad got AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla off successive overs. De Villiers was dismissed for a duck after he inside edged an incoming delivery from Broad to Bairstow who completed a fantastic catch. Amla’s leg glance was turned into a sharp reflex catch by James Taylor at short leg. Temba Bavuma joined the rest of the top order in the pavilion after he gloved a bouncer from Broad straight onto the stumps.

There was no recovery from South Africa as Ben Stokes, with the wickets of Rabada and Morris and Steve Finn with the scalp of Dane Vilas also joined in the party. James Anderson, who was searching for a wicket all the while, finally got one after he dismissed Viljoen. By tea, South Africa were 71/8 with Broad taking 5 wickets for just one run in the session.

After the interval, Broad snapped his 6^th wicket in the form of Faf du Plessis with a return catch to end South Africa’s innings at just 83. This performance was very similar to the 8/15 he produced at Trent Bridge to bowl out Australia for just 60 runs during last year’s Ashes contest.

England needed just 74 runs to win the match and take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the four-match series. Alex Hales (18) and Alastair Cook (43) started off smoothly and England looked to be sailing smooth towards victory. But, the visitors lost three wickets in quick succession to delay the win by a couple of overs. However, Joe Root finished the exciting Test with a boundary on the leg side few balls later to complete the seven-wicket win for England.

Earlier at the start of the day, England, who had ended day three at 238/5 lost their remaining wickets for just 85 runs and bundled out for 323 runs with a 10 runs advantage, missing out on an opportunity to gain a big lead.

Kagiso Rabada continued his great work and took three of the remaining five England wickets. The first wicket to fall in the morning was of Joe Root who added just four runs to his overnight score of 106. Moeen Ali had a tough time negotiating with the burly fast bowler Hardus Viljoen. Morris took advantage of the pressure built on him and got him nick one to wicketkeeper Vilas. Finn also succumbed to Morne Morkel. Rabada struck again twice with the wickets of Stuart Broad and Jonny Bairstow.

Brief Scores:

1st Innings

South Africa: 313 all out (Dean Elgar 46; Ben Stokes 3/53)

England: 323 all out (Joe Root 110; Kagiso Rabada 5/78)

2nd Innings

South Africa: 83 all out (Kagiso Rabada 16; Stuart Broad 6/17)

England: 74/3 (Alastair Cook 43; Dean Elgar 2/10)

England won by 7 wickets

Man of the match: Stuart Broad (England)