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41st over: South Africa 120-2 (Van der Dussen 54, Du Plessis 9) It’s lucky England didn’t pick a spinner isn’t it? No one wants to leave out Sam Curran, but we are where we are. Anyway, Stuart Broad roars in, and after a single to each batsman persuades his fourth ball to leap onto the splice; perhaps a short-leg might be sensible, in case he gets more of the same.
Also, you can email me on daniel.harris.casual@theguardian.com or tweet @DanielHarris.
40th over: South Africa 118-2 (van der Dussen 58, du Plessis 8) RvdD has played some lovely drives in his innings so far today and that’s the best of them, jumping on the front foot and slamming Woakes through the gap at cover, racing away for four. He bounces back with a sharp bumper, just getting out the way. To finish off, he’s a touch shorter again to du Plessis, the ball smashing into his right glove. The skipper immediately drops his bat - that hurt him. But it was on this ground in 2018 against Australia he broke his finger but still went on to post three figures, so don’t worry too much about how he responds. As the medical staff come out to take a look, the umpires decide to call drinks. With that, I’ll say goodbye for the day, Daniel Harris on to replace me. Thanks for your company. Chat tomorrow? Quite possibly with the way South Africa are going at the moment. Bye for now.
39th over: South Africa 113-2 (van der Dussen 53, du Plessis 8) Shot, Faf. It wasn’t a good delivery from Broad on his pads but he still had to put it away and did with style. It was the only pitched-up delivery, too. He’s gotta give it a chance to swing.
We have another route, albeit to nine rather than eight, from Dominic Murphy.
38th over: South Africa 109-2 (van der Dussen 53, du Plessis 4) Stokes continues and is much more accurate this time, angling from wide of the crease in towards the hip. du Plessis stays still and flicks out to midwicket, keeping the strike.
Pete Salmon is back with us and he has a question. “I got it stuck in my head that one in a thousand players should end with round figures, but this doesn’t work obviously as double digits (eg .94) repeat, but I can’t make the next step. One in how many batting averages should end .00? And so how many test cricketers should that be?” Yeah, good luck with that!
@collinsadam has anyone pinpointed the moment that 4th innings targets swapped from leave them a chance to bat them out of the game + half an hour? In the 90s it was always about the challenging target
37th over: South Africa 107-2 (van der Dussen 52, du Plessis 3) Broad is back, steered away for one early in the over by Rassie. Faf defends the rest carefully.
Steve Hudson has nailed it! “If we move the rules to Test careers that overlapped (and not necessarily playing against each other in Test cricket), you can do it thus:
36th over: South Africa 106-2 (van der Dussen 51, du Plessis 3) I said in the preivous over that Stokes is mixing up his lengths and it’s a more exaggerated version of that this time around, dropping a bouncer too short - called a wide - before sending down a waist-high full toss. Regardless, van der Dussenis in control. du Plessis gets a couple away to finish, albeit off the inside edge.
“If you are including opponents,” writes Ian Andrew, “didn’t Rhodes play with Grace and against Bradman?” Sadly, not. He missed out on the latter, not on the 1928-29 tour, and finished before Australia arrived in 1930. Quite a shame, really!
35th over: South Africa 102-2 (van der Dussen 50, du Plessis 1) “He has been absolutely brilliant,” declares KP of the South African No3 as he advances to a third Test half-century, pushing Wood into the off-side to reach the mark in 67 balls. Considering he walked out there on a pair, and was given out lbw second ball, he has batted with such freedom. Good on him. Earlier in the over, he tucked the England quick out to midwicket for three before du Plessis got off the mark with a similar stroke for one. The 100 is also up for South Africa. Positive vibes for all.
“That love of right angles and round numbers?” notes Gary Naylor. “You’re about to share your life with a scaled down version of Keith Moon. It’s like being inside a Jackson Pollock 24/7/52.” So I’m told! I’ve packed my partner, on her first day of maternity leave, off to a posh spa thing today. Resting while she can and all that.
34th over: South Africa 97-2 (van der Dussen 46, du Plessis 0) It’s a rapid over from Stokes, now consistently hitting the radar at over 90mph. The captain, in defence throughout, still isn’t off the mark after 17 balls. Nothing easy about this.
NOT OUT! No, he is not. The noise the England captain detected was the ball clipping the elbow as he shouldered arms, not the glove.
IS FAF CAUGHT BEHIND FOR A DUCK? Root has sent it upstairs!
33rd over: South Africa 96-2 (van der Dussen 45, du Plessis 0) That’s a lovely shot, van der Dussen driving Wood straight back past him for four. His pace is up, the radar is on. This is going to be a very good contest over the next few overs.
“Stop getting Ghost wrong!” insists James Debens. “It’s starred Patrick Moore, Jessica Tandy and Yahoo Serious. Who could forget Patrick Moore making a Toby jug for his darling at the potter’s Wheel? Or Yahoo Serious summoning up the spirits as his legs dangled from his ute? The soundtrack by Slayer topped things off choicely.” The Righteous Bros covered by Slayer, is it? Now we’re talking.
32nd over: South Africa 91-2 (van der Dussen 40, du Plessis 0) du Plessis is doing it tough here, so badly out of sorts through this series. Stokes is mixing up his lengths, keeping the captain thinking. He finds the edge with a full offering, albeit from the bottom of the bat, along the ground into the cordon. He’s faced 14 balls.
Josh Robinson has a twist on the chain “I’m not sure if we’re limiting the list to teammates (Paul Headon’s initial query including playing against the next on the list), but you can shave one off Bertie Wooster’s list by replacing Thorpe and Bell with Tendulkar, who played against Gooch (I think first in the summer of 1990), and then against Root at Nagpur in December 2012.”
31st over: South Africa 91-2 (van der Dussen 40, du Plessis 0) Rassie (who I always want to identify as RANDY), has broken his bat. Rather, Mark Wood has broken it for him with his second ball of the session and a fresh spell. After the delay, the new blade is beaten with a beauty from Wood, angled in before shaping away. We saw him pick up thre wickets with deliveries just like that after tea on Saturday.
“Peter Salmon’s example of being wrenched from The Zone because it’s Susan from reception’s birthday is called (at least in my field, which is software development) ‘context switching’,” explains Edward Collier. “All sorts of things can trigger it - emails arriving, fire drill, meetings, cake, a visitor from Porlock. Or, in my present case, an alert that a wicket has fallen.”
30th over: South Africa 91-2 (van der Dussen 40, du Plessis 0) van der Dussen into the 40s with a square drive along the carpet, out to the sweeper. Oooh, Stokes beats du Plessis with a lovely little outswinger straight away. He had to play at that, just outside the line of off-stump. Come on, Faf. Get yourself in here.
“Morning Adam.” Hello, Kim Thonger. “Incurable romantic that I am, I’ve just booked tickets to take She Who Must Be Obeyed to a 30th Anniversary showing of Ghost, which starred Demi Moore and Devon Malcolm if I remember correctly. Or was it Eddie Hemmings?”
The players are back on the field. Will Rassie keep bashing and crashing? Can Faf get to 54 in order to guarantee his career average (if it ends here) finishes with a ‘4’ in front of it? Can England end this quickly? Let’s find out. Stokes to bowl. PLAY!
A couple more before we return. “Hi Adam.” G’day, Peter Salmon. “I think we forget a couple of things when we get cross at batsmen getting out after drinks. First, how immensely difficult it is to get in the zone, which is why most cricketers fail. Second, drinks is not always a positive thing. It’s like when you are at work and really getting stuff done and then someone announces its Susan from reception’s birthday. Sure, who doesn’t like cake, but it also involves breaking off what you are doing, and usually standing around chatting to people you have nothing to say to, which I’m sure is often true of batting partners. Its always a good ten minutes before you get back in the zone, if ever.”
Of course, that’s spot on. But it isn’t so much Susan from reception as something they know is going to happen at the top of the hour. To that end, I wonder why more hasn’t been done to prepare for the break so they don’t leave the zone?
This needs an post all on its own, as I’ll be watching it very closely. “All lovers of round averages need to stop what they are doing a pray to Alistair Cook’s Cricket Gods (TM) that Faf is out for a score of 54,” writes Paul Gilham. “That will leave him with an average of bang on 40. At which point he surely should do the decent thing and bunk the West Indies tests to leave his Test career there.”
Yes! Speaking of Cook, in his final innings I spent the better part of a day going back and forth with Andrew Samson as we watched him track to the number he required to guarantee a career average of 45. From memory, that was 80. Of course, he went on to make a lot more than that before he was done.
Righto, let’s get though some emails.
“This has been done a few times,” Bertie Wooster says of the task linking players from dawn of Test Criket time. “The war is an issue (Hutton is needed there) and then there’s a bit of fiddling in the 70s. I *think* the answer is eleven. Shaw takes you 1877-80, then Grace, then Rhodes. Rhodes played with Ames. Ames played with Hutton. Hutton played with Close. Close played with Woolmer. Woolmer played with Gooch. Gooch played with Thorpe. Thorpe played with Bell. Bell played with Root. That’s 11. Toodle pip.”
29th over: South Africa 90-2 (van der Dussen 39, du Plessis 0) Far more chilled out from RvdD off Root after the loss of Elgar, taking a single into the legside. du Plessis defends the rest. With that, we have reached LUNCH. South Africa are still 376 runs away from their notional target at the end of a hard-fought session, England eight wickets away. But the visitors return to their dressing room on a positive note with Stokes removing Dean Elgar just minutes before the interval.
28th over: South Africa 89-2 (van der Dussen 38, du Plessis 0) I thought that would be lunch but it’s not - we must be making up some time in this session. du Plessis, playing what will probably be his final Test innings on home soil, defends the one delivery he has to deal with to complete the successful Stokes over.
The Stokes bouncer does it again! He went at Elgar’s body from the get-go in this spell and gets his wicket with it now. The opener was unable to access his pull shot in time, the hurried stroke instead coming off the splice and back to the bowler.
27th over: South Africa 89-1 (Elgar 24, van der Dussen 38) Lunch time? PARTY TIME! van der Dussen is really going after Root, sweeping him for four then launching him over long on for SIX! Have that! Helped by four byes down the legside earlier in the over, they have reached their 50 partnership in 70 balls. Good times. So, Root’s last three overs in Test cricket have had 54 runs taken off them.
26th over: South Africa 75-1 (Elgar 24, van der Dussen 28) So much for shutting up shop before a break, van der Dussen’s approach is to go through the gears. After taking Root on in the previous over, he’s hammered a stand-and-deliver slap from the crease off Stokes through extra cover, his sixth boundary out of 28 runs.
“Good morning Adam (rather early morning in snowy Ottawa).” Welcome aboard, Nicholas von Malzahn. “Easier than Paul Headon’s head-scratcher (over 20): has anyone other than Rhodes played Tests in five different decades? Warm thanks while I’m at it for OBO coverage.”
25th over: South Africa 69-1 (Elgar 23, van der Dussen 23) Root brings himself on - the only spin option for England this week, of course. van der Dussen starts positively, taking him on with a reverse sweep second ball, striking it expertly down to the rope. He plays an even better stroke later in the set, jumping down the track and getting to the pitch, clipping beautifully out to the midwicket boundary. A third boundary to finish, back to that trusty reverse sweep. After having a lot of trouble against the turning ball last week, the Proteas No3 is backing himself.
24th over: South Africa 57-1 (Elgar 23, van der Dussen 11) Stokes is fuller at Elgar this time around, jumping around the wicket to slam a shorter ball in there. They exchange singles behind square to finish. There’ll be four more overs until lunch.
“Andrew Milligan’s observations n exact decimals and rounding had me dangerously close to resurrecting last summer’s NRR inspired debate about 0.9 recurring (ie 0.9999... ad infinitum) being exactly equal to one,” writes Ian Forth. “Dangerously close.” I reckon I was on the OBO that day? Let’s steer clear of that for now!
23rd over: South Africa 55-1 (Elgar 22, van der Dussen 10) Three maidens on the bounce for England, Curran v RvdD quickly turning into a good little contest.
“Your point about batsmen getting out immediately following drinks may not be recorded, but I’d take a stab at once every other innings.” Feels right to me, John Starbuck. “When it happens once, the rest of the side may be more attentive.”
22nd over: South Africa 55-1 (Elgar 22, van der Dussen 10) Ben Stokes is into the attack for the first time today. It’s a different approach from the all-rounder to the other seamers used this morning, banging it in at Elgar. But the opener has been around long enough to know full well what was coming, handling it comfortably.
“Evening Adam.” A good evening to you, Phil Withall. “With regard to Ian Forth’s 10th over email. One of the few benefits of getting older is the ability to recall obscure things that have little interest to the younger generation. I’m on a mission to befuddle and confuse anyone younger than me with obscure sporting facts, for instance, I believe that Derek Randall was the first on field player to provide live commentary, during a game at Don Valley stadium in Sheffield in the late 1980’s. A game that also included a very young (18/19 year old) Sachin Tendulkar.”
21st over: South Africa 55-1 (Elgar 22, van der Dussen 10) Curran gives Rassie something to flick and he takes full advantage, moving into double figures are his reprieve on zero. The all-rounder is still getting a fair bit of conventional swing.
“Hi Adam!” Andrew Milligan, welcome to the OBO. “I was intrigued by the discussion of round averages so had a look on statsguru. According to that, Vettori has scored 4531 runs and been out 151 times (174-23).This actually works out as 30.0066. So they are truncating his average to 2dp rather than rounding up to 30.01 which would be the correct thing to do. The most runs scored with a truly exact average I can find is Keppler Wessels with 2788 @ 41 (71 innings; 3 not outs).”
20th over: South Africa 50-1 (Elgar 21, van der Dussen 6) Woakes to van der Dussen, forced to use his bat throughout, giving him nothing. Maiden.
“Morning Adam.” Hello, Paul Headon. “Loved your little nugget about Wilf Rhodes. It got me wondering (Knowledge-style) what the smallest number of players is, in a list from first test ever to most recent test for each nation, where each player must have played with or against the preceding player in the list. W.G. Grace to Wilf Rhodes gets you from 1880 to 1930 in one mighty leap, but how many other players are required to cover 1877-1880 and 1930 to 2019? I haven’t got time to research it this morning, but a fun one to throw out to your readers…”
19th over: South Africa 50-1 (Elgar 21, van der Dussen 6) The 50 is up for the hosts, Elgar driving nicely past mid-off; his fourth boundary of the morning. Curran did beat him on the outside edge earlier in the over - a lovely bit of bowling - but on the whole, he’s looked far more comfortable than has been the case of late.
18th over: South Africa 46-1 (Elgar 17, van der Dussen 6) Big Rassie is off his pair with a classy pull shot off Woakes down to the rope, along the turf all the way. Shot. He then pushes a couple behind point to finish. That’s better.
“Early play has done nothing to dissipate the after effects of a classic anxiety dream,” writes Brian Withington. Good morning to you. “Report deadline approaching fast, first half written but second half still just section headings with no text. And someone’s debating what shade of paper it should be printed on! I’m sure this has no read across to the cricket whatsoever, and was more likely triggered by my son limping off to A&E two weeks before crunch FA Vase 5th round tie. Nothing broken, fingers crossed. A wicket or two now would be nice.”
17th over: South Africa 40-1 (Elgar 17, van der Dussen 0) Slammin’ Sam is back to Elgar and nearly completes a tidy maiden himself but going for the bumper to finish, it flies high enough over the lid for a wide to be called. Good set, though.
“Good morning Adam, good morning everyone.” My man Greg Hensman! Great to see you pop up in my inbox. “You mention your group-estimation of the Test wickets Broad will finish on. Any thoughts on Anderson (this one might be a bit more tricky, what with managing the body and all)? Will he coast past Kumble? And presumably get nowhere near to Warne (that’d surely be way too much, even for the machine that is Anderson’s body)?”
16th over: South Africa 39-1 (Elgar 17, van der Dussen 0) ANOTHER big lbw appeal to finish! Umpire Joel Wilson was under pressure having gotten the previous one wrong but made the right decision here - there as an inside edge, which he detected. The end of a superb over from Chris Woakes, a wicket maiden.
Malan will be furious with his dismissal, just after the break - how often do you see it? It was Woakes’ fullest delivery this morning. Sure, it did a bit in the air but it was never a delivery he had to play at in the first place.
WICKET!
England have their first! And it's Woakes with the breakthrough immediately after drinks, Malan (22) edging to second slip.
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NOT OUT! Excellent review, it’s going over the top. The No3 survives a pair. For now, anyway...
IS VAN DER DUSSEN LBW THIRD BALL? He’s given out on the field but after consulting Elgar, it has been sent upstairs for review. Stand by!
First ball after the break! Malan has batted well but throwing his hands at a ball outside the off stump, he’s edged Woakes to the big hands of Stokes in the cordon.
15th over: South Africa 39-0 (Malan 22, Elgar 17) Wood is hitting the high notes on the radar but Malan really doesn’t seem to mind, playing another really compact shot through cover from four. Not a lot of backswing; all timing. A quick single closes out the first hour- positive running. He’s into the 20s. They take a drink.
14th over: South Africa 34-0 (Malan 17, Elgar 17) Woakes is digging into a channel just outside the off stump at Malan for the majority of the over before bringing an off-cutter back, played well to midwicket. He keeps the strike with one to cover.
13th over: South Africa 33-0 (Malan 16, Elgar 17) Shot of the morning, Elgar lashing Wood’s first ball through cover point. Not a lot of footwork but he nailed the timing. An encouraging start from a man who could really do with a Leo Sayer. Oh, hold that positive thought: he’s beaten wafting outside the off-stump to finish.
“Surely the most famous exact average is G. F. Grace’s 0.0,” notes Richard O’Hagan. “A pair on debut, fell ill during the game and died a fortnight later. It wasn’t his best month.”
12th over: South Africa 29-0 (Malan 16, Elgar 13) Edge, four! Malan went at the cut with hard hands, angling his bat so the ball went over the cordon. Earlier in the over, he had to get through a shout for leg before from Woakes who jagged back at him off the seam, but it made contact outside the line. A bit more going on now.
11th over: South Africa 25-0 (Malan 12, Elgar 13) Wood is sure he has Elgar caught around the corner but it is turned dow! Technology confirms that there is no bat involved, it’s all hip/thigh pad. Root, once again, is right not to review. He’s already consistently beyond 90mph, building with each delivery. This’ll be fun.
“Morning Adam.” Hello, Chris Dew. “So you like right angles? The hotel 70 degrees in Colwyn Bay was anything but at right angles. Gone now, but I had many lovely afternoon teas there. At least Colwyn Bay still hosts the biannual thrashing of Glamorgan by Lancashire.”
10th over: South Africa 25-0 (Malan 12, Elgar 13) Chris Woakes bowled magnificently in the first innings for limited returns, especially when the game was there to be won on that second afternoon. He’s into the attack now, replacing Sam Curran. He’s right on the button here too. Nice start.
“Daniel Vettori has the most number of runs for a test batsman with an ‘exact’ average,” reports Ian Forth. “His is exactly 30.00. I made another slightly pedantic point to someone on a Guardian forum the other day and the reply came ‘You’re old, impotent and out of touch. Comes to us all eventually. There’s always steam trains and writing letters to the local paper. Now I’m going to make cheese scones with my daughter’. I was chortling so much I didn’t even bother reporting her for personal abuse.” Great stat... even better sledge!
9th over: South Africa 24-0 (Malan 12, Elgar 12) Mark Wood it is, to replace Stuart Broad. What a joy he has been to watch bowl, bat and talk over the last couple of weeks. Elgar gets one to begin the spell, out to cover, Malan forced to get out the way of a quick bouncer soon enough. He’s stroking them well this morning though, able to time the quick down the ground for a couple to finish his over.
8th over: South Africa 21-0 (Malan 10, Elgar 11) A productive start to the Curran over, Malan pushing a couple through cover then pushing one to midwicket. Elgar is in on the act too, clipping the third ball in front of the square leg umpire for four. Lovely timing. I suspect we’ll be seeing Mark Wood very soon.
“Morning Adam, morning everyone.” Good morning to you, Robert Ellson. “Have to say I have mixed feelings about Jerusalem. I was at the Galle Test last winter, where Billy the Trumpet played it from the top of the Fort, and the overall effect was both dodgily colonial and thrillingly magnificent. But I’m not sure he should go to his retirement without someone mentioning that he plays the wonderful solo at the end of this beautiful Divine Comedy song.”
7th over: South Africa 13-0 (Malan 7, Elgar 6) Sure enough, Broad beats Elgar with his first delivery, around the wicket in at the left-hander, tailing away in the manner he did so magnificently and repeatedly to David Warner during the Ashes. But the opener keeps his cool, pushing one from the next delivery to give Malan the strike. Broad is up for leg before to the right-hander with a ball that slips past the edge and hits the back pad from wide of the crease but it hits him well outside the line and is missing the off-stump. Root was wise not to entertain a review.
6th over: South Africa 11-0 (Malan 6, Elgar 5) Ooh, Curran finds Elgar’s inside edge when cutting and it was nearly all over for the opener - not far away from the woodwork. He’s off strike later in the over to backward point, which will now give Stuart Broad a chance at the left-hander for the first time in this innings.
5th over: South Africa 10-0 (Malan 6, Elgar 4) That’s a lovely cover drive from Malan, getting well forward to Broad and stroking him through the line out to the boundary. Earlier in the over the England cordon were up for leg before when he missed a flick but it was going to miss leg stump. The series might be over for South Africa but there’s plenty of time here for Malan to leave a lasting mark.
4th over: South Africa 6-0 (Malan 2, Elgar 4) Curran beats Elgar to begin with a delivery moving away both in the air and off the seam. He has another little victory later in the over when finding his leading edge, which spits out through the cordon for four. We talked a lot about Denly and Butter’s need of runs yesterday and the same applies to Elgar. His decline is getting problematic.
“Morning Adam.” Hello, Michael Anderson. “On the topic of Philander’s pleasingly rounded stats, a score of 56 not out or 81 out in this innings would leave him with an overall test average of exactly 25. Unlikely perhaps but would be nice.”
3rd over: South Africa 2-0 (Malan 2, Elgar 0) South Africa are off the mark via Malan, who tucks a couple off Broad through midwicket. It’s a less probing over than his first, the opener able to shoulder arms for the most part.
I spent some time in the pub after the second day of this Test with Daniel Norcross and Andy Zaltzman trying to work out how many wickets Stuart Broad will finish with. We landed on 560. The assumptions: he’ll play every Test in England over the next two years but only every other in India/Australia during the winter. And I can’t imagine why they would take him to Sri Lanka in March - let him rest.
2nd over: South Africa 0-0 (Malan 0, Elgar 0) Slammin’ Sammy Curran has the new ball from the other end, as he has throughout the second half of this series. He’s generating some nice shape away from Elgar from the get-go, the opener defending when he has to and leaving the rest outside the off stump. Nice.
An old/discontinued email address of mine was featuring at the top of the page earlier today, which is fixed now. Hit refresh for it to automatically correct on your browster. If you want to get in touch at any stage, this is how you do it.
1st over: South Africa 0-0 (Malan 0, Elgar 0) Nice and full from Broad to begin, which is always encouraging. He beats Malan’s inside edge to finish, whacking into his back pad. There’s half an appeal but it is going well over the top. Nice start.
There is a lot of love for Jerusalem as Billy the Trumpeter enjoys his final rendition before ‘retiring’ in his role. Four years ago, I spent too much time going back through the history of the poem, looking at how it became England’s cricket anthem. The piece featured in The Nightwatchman and is online these days.
The players are on the field. Stuart Broad has the new ball, Pieter Malan the man facing up first. Three slips and a gully are his catchers, a short leg too. PLAY!
What a gem from Andrew Samson. Of course, this is Vernon Philander’s final Test, which prompts plenty of discussion around stats. But they don’t get much better than this for those of us who always have their TV volume on multiples of five.
Bowlers who finished their Test careers having conceded runs that are an exact multiple of 1000:
Vernon Philander (SA) 5000
Peter Philpott (Aus) 1000
An email from overnight to get us going.“All this mention of what we can and can’t hear on stump mic brings to mind some of the epic exchanges that we heard in the early days during World Series Cricket,” writes Scott Probst. “The best, and least repeatable were the conversations between those two poets Dennis Lillee and Garth Le Roux. Kept us up nights at boarding school, waiting for those two to go at it from either end of the pitch.”
This always comes up in South Africa. I remember (fondly?) when Australia visited for the first time since readmission in 1994... you could hear everything. Shane Warne and Merv Hughes would have faced lengthy bans by today’s standards.
“It’s not a minefield,” says Athers of the track on TV, “but there’s plenty there for the bowlers.” Indeed, there’s a healthy string of cracks at one end. Joe Root walks up and takes a look. “He’s the new Jim Laker,” Athers adds. The Sky coverage, both their callers on the SuperSport team and panels in London, has been excellent.
☀️ Glorious sunshine at The Wanderers! ☀️
chasing 4️⃣6️⃣6️⃣ to win
need 1️⃣0️⃣ wickets
How is the pitch looking, @nassercricket❓
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Hello and welcome to the fourth day at the Bull Ring - the fourth and final day if the visitors have anything to do with it. They would never admit as much, but surely on days like today they arrive thinking about how wonderful life would be if they could wrap up the match half an hour before tea before settling into a lengthy session as the sun sets on the series and their successful Test tour.
England have earned themselves a finish like that, just as their South African hosts are deserved the drubbing coming their way. It’s a simple game now, Joe Root’s men needing ten wickets to salute 3-1 with two full days to go. For Faf du Plessis’ charges, their target is 466 - colossal. So, the best they can do is resist and hope for rain. Indeed, they need to do what England did to them at this ground in 1995, but I can’t see any Mike Athertons floating around in this Proteas’ dressing room.