SA set for huge win in Cape Town

England continued to plumb the depths today and South Africa, simply by playing intelligent, conventional test match cricket look well set to level the series at some point in the next two days. Any thoughts that the tourists could not possibly bat as badly as they had managed the previous evening were swiftly banished as the last six wickets went for a pathetic 68 runs before the lunch break. Without wishing to belittle the bowlers, who were far more disciplined than their English counterparts, once again batsmen took turns to gift their wickets with ill-judged shots. In response, SA have now extended their lead to 462 and, with seven wickets in hand, will probably declare around lunch time tomorrow to give their bowlers plenty of time to secure the win.


England started terribly. Hoggard went quickly, edging Ntini to Smith having managed only a single. That was forgivable, but what followed was not. Flintoff came in determined to attack and having just edged Ntini through the gap between slip and gully then cut straight to Gibbs for 12 attempting a ludicrously ambitious shot at this stage of his innings. Seeing three English batsmen throw away their wickets yesterday through rank indiscipline was bad enough. To see the stupidity continue today was beyond belief and Flintoff has now gifted his wicket in three innings out of four on this tour. Geraint Jones seemed determined to continue the trend for self destruction when he drove Pollock airily and just missed the cover fielder. Undeterred, he successfully cut one boundary but then perished immediately after a drinks break, edging Langeveldt to Smith with a half hearted defensive prod. All the while, Thorpe must have watched the carnage with disbelief. He had not scored many, but he alone had shown patience that we would expect at this level. Not for much longer though: shortly before lunch he clipped Langeveldt straight to Rudolph at square leg. Simon Jones was promptly bowled by the same bowler and that was almost that. It just remained for Harmison to edge Langeveldt to Smith and England had collapsed to 163 all out. Only Ashley Giles, with an undefeated 31, showed any defiance at all. England had lost all 10 wickets for 111, which, on this wicket, was even worse than the first innings capitulation in Durban. Quite what the Barmy Army thought of it all is probably unprintable.


Graeme Smith decided not to enforce follow-on, which made sense given the amount of time available. Three sessions would be ample to bat England right out of it and still leave best part of two days to win the game. He may have felt less happy when Hoggard again trapped him leg before with only a couple to his name, but he was soon able to enjoy watching Gibbs and Rudolph take the game even further away from England. Whereas the first SA innings had been an exercise in attrition, this time the runs flowed freely. Aided by undisciplined bowling, they added 60 in only 10 overs before Flintoff had Gibbs caught behind for 24. The arrival of Kallis and the introduction of Giles did nothing to slow the run rate, as the new batsman comfortably took his first over for 14, including a huge swept six. Thereafter, Giles settled into a tidy spell and, in partnership with Simon Jones, managed to slow down the run rate. The Welshman even came close to dismissing Kallis, before getting his reward for an intelligent spell just before tea. Having struggled to 23, Rudolph drove airily at a slightly wide one and was very well caught by Rob Key, diving in the covers.


The final session of the day was a cure for insomniacs everywhere. Having decided they were not good enough to dismiss or even contain the batsmen by conventional means, England concentrated on bowling wide and/or high and getting through their overs as slowly as possible. One can only wonder what Clive Lloyd has made of it all - assuming he could stay awake, that is. As a result, Kallis and Dippenaar were unable to score at more than two and a half runs an over, which is not what they would have had in mind, but it is unlikely to alter the final result. Although SA may worry about a repeat of England’s second innings in Durban, they surely have more than enough. If so, the win will be richly deserved. For England, the likely heavy defeat will be just reward for their apparent complacency and complete failure to deal with the weaknesses that were apparent even in the first two tests.



South Africa 441
Kallis 149, Boje 76, Flintoff 4 for 79, Giles 3 for 105


England 163
Strauss 45, Langeveldt 5 for 46, Ntini 4 for 50


South Africa 184 for 3
Kallis 60*, Dippenaar 44*



Posted by David