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All Square after The Oval

Tuesday, September 9 2003

They came expecting the biggest comeback win since Headingley 1981, and they weren't disappointed, as in the end it turned into a walk in the park for England.

6 down and only 65 ahead overnight, South Africa needed a combination of fine batsmanship and rain to realistically save the match and with it win a series in England for the first time since their readmission to International Cricket.

Again though, the weather was on England's side, with not a drop of rain in the 34 overs that they needed to wrap it up.

Shaun Pollock and Mark Boucher had looked increasingly comfortable as they settled on Sunday evening, so an early breakthrough was necessary to enable England to breathe a bit easier.

After just 21 balls of the day, veteran Martin Bicknell obliged, as Boucher nicked the ball to Stewart for what would turn out to be Alec Stewart's 277th and final Test victim.

Enter the in-form Andrew Hall, whose innings on the 4th morning at Headingley had been eerily replicated yesterday by Andrew Flintoff.

One ball later he was gone, leg before wicket and the game was all but up.

Stephen Harmison continued to bowl tightly as Pollock took to the attack in a vain attempt to blast his side out of trouble. Indeed at one point he even cracked his bat, another feature we'd seen before from hard hitting all-rounders in this series!

What was probably his best spell for England was well rewarded for Harmison though, as Pollock hit one straight into Graham Thorpe's hands, and was out for 43.

Makhaya Ntini and Paul Adams weren't expected to last long, and although Adams hit a couple of high class fours, Harmison was not to be denied, and in an amazingly ironic twist of fate, the fielder who'd received a lot of criticism for not being up to the mark since his debut at Trent Bridge pulled off one of the catches of the season to dismiss Ntini off a short ball from Harmison, who finished with Test best figures of 4-33.

110 was the target, and South Africa needed early wickets to stand a chance.

It was not to be though, as although Hall dropped Marcus Trescothick early on, the openers batted through to lunch comfortably, and the match was all but over.

Michael Vaughan again fell cheaply after lunch, as Jacques Kallis got him to edge to Boucher for 13 with the score on 47.

That was it though, as with a partisan crowd cheering their every shot, Trescothick and Mark Butcher knocked off the remaining 63 runs in the space of 10 overs and only 37 minutes to cruise to victory, Trescothick completing a fine individual match to end up 69 not out from only 66 balls. The only slight diappointment being that neither of them got out to allow Stewart a final farewell.

Trescothick won the man of the match, and Flintoff and Graeme Smith the respective Men of the Series awards - none of which could be argued with. 2-2 and a fantastic match and series was over.

Posted by Marc