Johannesburg — Keshav Maharaj and Marco Jansen restored South Africa’s advantage after a mid-afternoon wobble, taking a page out of the approach made popular by the opposition a few months ago.
The two shared a partnership of 72 runs for the seventh wicket, with those runs being scored at a rate of 5.82 an over, giving the Proteas a lead of 124 runs at stumps.
Where it had looked as if the tourists had surrendered their advantage amidst a whirlwind whipped up by Ben Stokes after tea, that stand would have made the trip back to the hotel on Thursday evening a much happier one.
There was some stunning stroke play from both; including Jansen, somewhat surprisingly promoted above Kyle Verreynne to No 6, hooking Stokes for six, and driving another off the backfoot for an all run four.
Maharaj too produced some sparkling backfoot drives, including one sequence that saw him hit James Anderson through the covers, followed by a slog over midwicket. He struck seven fours in his innings of 41, before pulling Stokes to Matthew Potts at midwicket, eight minutes before the close. Jansen was on 41 not out at the end having bashed four fours along with that six.
Before then, England, though their captain’s sheer force of will, had dragged themselves back into the match.
At the tea break, South Africa would have been delighted with how the day was unfolding.
The bowlers had done their job in the morning, keeping England to a modest first innings total, with Kagiso Rabada’s magnificence rewarded with a 12th Test five wicket haul.
The Proteas openers shared a partnership of 85, which was followed by a second wicket stand of 53 but then their nemesis entered the fray and the opportunity to take control of this Test was seemingly ripped from their grasp.
Stokes has enjoyed the majority of his engagements with the Proteas, since first facing them in the summer of 2015/16. Then, in just his second Test against South Africa he plundered 258 runs off 198 balls at Newlands. He’s scored two other hundreds, averages just under 46 with the bat and with the ball, he’s produced a match-winning spell also at Newlands in the 2019/20 series.
At Lord’s on Thursday, he changed the flow of the match, which until tea had been going South Africa’s way.
Dean Elgar was typically steely, while Sarel Erwee batted with composure and great authority. He drove with punchy elegance, and when gifted balls on the legs, timed a few elegant strokes to the midwicket boundary.
Theirs was the kind of partnership that relaxes a dressing room, and in the case of the opposition causes angst. England were indeed getting cranky, until some misfortune befell the Proteas captain, who saw a delivery from Anderson deflect off his thigh onto his fore-arm with the ball rolling onto the stumps and dislodging the bails.
While the 53-run partnership between Erwee and Keegan Petersen was welcome, the latter looked nervous and distracted for the entirety of his stay at the crease. His normally solid technique appeared loose as he pushed at balls outside off stump. There were also two occasions where he and Erwee got out of sync running between the wickets with one of those nearly costing his wicket, when Stuart Broad missed a shy at the stumps with Petersen short of his ground at the non-striker’s end.
Not long after he lost his shape attempting a drive, edging Potts to third slip.
Aiden Markram, batting for the first time at No 4, played some elegant drives, but wasted the opportunity afforded to him by Temba Bavuma’s absence just as he did the ones he had in New Zealand, when he batted at No 3 with Petersen missing. His first ball after the tea break was an awkward prod at left-arm spinner Jack Leach that gave the English an immediate lift after the interval.
And then came Stokes. The England captain switched to short ball strategy, getting one in just the right spot to Erwee, that the left-hander couldn’t get away from, gloving the ball and offering wicket-keeper Ben Foakes an easy catch. Erwee’s innings of 73 included six fours and will be a much needed confidence booster for him at the start of the series.
Rassie van der Dussen, whose Test form, like Markram’s, has fallen away in recent matches, was trapped lbw in Stokes’ next over and with Kyle Verreynne making just 11 before becoming Broad’s 100th Test wicket at Lord’s, the English were in the ascendancy.
However that rapidly changed in the face of Maharaj and Jansen’s stunning assault - giving the English a taste of the approach that they dished out to New Zealand and India a few months ago.
Scorecard
England: 165 all out (Pope 73, Rabada 5/52, Nortje 3/63, Jansen 2/30)
South Africa: 289/7 (Erwee 73, Elgar 47, Jansen 41*, Stokes 3/53, Leach 1/42)
South Africa lead by 124 runs
IOL Sport