England vs South Africa: Hosts return the three-day favour to Proteas and level the series 1-1 – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

One apiece, one to play. After humiliation last week at Lord’s by South Africa, England have now returned the favour at Old Trafford, an innings victory for an innings victory – in this series, fourth days and fourth innings are so passé.

South Africa, it has to be said did not make things easy for themselves in this Test, their decision to break up the pace quartet that terrorised England in the first Test, in favour of two spinners – a move that also prompted them to bat first despite the cloudy skies on day one – seemed curious at the time and only aged worse as the match wore on.

The architects of that plan may well point to the increasing amounts of turn as the match progressed, but England would undoubtedly have been delighted about not having to face the giant left-arm stylings of Marco Jansen, whose bat also helped to balance a very lopsided South African batting card.

Whatever the tactical errors before the match, the game was really won by England with the ball on that first morning, making up for a curiously slack performance at Lord’s with a sustained onslaught of skilful and accurate bowling that never let the opposition get a foothold in the game.

South Africa’s team selection and choice to bat at the toss meant their success in the game relied almost exclusively on their ability to make big first innings runs and England quickly set about destroying all prospects of that.

The CricViz statistics suggested, 44% of all the balls they bowled in the first eight overs of the game induced a false shot from South Africa’s batsmen – they were as precise with the ball as they had been loose last week at Lord’s.

As if to remind South Africa of the value of a pace quartet at the first possible opportunity, England’s new new-ball pairing of James Anderson and Ollie Robinson, ably supported by Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes, were exemplary in that first session, Robinson the only man not to pick up a wicket – although he did get one off a no ball – as the tourists went into a tasteless lunch at 77/5, and the game disappearing from their view very rapidly.

The game though will ultimately go down as one in the burgeoning pantheon of exemplary Stokes performances, England’s captain choosing the day his Amazon documentary came out to record a match-defining century and the day after to bowl the gutsy 14-over spell that eventually yielded the wickets of the obstinate Rassie van der Dussen and Keegan Petersen, breaking South Africa’s last bit of resolve and bringing about the rapid collapse of 5/7 in 30 balls that saw England wrap up such a comprehensive win before Day Three rushed to close.

Stokes finished up as player of the match, with 2/17 in the first innings, 2/30 from the extraordinary 14 consecutive overs he bowled either side of the Tea break in the second innings, and 103 with the bat – the heart of a victory that owed much as well to the contributions of Ben Foakes, not to mention the 40-year-old Anderson and the returning Robinson.

On then to The Oval for the decider, the series remains very much alive, its past offering few clues about where it is heading, its future fascinatingly poised.

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