ENG vs SA (3rd Test)
Britons are mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in UK history. Meanwhile, 10 days of state mourning have been announced. Which has an impact on the sports field as well. All sports events, including the English Premier League, have been suspended. But after a day’s suspension in honor of the late Queen, Stokes & Co. played at 200 yards.
The hosts ended the series with a big 9-wicket win against South Africa in the series-deciding Test at Kennington Oval. South Africa won the first of the three-match Test series. England won the second match to equalize the series. The first day of the third test was spoiled by rain, the second day was postponed in honor of the late Queen. In the end, England confirmed the series by 2-1 by winning the Test in three days.
South Africa’s defeat was confirmed at the end of the fourth day. England needed just 33 runs on the fifth and final day on Monday (September 12) to secure the series win. All the wickets were in hand. Playing in such a simple equation, the English batsmen spent only 5.3 overs. It took only 28 minutes for them to wrap up the match. However, the opening pair was broken on the verge of victory.
Alex Lees made 39 off 73 balls after being lbw by Kagiso Rabada. However, the hosts won the series against the Proteas after losing one wicket. For the team, Zak Crawley remained unbeaten playing a brilliant innings of 69 off 57 balls. Apart from that, Ollie Pope scored 11 runs off 10 balls and left the field winning the game.
Earlier, after the start of the third day’s play, the two teams had lost 17 wickets. South Africa lost the toss and went down to bat first. The Protea batsmen had no answer to the devastating bowling of Ollie Robinson and Stuart Broad. The visitors were bowled out for only 118 runs by the outstanding bowling of English pacers. Marco Jansen scored the maximum 30 runs for the team. For the English, Robinson scalped the maximum number of 5 wickets, Broad got 4, and James Anderson took 1 wicket.
England did not bat well in their first innings either. England’s innings ended in just 16 balls on the morning of the fourth day. Apart from Ollie Pope’s 67, no one could make a fifty. As a result, the hosts were bundled out for just 158 runs. Marco Jansen took 5 wickets and Rabada took 4 wickets for the Proteas. Besides, Anrich Nortje picked up 1 wicket.
Trailing by just 40 runs, openers Sarel Erwee and Dean Elgar got South Africa off to a good start by batting comfortably in the 2nd innings. 58 runs came from their opening pair. But it didn’t last long for the Africans. Stokes broke the frozen pair soon after coming into the attack. Captain Elgar could not last long after that.
He got out with an lbw by Broad in the third over after lunch. This batsman who scored 36 runs in 6 fours would have survived if the review was taken. With this wicket, Broad surpassed Australian pace bowling great Glenn McGrath’s record of 563 wickets. He is now the second-highest wicket-taker in Tests for England after Anderson and gets the fifth position overall. Broad now has a total of 566 wickets.
After the departure of the two openers, South Africa could not turn around. Apart from the three batsmen of South Africa’s top order, not even 20 runs came from anyone else’s bat. Losing wickets at regular intervals, the team lost their last 7 wickets for just 78 runs. In the end, the visitors’ innings was wrapped up in 169 runs by the bowling canon of the hosts’ pacers.
Four pacers of England shared 10 wickets of the Proteas’ second innings. Broad and Stokes took the highest number of three wickets each. Anderson and Robinson snapped up two wickets each.
In response, South Africa could have struck with the first ball in the England camp. But Jansen missed Lees’ catch. Then on the fourth day, they could not create any more chances. As a result, South Africa had to lose the series by 2-1.
However, despite losing the series, Kagiso Rabada was jointly selected as the player of the series along with Ben Stokes. On the other hand, Ollie Robinson was selected as the player of the match for his excellent bowling in this series decider.
ENG vs SA Scoreboard
South Africa (1st Innings) – 118/10 (36.2)
England (1st Innings) – 158/10 (36.2)
South Africa (2nd Innings) – 169/10 (56.2)
England (2nd Innings) – 130/1 (22.3)
Result – England won by 9 wickets
Player of the match – Ollie Robinson
Player of the series – Ben Stokes & Kagiso Rabada
ENG vs SA Playing Xis
| ENG | Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Alex Lees, Ollie Pope, Zak Crawley, Joe Root, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson, and Jack Leach. |
| SA | Dean Elgar (c), Kyle Verreynne (wk), Sarel Erwee, Ryan Rickelton, Keegan Petersen, Khaya Zondo, Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj, Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, and Anrich Nortje. |