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England come together to clinch impressive away series win as South Africa capitulate

Mark Wood and Ben Stokes starred but this was a real team effort as England earned their first away series victory since Sri Lanka in November 2018

Vithushan Ehantharajah
The Wanderers
Monday 27 January 2020 16:40 GMT
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Mark Wood celebrates taking the key wicket of Rassie van der Dussen
Mark Wood celebrates taking the key wicket of Rassie van der Dussen

Sickly and defeated in the first Test at Centurion, England have returned to Johannesburg in rude health. A 191-run victory was sealed on the afternoon of day four to confirm a 3-1 series win. The two wins to put them ahead were emphatic. This was no different.

It was Mark Wood who may take the day’s plaudits outright. His four for 54 accounted for the innings’ top-scorer, the series run-leader and the final two to confirm the result. He now has his best match figures of nine for 100 and a second man-of-the-match award.

It sealed England's first away series victory since Sri Lanka in November 2018, ending a sequence of two defeats in a row against West Indies and New Zealand last year.

Away series wins are always worth cherishing, even against a South Africa side in such disarray that you wonder if they should prepare for more days and more months like this. Like the series, there was promise up top with a solid opening stand that took up 15 overs until the first drinks break.

But once Dean Elgar and Pieter Malan were split when play resumed, reality sunk in. The final six wickets fell in 9.2 overs. The champagne popped just after 5pm.

Matches like these are won long before the day success is toasted, especially at the end of a series as long as this, taking us from Christmas right to the cusp of February.

Ben Stokes’ three wickets in 14 balls in the dregs of the final day in Cape Town. His and Ollie Pope’s 203-run partnership to help England to a first innings score of 499 for nine. Wood’s extra pace unsettling them at Port Elizabeth without directly falling to him.

All three the sort of chastening experiences that do not just turn you over from 1-0 up to 2-1 down. They chip away at your competitive spirit.

Mark Wood was man of the match at the Wanderers (Reuters)

Going through 137.4 overs of graft at Cape Town and for it to be in vain set them back as they took on a battle of batting two days or 466 runs – whichever came first. The feeling of chasing leather was all too familiar when the Proteas attack were unable to build on their interjections to England’s first innings, at 157 for four or even 269 for seven, and allowing them to post 400. Wood finally getting his with a second five-wicket haul that was set in motion by three the previous evening to see South Africa start day three in an irredeemable first innings position of 88 for six.

But there was still a period of play today, of about 30 minutes long before the tea break, where England’s dominance over the series came to the fore.

Faf du Plessis and Rassie van der Dussen, together since the back end of the 28th over, had gone beyond holding firm. Runs were being scored, with enough relish to not just put England on the back foot.

Joe Denly’s leg spin came and went, long-hop after full toss after long-hop toned into the boundary boards by Van der Dussen who saw runs as an ally in his quest to bat time.

Tensions rose and with it a brief coming together. Sam Curran’s throw into the keeper’s end hit Du Plessis on the pads as he maintained his ground in his crease, as is his right. Stuart Broad, never shy of a word and certainly making himself familiar with Du Plessis during this innings, said some things. The South African captain said some words back, turning into Jos Buttler with the slightest of shoulder nudges.

Neither batsmen needed to indulge. Their work to that point, on this day alone, had been of substance.

Both had escaped early scares, notably Van der Dussen who reviewed an LBW on nought, four balls after Pieter Malan was the first of Monday’s 10 wickets to fall. A third Test fifty followed and, having recovered from a blow to the chest from Wood on 93, a maiden Test hundred was in reach.

Du Plessis was almost knocked back onto his stumps by a devastating short-ball from Wood. There were other fends, but this was the one which sticks in the mind, not just as the most impressionable but one played as perfectly as possible. A confidence-building blow if ever there was one.

And yet, as the temperature rose, both were cooked within eight deliveries. The start of the 59th over saw Du Plessis drag on a wide Stokes delivery onto his stumps. The start of the 60th saw Van der Dussen reach a little too far for that century, bunting a ball too short to drive into the hands of Broad at mid-on.

Staurt Broad bowls for England in the fourth Test (Getty)

Batting conditions were still negotiable, at four down the numbers to at least take them into the final day still available. But in every way that matters, South Africa were done.

Six fours from Temba Bavuma were washed from the memory when he was put on his backside by a soul-crushing short ball from Broad. Dwayne Pretorious top-edged a similar delivery from the same source to Sam Curran at fine leg. Vernon Philander, lame in his final Test, limping out of a 64-Test career with a grade two hamstring tear, was caught off the glove down the leg side.

Perhaps the most demoralising wickets were still to come. Quinton de Kock’s fed-up slog to mid-off a particularly ungainly way to go when you’re the series’ leading run-scorer with 380 at an average of 47.50. A comedy run-out between Anrich Nortje and Beuran Hendricks the final box to tick in this capitulation bingo.

It was fitting the moment of victory fell to Wood and also fitting that a series that started with competitive promise would end with the damp squib of a DRS review. Nortje did indeed glove down the leg side.

If ever anyone deserves their own personal slice of this success, it is Wood. And Ben Stokes, too, whose 318 runs, 10 wickets and 12 catches saw him voted player of the series – a series which started with his father falling gravely ill.

But once they have their share, the rest of the spoils will be split evenly. This has been a real team effort which we may look back on as the series that made an England side of real skill, camaraderie and substance.

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