South Africa vs England: Tourists' bowlers find right formula in the end

South Africa were 267 for 7 at stumps

Jonny Bairstow celebrates running out Temba Bavuma from Chris Woakes's fielding (Getty Images)

Among the litany of aphorisms which remain crucial to the very existence of Test cricket is that the true value of a side’s first-innings total cannot be known until the other team have batted. So England must wait and see.

It is, however, improbable that South Africa will be entirely confident that the 267 for 7 they fitfully compiled on the first day of the third Test will be quite enough. They have the power to add a few more yet and although the surface is far removed from a paradise for flat-track bullies, the tourists could feel reasonably content with their work. They will know much more by the end of today.

While England did not start as well as they would have liked after being asked to bowl, they responded admirably in the last two sessions with Steve Finn, in particular, generating late movement and genuine menace. Two wickets seemed scant reward for his efforts and he might well have felt like unfurling another of those well-known phrases or sayings, to wit that he will bowl much worse on other days and take many more wickets.

South Africa will feel that the world is against them at present. Having lost a captain mid-series last week, they were deprived of their wicketkeeper, Quinton de Kock, hours before the match after he damaged a knee in an accident at home.

A substitute wicketkeeper, Dane Vilas, had to be summoned from Port Elizabeth 600 miles away, where he was due to be playing a provincial match. Such late shuffling of the pack is not ideal for a team’s state of mind.

England, however, had their own difficulties with five members of the team having contracted the stomach bug which appears to have taken a vice-like grip on the touring party.

They would have batted had they won the toss. Perhaps it will make no difference by the end of the match. They might have done better in the first session, they deserved better in the second and in the third – with clouds of the brooding variety having dispersed – they did not quite make the inroads that seemed possible.

It was, as had been foretold, a pitch that offered everybody a little something. There was pace and carry, which pleased the bowlers, but it meant equally that the ball came on to the bat.

Shot of the day 

AB de Villiers promised that his leadership would be by example. He danced down the pitch to his second ball and drove Moeen Ali thunderously for four.

Ball of the day

There will not a more potent delivery this series than the one Steve Finn produced to dismantle Hashim Amla’s defences, angled in, moving away late, taking the edge.

Moment of the day

Dane Vilas receiving an early morning call in Port Elizabeth 600 miles away to play in the match after Quintin de Kock injured a knee in an accident at home.

For an hour when the conditions remained slightly overcast, the ball was hard and batsmen might have expected to struggle, England did not quite sustain appropriate lengths. South Africa were allowed to leave more than they should have done.

But South Africa still needed resolve to see it through, which they almost managed, but not quite. It was a rank long-hop from Ben Stokes that did the damage. Stiaan van Zyl’s attempted pull saw him contort his body in an odd fashion and the ball went high off a top edge for Jonny Bairstow to pouch a simple catch. That might be it for Van Zyl.

Lunching at 73 for 1, South Africa could consider themselves to have had a good morning. England were re-energised in the afternoon, however, and were distinctly unfortunate to be deprived of any more wickets in the first hour. The ball whistled past the bat on several occasions, squared up the batsmen several times more.

Stokes thought he had won an lbw verdict against Hashim Amla, who had unfurled a couple of typically handsome drives, but the review showed that the ball was not hitting sufficient of the stumps for it to be upheld.

Next ball Amla’s drive found an inside edge which raced narrowly past the stumps. Stokes looked as though he was about to explode.

England might have begun to wonder where their next wicket was coming from when an inspired, if quirky bowling change yielded it. Moeen Ali’s second ball found Dean Elgar prodding outside off, perhaps not having adjusted to the change of pace. It turned and took a thin edge.

Moeen was then subjected to the indignity of being struck for two fours almost immediately by AB de Villiers – drilled straight and swatted brutally over mid-wicket. It was a declaration of intent about his proposed method of captaincy if ever there was one.

Finn, reintroduced from the Corlett Drive End, had already looked the most threatening bowler on show. His spell of four overs was now constantly incisive, fast and accurate with disconcerting bounce and late movement.

He had already sent a couple past the outside edge when he produced a beauty to Amla which was propelled into the batsman and then moved away so late that there was simply no time for realignment. Wicketkeeper Bairstow did not catch it conventionally but from England’s perspective the point was very much that he caught it.

For all Finn’s probing, De Villiers looked for all the world like a man who knew that his destiny was to score a hundred in his first match as captain. But a short, not especially well-directed ball from Stokes put an end to that prognosis. He could only glove his hook down the leg side for Bairstow to take his fourth catch.

When Faf du Plessis, a blocker supreme, clipped rather than pulled Finn to deep square leg, South Africa’s troubles multiplied. They might have Temba Bavuma, the Cape Town centurion, at the crease but he was joined by Dane Vilas, who until 7.40am had been expecting to play for Cape Cobras.

He arrived at the ground an hour after the match had started – had South Africa been in the field, De Villiers would have donned the gloves to start with – and less than five hours later was batting. In no time, he looked surprisingly well-appointed until he called Bavuma for a sharp single. Perhaps it was jet lag that clouded his decision-making, perhaps he was not helped by Bavuma watching the ball and then stopping in mid-pitch.

Whatever, substitute fielder Chris Woakes threw a touch sloppily from mid-on and Bairstow, running up to the stumps, did smart work in palming the ball on to them. Bavuma was out by a yard.

Vilas clipped Stuart Broad to deep backward square but Chris Morris and Kagiso Rabada defied England in the last hour. It may yet be a splendid total.