England vs South Africa LIVE: Cricket score and third Test result as England seal series victory
England notched the 33 runs they needed to win the game at The Oval and secure a 2-1 series victory over the Proteas
England polished off the remaining runs they needed to beat South Africa by nine wickets in the third Test at the Oval on Monday morning to secure a 2-1 series victory.
Openers Zak Crawley and Alex Lees were still at the crease as the hosts began the day requiring just 33 runs for victory after bad light stopped play on Sunday evening.
Lees was dropped by Proteas wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne from the third ball of the morning and then survived another scare when a thick edge flew over Keegan Petersen at third slip to go for four but the Proteas made a breakthrough on the penultimate delivery of the third over of the day, with Lees’ fortune finally running out as a review showed he had been trapped lbw by Kagiso Rabada.
The Durham batter was out for 39 with England 22 runs from clinching the series but Ollie Pope joined Crawley at the crease to quickly knock them off, as the under-fire opener eased the pressure on himself somewhat by ending unbeaten on 69 and cap a remarkable summer for England’s Test team.
Follow reaction to the third Test below:
South Africa 6-1 (2), Petersen 3, Erwee 0, Robinson 1-5 (1)
A couple of no-balls from Robinson sandwich the dismissal of Elgar before new batter Keegan Petersen clips the last ball of the over away for three to keep the strike.
Wicket! Elgar 1 (7) b. Robinson, South Africa 2-1 (1.4)
Got him! Robinson dismisses the South African captain with a delivery angled into the stumps, it pitches and nips away to clip the top of off-stump as Elgar lets it go by.
Great start for England.
South Africa 1-0 (1.1), Elgar 1, Erwee 0, Robinson 0-0 (0.1)
Ollie Robinson starts off at the other end for England and immediately beats the outside edge of Dean Elgar’s bat. It’s a lovely length too and the ball skips just over the off-stump.
Quite rightly that delivery has all the England players excited.
South Africa 1-0 (1), Elgar 1, Erwee 0, Anderson (1)
Anderson strays too straight with his third delivery and Elgar nudges the ball off his pads into the leg-side for the first run of the match.
Sarel Erwee then sees out the remaining three balls off the over.
South Africa 0-0 (0.1), Elgar 0, Erwee 0, Anderson (0.1)
After the tributes to the Queen play can now begin. There’s no surprise that James Anderson will be given the new ball.
He comes round the wicket first up to Dean Elgar and sends it just past the off-stump with the South African captain letting it go safely through to Ben Foakes behind the stumps.
England vs South Africa
All of the players are wearing balck armbands and following the minute’s silence there is a single chime of the bell.
The South African national anthem is then sung and for the first time in 70 years ‘God save the King’ is sung at the start of a day’s play in an England cricket match.
England vs South Africa
The Oval’s announcer makes a statement about Queen Elizabeth II and her love for sport and cricket before starting the minute’s silence.
England vs South Africa
Representatives from the military have formed a guard of honour just inside the boundary rope and the players are making their way onto the ground.
The stadium is near silent as they do so. It’s a respectful gesture from the gathered crowd. Most spectators are also on their feet waiting for the national anthem.
‘It’s been a sad couple of days’ says Stokes
England captain Ben Stokes spoke to BBC Test Match Special this morning about the death of the Queen and how it feels to play in her memory.
“It’s obviously been a sad couple of days not only for us but the whole nation and the world as well.” he said, “It’s great to be stood here knowing that we’re going to be playing this game, not just for us but in memory of the Queen so it’s a very special occasion for us.
“We were still waiting for confirmation of what was going to happen this week so the lads were just sitting around waiting for that yesterday. Once we heard the news it was good to hear from our point of view. There wasn’t much going on for us yesterday to be honest.
“If we were to do the toss again then we wouldn’t change what we’d do. In a shortened game bowling first gives us more of an opportunity to win the game, but the thing we’re going to do this week is to set the game up to be a result either way.
“That’s what people want to see and that’s the way we’ve been playing our cricket all summer. We don’t play to try and draw the game, we try to win it. Anything we can do to create a result in this game is what we’ll try to do.”
England vs South Africa
The advertising boards around the ground have a tribute to the Queen. The ground is packed with supporters who are ready to pay their respects and see cricket continue.
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