England tour of South Africa 2019/20

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SECOND TEST NEWLANDS CAPE TOWN

24 years ago rocked up at this venue to see us lose in three days, it was Mike Watknson's last test he ended with a duck

Newlands Cricket Ground (known as PPC Newlands for sponsorship reasons) in Cape Town is a South African cricket ground. It is the home of the Cape Cobras, who play in the Sunfoil Series, Momentum 1 Day Cup and RamSlam Pro20 competitions. It is also a venue for Test matches, ODIs and T20Is. Newlands is regarded as one of the most beautiful cricket grounds in the world, being overlooked by Table Mountain and Devil's Peak. It is close to Newlands Stadium, which is a rugby union and football venue. The cricket ground opened in 1888.

The title deed for the land currently containing the ground was granted to a brewer, Jacob Letterstedt in 1845, who then presented it to his daughter, Lydia Corrina, as a wedding present upon her marriage to the Vicomte de Montmort.

The land, partly wetland and heavily wooded, was rented to the Western Province Cricket Club in 1887 for £50, with a 25-year lease being signed in 1888 and the rental increased to £100. Each of the club's life members contributed £25 towards the costs, and a further £350 was received in donations towards the construction of a pavilion.[2]

The ground was levelled and officially opened with a two-day match between Mother Country and Colonial Born, which went on to become a regular feature. There was no scoreboard, and a pond existed behind the location of the current scoreboard.[2]


The scoreboard at Newlands cricket ground Cape Town South Africa during the match between Western Province and Eastern Province in February 1972
Before the arrival of the Australians in 1902, which included Victor Trumper, the pine trees, which extended from the "B" field along Camp Ground Road and around the pavilion, were replaced by oak trees. This is the site of the current Oaks Enclosure, one of the most popular vantage points. A then-record crowd of 10 000 arrived to see the Test.[2]

Between 1991 and 1997 numerous changes were made to the ground. Large portions of the grass embankments were replaced by pavilions increasing the seating capacity to 25,000.

The ground hosted its first Test match on 24 March 1889 when England defeated South Africa by an innings and 202 runs. There have been 55 Test matches played at the ground of which South Africa has won 23, their opponents 21 and 11 which ended in a draw. The last team besides Australia to beat South Africa there was New Zealand in January 1962.[3]

Records and statistics
First Test South Africa v England - Mar 25-26, 1889
Last Test South Africa v Pakistan - Jan 3-6, 2019

First ODI South Africa v India - Dec 7, 1992
Last ODI South Africa v Sri Lanka - Mar 16, 2019

First T20I Australia v Zimbabwe - Sep 12, 2007
Last T20I South Africa v Sri Lanka - Mar 19, 2019

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Archer doubtful elbow injury, Burns injured playing football

[apm51054]

Burns out of tour ankle ligament damage

[chris]

Jan 2, 2020 19:36:02 GMT apm51054 said:

Burns out of tour ankle ligament damage

Apparently Parkinson was almost red carded for taking out Pope, the day before.

[Admin]

Will be waiting for my lads to don pads and helmits in the warm up before tomorrow's cup tie, anyway the cricket average first day score at Newlands is 265so it's about par although really should be better

England 262 for 9 (Pope 56*) v South Africa

There is no precise antonym for the word "ruthless": like "nonplussed", "disgruntled" and "underwhelmed", it is considered by linguistics scholars to be an unpaired adjective due to the lack of a word with a perfectly opposite meaning.

But if academics can find a way to condense England's batting performance on the first day of the Newlands Test into an adjective, they will finally have found a solution to their problem. If one batsman in the top seven failing to convert a start into a telling contribution might be considered careless, seeing five of them do it suggests a much deeper issue.

England's players have taken to calling this their "cursed" tour, with injury and illness ruining their preparation for both the first and second Tests, but their failure to reach an imposing first-innings total here was largely self-inflicted: having won the toss and chosen to bat first on a fairly placid surface, Joe Root was one of several senior batsmen to get in and get out as South Africa had much the better of the first day. Only Ollie Pope, who made a calm, unbeaten half-century, managed to produce something approaching a match-altering score.

For as much as the home side impressed with a disciplined bowling performance - and their change bowlers, Anrich Nortje and Dwaine Pretorius, were both particularly unerring - there were few magic balls, and instead a series of shots that hinted at a lack of concentration or a failure to take advantage of an ideal situation.

Rory Burns' ankle injury on the eve of the game saw Zak Crawley come into the side for his second Test to open alongside Dom Sibley - not since since 1963 have England had a less-experienced opening pair (excluding nightwatchmen) - as part of perhaps their most adverbial top three ever, with Joe Denly in at No. 3. Crawley was given a brutal working-over in his brief stay at the crease: Vernon Philander hammered the off-stump channel on a length before nudging a fraction fuller, like a precision engineer, and finding the outside edge.

Philander, in his final Test at the ground that has been so good to him, continued to probe just outside the off stump, testing Sibley's open stance and leg-side-dominant game as he regularly beat his prodded defensive shots.

And despite looking more confident and settled at the crease on his way to his highest Test score to date - even unfurling his cover drive within the first hour - Sibley fell in disappointing fashion for the second consecutive innings. Pretorius put the brakes on with three maidens in his first four overs, and Kagiso Rabada reaped the rewards at the other end, drawing an outside edge which Quinton de Kock snaffled.

Nortje made the next breakthrough in a hostile spell. Denly had battled doggedly, but found himself tied down against Keshav Maharaj in particular, taking 49 balls to get past 21, and was hit on the helmet by a sharp bouncer off the fifth ball of Nortje's second over after lunch. With Nortje's speeds nudging past the 90mph/145kph mark, he also had Root camped deep in his crease on the back foot.

Root pushed hard at a back-of-a-length ball in the channel, but lived to tell the tale as Rassie van der Dussen put down his third chance of the series - just like the last two occasions, he was unsighted by de Kock's dive in front of him. But it was hardly a costly drop: two balls later, Nortje aimed a bullet at Root's left shoulder, and as the batsman flinched to get underneath it, he gloved it through to the gleeful wicketkeeper.

Denly's turgid innings was ended seven overs later, as Maharaj pushed through an arm ball which burst between bat and pad to take the top of his off stump. England's No. 3 has reached double figures 19 times in his 22 Test innings, but his 94 against Australia at The Oval remains his most-significant contribution.

Four years on - to the day - from his 258 not out on the ground, Ben Stokes looked in fine touch throughout his innings, hitting Maharaj for a towering six over wide mid-on, but was became the latest England batsman to give his wicket away cheaply when he tamely chipped a low catch to Dean Elgar at extra cover to hand Nortje his second wicket and South Africa their fifth with the score still 15 runs short of 200.

Jos Buttler had signalled his intent to play with more positivity in the build-up to this Test and was true to his word, hitting a flurry of boundaries as he looked to counterattack, getting across to the off side in an attempt to throw the unerring Pretorius off his line. But Pretorius plugged away, shifting his line wider, and produced a gem of a delivery with the old ball to see the back of Buttler, with a hint of movement away off the seam to find an edge.

He struck again with the old ball to affirm South Africa's advantage, angling one in from round the wicket as Sam Curran shouldered arms, only to find his off stump cartwheeling towards fine leg.

When Philander struck with the new ball, drawing Dom Bess into a tame push first ball to one that moved sharply away off the seam, and Rabada accounted for Stuart Broad with a searing yorker, it was down to Pope to free his arms with only James Anderson for company. An uppercut and a club down the ground - worth four each - were the pick of the shots, and he brought up his second Test fifty with a pull in front of square when shepherding the tail.

He was given a reprieve late in the piece, holing out to Philander at long leg only to discover Rabada had overstepped, and Faf du Plessis was visibly frustrated by a seven-over partnership that ensured England will resume on the second morning.

[Admin]

South Africa 215 for 8 (Elgar 88, van der Dussen 68) trail England 269 (Pope 61*) by 54 runs

The narrative surrounding England's first two World Test Championship series has been dominated by the Smiths: Steven ground them into the dirt with his runs in the Ashes, and Graeme's appointment as director of cricket appears to have sparked new life into South Africa.

And as Dean Elgar piled on the runs with Rassie van der Dussen - who had begun to seem almost invincible, such was his ability to survive despite offering regular chances - Joe Root could have been forgiven thinking that, as far as his side was concerned, this joke wasn't funny anymore.

But the thorn was soon out of his side, as South Africa went nowhere fast. Perhaps weighed down by the pressure of prolonged dry spells from England's change bowlers, Elgar, Quinton de Kock and van der Dussen all gave their wickets away in the day's final hour to squander their side's advantage, before James Anderson struck twice with the new ball to leave South Africa eight down at the close.

Instead, still trailing by 54 runs and facing the prospect of batting last on a wicket that has proved more helpful to seamers than many had predicted, South Africa face a tough ask to get what they want this time.

England's attempts during the morning to frustrate South Africa with a significant last-wicket partnership lasted only 17 balls, as Anderson steered a back-of-a-length ball to van der Dussen at slip to give Kagiso Rabada his third wicket, leaving Ollie Pope on a battling, unbeaten 61.

While they were profligate with the new ball at Centurion, Stuart Broad and Anderson started impressively at Newlands. Pieter Malan's maiden Test innings was a stern challenge of his technique, and it ended quickly: after Elgar had edged the final ball of Anderson's fourth over just short of Root at slip, Malan was drawn into fending a length ball to the same man in the same position, this time offering a simple chance.

Broad struck again in his next over, dismissing Zubayr Hamza for the third time this series thanks to a superb diving catch by Ben Stokes at second slip, and when Faf du Plessis jabbed a length ball from Anderson into the cordon it left South Africa in trouble at 40 for 3.

Dom Bess, the Somerset offspinner, nearly had a wicket with his first ball in an overseas Test, as he drew Elgar into a lofted drive that only narrowly evaded the grasp of the diving Pope at short extra cover, and Anderson looked to have trapped van der Dussen lbw early on in his innings, but he was saved on review thanks to a thick inside edge.

But as Elgar and van der Dussen began to frustrate England, the tourists proved to be their own worst enemies. Van der Dussen gloved a brutal delivery behind only to be saved by the revelation that Broad had overstepped. In fact, Broad and Stokes overstepped 12 times between them in the afternoon session despite the scorecard recording a very different story.

Van der Dussen had yet another life on 43, with Stokes dropping a tough chance at second slip to his right, and their pair soon had the highest partnership of the series and a hundred stand as Elgar nudged, pulled and tickled his way towards a third Newlands century.

But as the runs began to dry up, Elgar suffered a brain-fade. On 88, he decided to aim a fullish ball outside the off stump from Bess into the stands, and instead only succeeded in mowing it straight in the air; Root, running back from mid-off, took the catch, and England had an important breakthrough.

Much as the wicket came as a surprise given Elgar had grown in confidence and control through his innings, England had worked steadily and with real focus to remove him, like a tick from a cat's ear. The 10.4 overs after the tea interval had cost only 16 runs, and the visiting attack had been parsimonious throughout, with the seamers operating from the Wynberg End while Bess tied things down from the other; as the brakes were put on, South Africa struggled to rein their attacking instincts in.

De Kock was keen to go from the outset, but after a couple of boundaries skied an offcutter from Sam Curran up and into the safe hands of Anderson at mid-off, and when van der Dussen gave Stokes another chance at second slip while trying to run the same bowler down to third man, England had mirrored South Africa in taking two wickets just before the new ball was due.

Anderson then struck with the new ball, getting Dwaine Pretorius to edge twice to Stokes at second slip. First, he put down a catch for the second time in the day, low down in front of him, but three balls later gobbled up a much harder chance to leave the hosts seven down and claim his fourth catch of the innings. And when the ball spooned up to Dom Sibley in the slips off Keshav Maharaj's pad via the inside edge, England's ascendancy was confirmed.

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England 218 for 4 (Sibley 85*, Root 61) and 269 all out lead South Africa 223 all out (Anderson 5-40) by 264 runs

Joe Root said in the days before England arrived in New Zealand at the end of last year that he wanted his batsmen to "be prepared to play some attritional cricket" after batting "in fast-forward" under Trevor Bayliss. On the third day of the Newlands Test, it appeared his top order had taken that message to heart, as they ground out a substantial lead thanks primarily to Dom Sibley's unbeaten 85.

England had seized the Test by the scruff of the neck during the dramatic end to the second day, when South Africa lost five wickets for 58 runs to turn 157 for 4 into 215 for 8, and James Anderson took the two remaining wickets in just 14 deliveries to finish with a five-wicket haul.

And after Zak Crawley's frenetic 25, Sibley went about blunting a lacklustre South African attack, putting on partnerships of 73 with Joe Denly and 116 alongside Root to give England an imposing 264-run lead by the close with six second-innings wickets remaining.

Anderson made short work of the tail in the morning, removing Kagiso Rabada with a textbook outswinger with the first ball of the day and enticing Anrich Nortje into prodding defensively at a ball outside his off stump to give England a 46-run lead.

That dismissal was statistically significant, too: it gave Stokes his fifth catch of the innings, making him the first England outfielder to complete that feat, and put Anderson out in front of Ian Botham as the man with the most five-wicket hauls for England, with 28. Anderson's now has 102 wickets at 20.67 since his 35th birthday, and was the first 37-year-old to take a five-for for England bowling seam-up since Freddie Brown in 1951.

The early stages of England's second innings were dominated by a fiery duel between Zak Crawley and Rabada. After overpitching twice in his first over and being punished by England's rookie opener, Rabada began to steam in, as though he had taken the boundaries personally, and smacked Crawley on the helmet via the bicep in his third over having struck him in the ribs in his second.

Two balls after that blow, Rabada appeared to offer some choice words on Crawley's technique after a 91mph back-of-a-length ball which thudded into the splice, and did so again following his next delivery, a sharp bouncer which struck the batsman on the shoulder.

And while Crawley clipped another full toss to the boundary, it was Rabada who had the last laugh, pushing an outswinger slightly wide of the off-stump channel and drawing an edge as the batsman looked to unfurl his cover drive.

But that battle aside, South Africa looked a shadow of the fit, fierce attack that got the better of England at Centurion, with Maharaj resorting to leg-theory early on in his spell and the seamers failing to extract much life from the pitch. It was suggested that the cooler, cloudier conditions meant the crack that had opened up outside the right-hander's off stump from the Wynberg End had less effect, but Faf du Plessis' uninspired captaincy contributed to the tameness of the effort.

Sibley started slowly, playing primarily through the leg side and digging in to reach 29 off 93 balls before first bringing out his cover drive off Rabada in the 34th over. He found support in Joe Denly, whose innings of 31 was characteristically stubborn, albeit lacking in any real fluency.

Denly again faced 100 balls - only Marnus Labuschagne (10 times) has done so more often than Denly (eight) since the start of 2019 - and set up the innings for England's middle order. A lofted four down the ground off Maharaj aside, he was largely subdued as his partnership with Sibley sucked the life out of the hosts' attack, and it came as something of a surprise when he swatted a Nortje bouncer down the throat of Dwaine Pretorius at long leg.

Sibley batted with growing confidence alongside Root, as the pair started to score more positively after tea. Particularly strong off his pads and against anything short, Sibley crunched Maharaj for four through point to push the lead past 200 - given his struggles against left-arm spin in his career to date, it was the sign of a man starting to feel at home in an England shirt.

Root was delicate, sweeping, paddling and nudging his way past fifty while looking in fine touch, and it took a ball that bounced sharply out of the crack and found his outside edge from Pretorius in the final half-hour to dislodge him; it was the third time in this match that the allrounder had struck with the new ball imminent.

One wicket soon brought another, as Nortje removed Dom Bess for a pair. Nortje's bouncer from round the wicket brushed the nightwatchman's glove on its way through to Quinton de Kock, confirmed on review, to offer South Africa a flicker of hope, but seemed only to further expose the underuse of the fastest bowler in the match by du Plessis.

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South Africa 126 for 2 (Malan 63*) and 223 require 312 more runs to beat England 269 and 391 for 8 dec (Sibley 133*, Root 61, Stokes 72)

Mark Boucher encouraged his South Africa side to channel the spirit of the 2008 Perth Test last night, and Pieter Malan's battling, unbeaten 63 left them dreaming of an improbable escape on the fourth evening of the Newlands Test despite James Anderson's late wicket.

After England looked to hammer their advantage home in the day's first session, with Dom Sibley completing his maiden Test hundred and Ben Stokes clubbing 72 off only 47 balls, South African heads began to drop with the lead soaring past 400.

But after the declaration came 20 minutes after lunch, Malan and Dean Elgar were resolute, leaving the ball well and blunting England's attack on a pitch that looked to possess few demons by the close. Elgar fell for 34 after struggling against the part-time legspin of Joe Denly, but Malan put on 52 with Zubayr Hamza to push South Africa towards the close before Anderson coaxed an edge out of Hamza to give England a vital breakthrough.

That wicket left South Africa needing 312 more runs on the final day. If that target seemed a tall order, then the fact that conditions have become increasingly favourable for batting suggests that a draw is by no means impossible.

After Dom Bess's dismissal to the final ball of the third day, Stokes wasted little time in signalling England's attacking intentions in the morning session. He bludgeoned the eighth delivery he faced to the midwicket boundary off Dwaine Pretorius, and hit the same bowler for six down the ground and through third man with a delicate reverse-lap in consecutive balls at the start of his next over.

Unexpectedly, Faf du Plessis had declined to take the new ball as soon as it became available, instead hoping that Keshav Maharaj might lull Stokes into a false stroke. Stokes took the bait, ripping it clean off while avoiding the hook as he deposited him over midwicket for six.

The new ball then came, but Stokes showed no signs of slowing down as Vernon Philander's 14th over of the innings went for as many runs (12) as his previous 13 combined. Kagiso Rabada fared little better, and at one stage, Stokes was on 38 off 26 balls at the same time that the unmoved Sibley had added only three from the 31 deliveries he had faced.

After edging through the vacant third-slip area for four, Sibley nailed a sweep shot off Maharaj to bring up his maiden Test hundred, the first by an England opener at Newlands since Jack Hobbs in 1910. He began to move through the gears himself, perhaps inspired by the carnage unfolding at the other end as Stokes smote four, six, four off three Maharaj balls to move to 70 from 42.

But he was soon to go, slapping the left-arm spinner to Rassie van der Dussen at long-on after 75 destructive minutes to start the day. Ollie Pope dragged on while looking to force the ball through the off side before Jos Buttler edged the unwell Anrich Nortje through to Quinton de Kock while scooping, and Sam Curran picked out Hamza at midwicket three balls after lunch.

Sibley, however, stuck to his task, hitting a rare six and reverse-sweeping four more off Maharaj, before Joe Root decided he had seen enough and called his men in with 438 the target.

Malan and Elgar started watchfully, showing good judgement in leaving the ball and looking to score when England erred from their lengths. England thought they had made the breakthrough only ten balls into the innings, as Stuart Broad rapped Malan on the pad, but Kumar Dharmasena shook his head and was proved right when Ultra-Edge revealed a large spike as the ball passed the inside edge following England's review.

Root turned to spin early in the piece, bringing Bess on to bowl the ninth over of the innings, but it was not until Denly's introduction immediately before tea that Elgar looked particularly troubled.

Perhaps by a quirk of fate, Elgar had only faced 106 balls of legspin in his Test career before this game, despite playing as many as 104 innings, and he immediately struggled to read Denly's legbreaks, which turned and bounced appreciably out of the rough. He survived until the interval after being struck on the thumb, but then feathered an edge through to Buttler when lunging forward in defence to give England the breakthrough.

Elgar reviewed Paul Reiffel's decision almost immediately, but Ultra-Edge suggested he had got the faintest of scratches on the ball, enough evidence for the on-field decision to be upheld, and he was left to rue what he perceived to be his misfortune.

It seemed like a big moment, with Hamza struggling against Broad throughout the series - the No. 3 had been dismissed by him in all three innings - and South Africa's first fifty stand for the first wicket in 17 Test innings coming to an end. But despite both batsmen taking regular body blows, and Malan in particular leaving several deliveries that seemed almost certain to hit the top of his off stump, South Africa were set to survive until the close.

But Anderson re-wrote the script's finale, after finding a fraction of reverse swing late in the day. After shaping the ball in towards Malan in the first over of his final spell, the second ball of Anderson's next over nibbled away off the seam, finding the outside edge as Hamza pushed at the ball expecting it to come back in. It was Anderson's 92nd wicket against South Africa, taking him past Shaun Pollock (91) as the leading wicket-taker in England-South Africa Tests.

It seemed as though Malan in particular would prove a tricky man for England to dismiss: as Boucher had hoped, he was positive in using his feet against the spinners, and survived a short-ball barrage from Stokes in the final session to make it to stumps unscathed. While victory seems highly improbable, South Africa will be hopeful that their new opener can lead the charge towards a crucial draw.

[Admin]

England 269 (Pope 61*) and 391 for 8 (Sibley 133, Root 61, Stokes 72) beat South Africa 223 (Elgar 88, van der Dussen 68, Anderson 5-40) and 248 (Malan 84, de Kock 50) by 189 runs

Ben Stokes took three late wickets to seal a dramatic final-day victory for England at Newlands to level their series against South Africa at 1-1.

Stubborn resistance from Pieter Malan, Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen had taken South Africa into the tea interval five wickets down, with the pitch offering little for England's attack and the draw looking ever more likely.

But after Joe Denly removed de Kock and an inspired piece of captaincy from Joe Root accounted for van der Dussen, Stokes burst through the tail in the final hour to complete a 189-run win with only 8.2 overs to spare.

[apm51054]

Anderson is out of the tour

[chris]

Jan 8, 2020 17:20:42 GMT apm51054 said:

Anderson is out of the tour

and he is currently their leading wicket taker (but behind Rabada and Nortje)!

[apm51054]

Jack Leach returning home due to illness

[Admin]

3RD TEST PORT ELIZABETH 16/1/2020 to 20/1/2020



St George’s Park Cricket Ground (also known as St George's Park,[1][2][3] Crusaders Ground[4] or simply Crusaders) is a cricket ground in St George's Park, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It is the home of the Port Elizabeth Cricket Club, one of the oldest cricket clubs in South Africa, and the Eastern Province Club. It is also one of the venues at which Test matches and One Day Internationals are played in South Africa. It is older than Kingswood College in Grahamstown. The ground is notable for its brass band that plays during major matches, adding a unique flavour to its atmosphere.

The ground hosted its first Test match in March 1889 when England defeated South Africa by 8 wickets.[1] This was South Africa’s first Test match. As of 2005, there have been 21 Test matches played at the ground of which South Africa has won 8 and their opponents 9 with 4 draws.

The first One Day International played at the ground was in December 1992 when South Africa beat India by 6 wickets. As of 2005, there have been 25 One Day Internationals played at the ground including five in the Cricket World Cup in 2003.

stgeorgespark.nmmu.ac.za/

If the cricket is crap the band will entertain you

[Admin]

ngland 224 for 4 (Crawley 44) v South Africa

Test cricket can do funny things to your perception of time, and you can't have the drama of fifth-day finishes such as the Cape Town Test without some longueurs in between. However, by any measure this was slow going as the series resumed in Port Elizabeth, with England puttering along in attritional conditions to give themselves a platform from which they will hope to dictate terms.

As at Newlands, England's top-order batsmen failed to capitalise on a series of good starts, with Zak Crawley's 44 the top score of a spit-and-sawdust sort of day. Without much in the way of assistance from the pitch, South Africa focused instead on bottling up the scoring, Keshav Maharaj wheeling away to good effect as England lost 4 for 78 between the 31st and 65th overs, before an unbroken stand of 76 between Ben Stokes and Ollie Pope saw the tourists edge back on to the front foot.

Pope shone in particular as the shadows lengthened on the Eastern Cape, showcasing the sort of strokeplay that has seen him compared to Ian Bell. The second new ball was dispatched to the ropes three times in as many deliveries from Anrich Nortje, Pope following up a whippy on drive with one crunched through the covers, and he skipped along in relatively carefree fashion compared to his colleagues.

For South Africa, Kagiso Rabada claimed two wickets, despite twice being overlooked for new-ball duties - and his roar of celebration at toppling Joe Root's off stump said plenty about the arduous nature of bowling on such a sluggish surface. All the pre-game talk about the wind assisting swing in Port Elizabeth seemed to have almost literally become a case of shooting the breeze, as the stultifying atmosphere left South Africa's attack sweating hard for their successes.

Faf du Plessis must have been grateful for the precision of his spinner, whose efforts from the Duckpond End at least allowed the South Africa captain to regularly rotate his seamers. Maharaj came on shortly before lunch and had figures of 30-10-54-1 when the second new ball arrived during the evening session; he was unlucky not to have added to his sole success, too, finding appreciable turn from a surface that is predicted to become even drier over the coming days.

It was du Plessis' leg-theory tactics that brought South Africa their initial breakthroughs, and England then threatened to wander down a dead end as the runs dried up. Maharaj only conceded 18 runs from his 16 overs between lunch and tea, and his efforts in tying down Joe Denly - who faced 100 balls for the ninth time in 13 Test innings but once again could not turn that base into a significant score - resulted in a wicket shortly after tea.

Denly's attempt to cut a ball from middle and off stump was his undoing, though Maharaj had Quinton de Kock to thank after the wicketkeeper spotted that the ball had brushed pad fractionally before hitting the bat. Maharaj caused Stokes plenty of discomfort early in his innings, too, twice failing with reviews as the ball spun back in sharply from outside the left-hander's off stump.

Rabada then scythed through Root, with England's captain left looking suspiciously at the pitch after playing back to a delivery that seemed to keep low, and that left Stokes carrying the weight of England expectations. Fresh from being award the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy as the ICC's player of the year, he cut a more workaday figure in compiling 38 from 86 balls - although the significance of his wicket was clear when South Africa again turned to the DRS late in the day, only to lose the review after Vernon Philander's delivery was shown to be missing off stump.

Root's decision to bat first was vindicated by somnambulant morning session, during which the Sibley and Crawley batted through with little drama - becoming the first England openers to reach lunch without being parted on day one of an overseas Test since Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss in Barbados more than a decade ago.

South Africa curiously chose not to hand Rabada the new ball but Philander and the debutant Dane Paterson found little in the way of assistance from a pedestrian St George's deck. When Rabada did enter the attack, he did cause a minor ripple as Crawley, perhaps spurred on by memories of their brief second-innings duel in Cape Town, twice played instinctive pulls shots that nearly came to grief.

Sibley had looked the more composed of the two, as befitting a man who scored his maiden Test hundred 10 days ago. He took advantage of the extra pace provided by Nortje to score four of his five boundaries, including one well-timed clip through mid-on, but fell to Rabada after the lunch break when he was taken by the man place deliberately as backward square leg for a fend off the body.

South Africa's leg trap paid dividends again when Crawley was snapped up in a similar position by the diving Rassie van der Dussen, who clasped the ball gratefully after it had squirmed free from his initial one-handed attempt, sending England's newest opener back six runs short of a first Test half-century.

[Admin]

South Africa 60 for 2 (Bess 2-12) trail England 499 for 9 dec (Pope 135*, Stokes 117, Maharaj 5-180) by 439 runs

Ollie Pope scored a maiden Test hundred to follow the latest demonstration of Ben Stokes' immense value to the England cause as South Africa were backed into a corner in Port Elizabeth. The tone was set by England's fifth-wicket pair during the morning session and followed up with some lower-order humpty, allowing Joe Root to declare - having also un-declared - in pursuit of wickets amid the evening gloom at St George's Park.

Although South Africa responded with their second consecutive fifty stand between openers Dean Elgar and Pieter Malan, there was time for Dom Bess to strike twice before the close. With plenty of runs in the bank, signs of spin from the surface and Mark Wood also pushing the speed gun up to 150kph/93mph, England walked off in the belief that they had the tools to crack the Test open in pursuit of a series lead.

South Africa had reached 50 without loss when Bess coaxed an error from Malan, who tried to come down the pitch but only managed to chip a return catch. Zubayr Hamza then fenced unconvincingly at an over of short-and-nasty stuff from Wood, before falling in the next to Bess, popping to short leg via his inside edge. The return of the rain, which had earlier delayed the start by 45 minutes, presented South Africa with an escape route.

The first part of the day saw England's middle order flex its muscles in a manner not seen for a long time. Once Stokes and Pope were done adding 203 - the second-highest fifth-wicket stand for England against South Africa in Tests - the home bowlers had been thoroughly pounded into this unforgiving surface, but there was further pain to come as Sam Curran and Wood cut loose before the declaration. A total of 499 for 9 was England's highest since the 2017 Edgbaston Test against West Indies.

There was nothing surprising about Stokes taking centre stage, however. Despite having to battle through at times on the first day, having survived numerous scratchy moments - including a tough chance to short leg on 10 - he resumed his innings in a more recognisably bullish frame of mind. Twice was Maharaj battered on to the grass banks at deep midwicket, as Stokes accelerated past his junior partner towards a ninth Test hundred (and third against South Africa) during a session that saw England score 111 runs without loss.

When he moved to 95, via another slog-sweep off the spinner, he became only the seventh man in Test history to have scored 4000 runs and taken 100 wickets. A few overs later, off his 174th ball, came a punch through the covers to take him to three figures, the achievement acknowledged with a crooked-fingered salute in recognition of his father, Ged, who remains in hospital after being taken ill over Christmas.

He had been ably supported by Pope, who cut, pulled and drove with what is quickly becoming customary elan to move past 50 for the third time in as many Tests. However, a ball after Stokes reached his century, Pope was given out lbw off the bowling of Dane Paterson; although a review saved Pope and extended Paterson's wait for a first wicket on debut, the realisation of what was at stake seemed to interrupt the England man's fluency.

Pope spent 53 balls moving from 74 into the 90s, losing Stokes and Jos Buttler in that time - the former giving Paterson some relief by carving to backward point, before Buttler chipped tamely back to Maharaj. Pope survived a close stumping chance off Maharaj on 84, but Curran helped take some of the pressure off, cracking along to 44 off 50 and scoring three-quarters of the runs during a stand worth 59.

Suddenly Pope was freed up once again, scooting through the 90s to reach three figures in his sixth Test - at 22 and 15 days the youngest Englishman to score a Test hundred since Alastair Cook. The landmark achieved, he was able to have some fun against a tiring attack, bringing out the uppercuts and reverse-ramps as England drove home their advantage; a glove behind off Rabada on 106 going unnoticed as South Africa began to unravel.

Wood, too, geared up for his bowling return after 11 months out of the Test side by throwing the bat around to good effect, five times clearing the ropes - although he was the beneficiary of a bizarre episode on the way to 42 from 23 balls. A slog against Rabada was taken at mid-on, with Root then signalling his men in, only for the umpires to review and find that the delivery should have been called for a front-foot no-ball. Root gleefully reversed his call, with Wood extending their ninth-wicket happy-slap to 73 in 8.4 overs before Maharaj finally put a stop to the antics.