SA set 331 after rolling over England

Innings break England 458 and 233 (Cook 69, Bairstow 51, Maharaj 4-85) lead South Africa 361 by 330 runs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Play 00:57

Deteriorating pitch a warning sign for SA

South Africa wrapped up England’s innings midway through the afternoon session on the fourth day, leaving themselves a target of 331 to win the first Test. While that represented a remarkable comeback, it was also only a little way short of the highest successful fourth-innings chase at Lord’s and the procession of England batsmen would have observed the condition of the pitch with interest, as nine wickets fell in 36.1 overs with only Jonny Bairstow’s 51 holding off total collapse.

Bairstow was last man out, stumped of Keshav Maharaj to give the spinner a four-wicket haul. At lunch, England’s lead was 279 but Bairstow and Mark Wood scraped together valuable extra runs during a brisk ninth-wicket stand of 45. Apart from Alastair Cook and Gary Balance, who added 10 and 11 respectively to their overnight scores, no other batsmen managed to get into double-figures.

Bairstow’s half-century helped take England past 200 after they had slipped to 149 for 5 but he required the benefit of a life. He only had 7 when trying to hit Maharaj down the ground, only for Vernon Philander, who was fit to bowl after injuring his hand batting on the third day, to drop a simple catch at long-off. Wood also only just managed to clear JP Duminy running back from mid-on when he had made 4 but stuck around to add four boundaries and several scampered singles before Kagiso Rabada hit his off stump.

South Afirca’s bowlers enjoyed a devastating morning’s, taking seven wickets at a cost of 63 runs – although, at the same time, every success increased the sense that they may have a difficult chase on. The speed of England’s demise seemed to have ruled out the possibility of a draw with more than 50 over remaining in the fourth day.

Maharaj claimed three of the wickets to fall in the first session, amid increasing signs of the pitch breaking up. The dismissal of Cook for 69, caught at cover attempting to lift the scoring, precipitated an England collapse of 4 for 10 in 39 balls – which would have been 5 for 19 had Bairstow’s offering been held.

Bairstow and Moeen Ali decided on a hit-out-or-get-out strategy, adding 31 in 7.2 overs to edge England’s lead up. Moeen was then bowled by a Maharaj delivery that ripped out of the footmarks as he came down the pitch, before Liam Dawson completed a pair when he was bowled by a Rabada full toss – apparently unsighted only for it to hit the top of middle stump. There were no tail-end frolics from Stuart Broad this time either, as he was taken at short leg off Maharaj for a golden duck moments before lunch.

The evidence of the first over of the morning was that the Lord’s baize was by now a little rumpled. At least two deliveries from Philander kept low before the last jumped to hit Ballance on the glove. When Maharaj came into the attack shortly before the hour mark, the first ball of his second over went directly to slip off the pitch; the same over concluded with Joe Root being bowled by one that didn’t turn.

Cook and Ballance picked up initially in much the same mood as they guided England to the close on the third evening, a couple of tugboats towing their barge along the Thames. They had added a boundary apiece, taking their partnership to 59, before Cook suddenly weighed anchor and drove aerially into the covers, where Temba Bavuma snaffled a sharp, diving catch.

Morne Morkel continued his impressive Test by having Ballance caught behind with another exacting delivery that straightened from round the wicket and England slide’s continued with the dismissal of Root, England’s captain and first-innings centurion, in the following over. Having seen Maharaj spin the ball sharply, Root swept a boundary but was then caught playing back and got an inside-edge on to his stumps.

Ben Stokes did not have much time for reconnaissance, pinned lbw for 1 by a delivery that shot through low from Rabada. Stokes started walking as soon as it hit him, while Rabada – suspended for the next Test due to his outburst after dismissing Stokes in the first innings – kept his counsel. That left England 149 for 5 and it ought to have been 158 for 6 when Bairstow lofted Maharaj towards Philander, only for the fielder to drop it on to the rope. He gestured towards the skies, seeming to suggest that Spidercam had distracted him.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Source: ESPN Crickinfo