Lunch England 62 for 1 (Cook 34*, Westley 24*) v South Africa
Tom Westley drives against spin © AFP
Roundly rebuked for their reckless batting at Trent Bridge, England had an immediate chance to atone for their sins when the Test series against South Africa moved to the third match of four at The Oval. South of the Thames, life is supposedly informal, but not for England, who knew that restraint was the order of the day.
By lunch, they were in reasonably good shape, 62 posted in 22.1 overs for the loss of Keaton Jennings, who made a duck and who is looking increasingly unlikely to survive his first Test summer. Influential England figures, Andy Flower among them, like his character, but increasingly England will be disturbed by his batting average.
Jennings’ departure in only the fourth over, Vernon Philander again his nemesis, paved the way for an Essex alliance between Alastair Cook and Tom Westley, Westley heartened no doubt, in his first Test innings, to have the presence at the crease of a county colleague he holds in such high regard.
John Crawley at Lord’s in 1994 was the last time England fielded a debutant at No. 3 and there are similarities in Westley’s game, notably in a fluent manner and a strong leg-side game. A first-class average below 38 is hardly eye-catching, but he has a dapper air at the crease and, at 28, many believe him to be a late developer.
Westley’s first four scoring shots in Test cricket were all boundaries, and England had 43 raised by drinks, which hardly told of obsessive defence, but they checked themselves later in the session before heavy showers brought a premature end to the session.
The Oval is traditionally the ground for England debutants, but that owes much to its regular place in the English calendar as the last Test of the summer. To find three of them, all a little squeamish with nerves, searching for dressing room pegs in only the third Test of the summer, was a sign of England’s problems.
Three debutants a few months before the start of an Ashes series is hardly ideal for England. Consolation, though, is easy to find because South Africa caused the same fallout in the last Australian summer. Tough and uncompromising, they are adept at uncovering weaknesses.
Jennings, born in South Africa, would have been aware of that only too well. In three Tests, his technique has been well and truly filleted. Three debutants at The Oval might not preclude a fourth in Manchester.
Jennings, not for the first time this series, was skilfully worked over by Philander, his footwork tentative and bat searching blindly as if unsure which way the ball was moving. He deflected a delivery into his pads, not too far short of square leg, and then pushed blindly at the next. Philander then got him at third slip as he dangled his bat without conviction.
Westley got off the mark with his signature shot, flipping Morne Morkel to the square leg boundary. He was fortunate to get a thin edge on an lbw appeal from Morkel before taking two more boundaries off the first over from Keshav Maharaj, the left-arm spinner. An aerial drive was too close to short extra for comfort; a further boundary off his pads later in the over possessed more aplomb.
Cook was in good trim, although was grateful for getting a thin inside edge on an lbw appeal from Chris Morris, the ball angling in towards leg stump but Ultra Edge spotting a nick onto his pad after South Africa reviewed.
England opted for an extra batsman after their Lord’s debacle. Dawid Malan was preferred to the spin-bowling allrounder Liam Dawson, at five, meaning that Jonny Bairstow reverted to No. 7 with Moeen Ali at eight as they attempted to disguise the vulnerability of their stroke-playing middle-order by depth.
Malan is no stodge: England are not about to block out the rest of the summer. In their terms, temperance will be a case of skipping the fourth pint. Toby Roland-Jones, the strong-willed Middlesex seamer, replaced Mark Wood, whose frailty had predictably been exposed by the rigours of back-to-back Tests.
England 1 Alastair Cook, 2 Keaton Jennings, 3 Tom Westley, 4 Joe Root (capt), 5 Dawid Malan, 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Jonny Bairstow, 8 Moeen Ali, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Toby Roland-Jones, 11 James Anderson
South Africa 1 Dean Elgar, 2 Heino Kuhn, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Quinton de Kock (wk), 5 Faf du Plessis (capt), 6 Temba Bavuma, 7 Vernon Philander, 8 Chris Morris, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Morne Morkel
David Hopps is a general editor at ESPNcricinfo @davidkhopps
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo