England know it will take something special to topple the world’s No1 side, South Africa, on their own turf but after a second near-perfect day of preparation against their second string, the vice-captain, Joe Root, sees the plan coming together.
Root’s 117 from 125 balls, along with a rock-steady 126 from Alastair Cook, helped the tourists pile on 414 for six declared in Pietermaritzburg, before two late wickets left South Africa A reeling on 35 for two and trailing by 243 runs.
While the senior side’s bowling attack represents a step up in class – despite a recent defeat in India – the 24-year-old was keen to point to England’s 3-2 Ashes win, and the fact that each of the top six now has a score of 50 or more in the warm-ups, as reasons to feel confident before the first Test in Durban on Boxing Day.
“It’s a huge challenge playing the number one side in the world in their conditions,” said Root, who continued a stellar year with 16 fours and two sixes. “We’re going to have to play really well but we did really special things in the summer and started well in this game – hopefully that’s something we can take forward.
“We will have to play some strong cricket, be disciplined and play at our best if we are going to compete with them. We showed [against Australia] in the summer, against a good pace attack, we can be successful, it’s taking that confidence into this series.”
With Alex Hales set to make his Test debut at Kingsmead on Saturday, his 56 in an opening stand of 112 with Cook was timely. While Hales left a straight one for his dismissal which means his work outside off-stump must continue, Root saw promising signs and credited the pair for allowing he and Ben Stokes, 66, to profit from the momentum.
“I thought he played extremely well. It was the manner he did it, under pressure, in tough conditions, seaming and swinging around and against a good attack – that will stand him in good stead leading up to that first Test. The platform him and Cookie made laid allowed me and Ben to be more explosive.”
Root’s words of optimism were couched with a warning, however, with the Yorkshireman mindful of the two collapses that led to England falling to a 2-0 defeat against Pakistan in their most recent Test series, as well as the 190 all out in the second innings of their first warm-up match in Potchefstroom last week.
“We can’t look too far ahead – we know the way Test cricket is going right now there are a lot of results flying around, we have to take it game by game, session by session and don’t let any sloppy hours come into our game and get right up with the pace of it,” said Root.
“When [collapses] have happened we have struggled. We have to learn those lessons quickly.”
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