After seeing what was arguably the most complete of his five Test centuries to date bumped off the back pages by some both‑barrelled delight at Toby Roland-Jones on the second day, Ben Stokes was damned if he was not going to get his moment in the sun this match.
And so, on a day when England’s batsmen tightened their grip during the first two sessions before the bowlers punched four almighty holes in South Africa’s hopes of a draw, Stokes made sure he was front and centre.
The batting side of England’s multifunctional vice‑captain will doubtless end up being the most thrilling over the course of his career – a selfless 31 in England’s target‑bloating 313 for eight declared followed his mature and eventually malevolent 112 – but, unless his all‑action style causes the body to fail, Stokes the bowler will send many a crowd gaga, too.
Here it came amid a thundering eight‑over spell from the Pavilion End as, in the space of two balls, Stokes turned South Africa’s 52 for two into double the strife by sending Quinton de Kock, their wicketkeeping wunderkind, and then Faf du Plessis, their talismanic captain, back clumping towards the dressing-room stairs.
The yorker to clean up De Kock’s stumps was the third contender for ball of the match – along with Kagiso Rabada’s similarly feet‑seeking exocet to Dawid Malan on the first day and the brute from Roland-Jones to remove Hashim Amla on the second – as Stokes nailed the bullseye from the around the wicket.
For Du Plessis, whose every move in the win at Trent Bridge came off, the dismissal was a case of lesson unlearned as, for the second time in the Test, he padded up to an inswinger and found the third umpire in support of his on-field rival’s judgment. It is fair to say the cheers from the Sunday drinkers were not entirely sympathetic.
They had to wait an over to see if Stokes could become the first bowler to claim a Test hat-trick at The Oval and sent him steaming towards the crease with a cacophonous tailwind. Temba Bavuma, South Africa’s beacon of defiance in a one-sided match, calmly dropped a single into the leg side to make it 100 matches and waiting for famous the old ground.
While Stokes continued to pound away, twice pinning Bavuma on the gloves and occasionally beating the bat, a third intervention did not materialise and eventually, with the all-rounder he described as his “attack dog” before the series now spent, Joe Root turned elsewhere.
It was Root’s other redhead, Jonny Bairstow, who had earlier played the role of Oval ringmaster, ramping, guiding, sweeping and scampering his way to 63 from 58 balls, who broke the spirit of South Africa’s bowlers and set their batsmen an improbable 492 to win.
The delight of such carefree escalations is seldom not overtaken late in the piece by chuntering from some sections of the cognoscenti about the timing of the declaration (in a decade that has produced the fewest proportion of draws, 22%, since the 1910s).
Root, who had earlier made this his ninth successive Test with a score of 50 or more (John Edrich holds the English record with 10), saw the protracted buildup to his Test captaincy filled with predictions of what an aggressive, dynamic captain he would be and yet upon being unveiled in the job he declared his chief intention was to make the team hard to beat.
So for all these projected characteristics, Root sat there happily on the players’ balcony in the Bedser Stand alongside the typically undemonstrative Trevor Bayliss as his batsmen ploughed past the 3.25pm cut-off point that would have allowed two blasts with the new ball either side of tea and did not pull up the ladder until Bairstow was the eighth man down.
For South Africa there was at least some individual joy amid England’s dominance with the bat. Keshav Maharaj continued a fine series with the ball – the delicate left-armer’s three for 50 took him level with Moeen Ali on 14 wickets – while Bavuma gave the latest reminder of why his right arm is not one to be taken lightly.
Bavuma may never produce a direct hit to rank alongside the acrobatic removal of David Warner in Perth last year, where his body was parallel to the ground and his feet above his head upon release. But the slingshot throw at one stump that left Moeen short of his ground was nevertheless another for his personal trophy cabinet.
Were he to help save this Test from here – Bavuma will resume the final day unbeaten on 16 alongside Dean Elgar on 72 – it would doubtless sit pride of place.
