And that, then, is all from me. Frankly it’s been a pretty exhilarating day of Test cricket, and this match continues to look rammed full of potential. We’ll be back tomorrow with more, more, more! Till then, though, bye!
Updated
STUMPS: England 238-5
England trail by 75 runs with five first-innings wickets remaining
It’s turned darker and wetter, and the umpires have given up on today. As a result, tomorrow will start half an hour early, weather depending.
It’s getting darker, and also wetter. The covers are on, and Sky report “a few drops of rain”.
The day isn’t over yet, though – they’re hoping to squeeze in a little bit more cricket before the sun gives up for good. More news as I get it.
Bad light stops play!
52.4 overs: England 238-5 (Root 106, Bairstow 4)
South Africa finally find a way to stop Joe Root – all they’ve got to do is find something to get in the way of the sun. Clouds will do for now. Before then, though, frustration as Root mistimes a pull and gets away with it, the ball coming off the top of his helmet – perhaps a faint edge on the way? – over the slips and away for four leg byes. After which there’s a bit of a delay while Root waits for a new helmet, and by the time he’s got one the umpires have decided it’s a bit gloomy, and take the players off with two balls of the over remaining.
Joe Root's century gives England a 62% chance of going on to win the series at The Wanderers #CrivcViz #SAvENG pic.twitter.com/MJyXV4qerT
— The Cricket Prof. (@CricProf) January 15, 2016
Updated
52nd over: England 232-5 (Root 105, Bairstow 3)
Morris’s second delivery is sent through the covers by Root for four, completing a fabulous century. (I believe, incidentally, it is his ninth, not his 10th.) Then he sends the fourth past mid on for four more, and this is just absolutely splendid stuff from Root, an innings to remember and to savour, and essential for his team.
That is just a brilliant brilliant hundred from Joe Root, from 126 balls, with 16 fours.May be the best of his nine.
— mike selvey (@selvecricket) January 15, 2016
Can't recall all Joe Root's 10 Test centuries but I reckon this is one of his best in terms of context and conditions
— Derek Pringle (@derekpringle) January 15, 2016
Oh Mr Root that is glorious. You are fabulous
— Elizabeth Ammon (@legsidelizzy) January 15, 2016
Updated
51st over: England 223-5 (Root 96, Bairstow 3)
There has been one maiden in the last 35 overs, and none at all since the over Taylor was dismissed (No30, since you ask). Two singles here.
50th over: England 221-5 (Root 95, Bairstow 2)
Morris bowls and Root hits two and then edges the next ball, which spins and looks as if it’s considering heading towards the stumps, until the batsman gets back to block it. The next goes to fine leg for a couple more. “A dive in vain or a vain dive there from AB?” wonders Eamonn Maloney. “It’s certainly possible to look a bit full of yourself while going down – Jurgen Klinsmann used to look like he was practically preening himself in the mirror.” Or, on a similar theme:
@Simon_Burnton re de Villiers' "vain dive", you mean "preening dive"?
— Jason Webb (@JasonWebbSNL) January 15, 2016
49th over: England 217-5 (Root 91, Bairstow 2)
Viljoen trots off the field, struggling perhaps with cramp (he seems to be smiling as he runs off, so I don’t expect an extended absence). Rabada bowls and some singles follow including, from the last ball, Root getting quite befuddled by some low bounce and sending the ball in the air to short leg, where no fielder is lying in wait.
48th over: England 213-5 (Root 89, Bairstow 0)
Root takes a single from Morkel’s first delivery, and then the fielders close in as Bairstow prepares to take strike, Bavuma donning helmet and heading to short leg. His fourth delivery hits his pad and runs to fine leg for a leg bye, and Root smashes the last past mid off – where de Villiers makes another vain dive – for four. England trail by precisely 100.
47th over: England 207-5 (Root 84, Bairstow 0)
Root might have lost his partner, but he hasn’t lost his rhythm, flicking Rabada’s delivery off his ankles and to the square leg boundary, and then he takes a single off the last to keep strike.
Highest strike rates in a Test series (qual: 300 runs), Stokes is second: https://t.co/3eXSc0JXMx
— Rob Smyth (@robsmyth0) January 15, 2016
46th over: England 202-5 (Root 79, Bairstow 0)
Stokes hits down the ground for a couple, and then thumps high to deep extra cover, the ball bouncing once on its way to the rope. England pass 200 runs in the 46th over – it took South Africa until over 69 to reach that landmark, and they were 132-3 at this point in their innings. But then, from the last ball of the over, the home side make their breakthrough with England still 111 runs behind.
WICKET! Stokes c&b Morkel 58 (England 202-5)
Stokes tries to work the ball off his hips and gets a leading edge, sending the ball high into the air. Any number of fielders could have taken it, but Morkel tells them all to get lost and catches it himself. A big wicket, that!
Updated
45th over: England 196-4 (Root 79, Stokes 52)
Thump! Stokes pulls his 46th delivery away for a vicious four and becomes the match’s second half-centurion, bringing up the hundred partnership in the process, and a single later Root sends a highish, wideish delivery safely over the slips to the third man boundary. Next ball heads in a similar direction, but much less safely – taking the edge but not carrying to the slips, where Elgar makes a diving stop.
Updated
A minor delay twixt overs, as Root receives some physiotherapy. He’s clearly in some discomfort, but looks happy enough to keep playing.
44th over: England 186-4 (Root 75, Stokes 47)
Root is limping quite badly, having suffered what appeared to be cramp towards the end of the last session, but his arms are working well enough, smashing a pull to the rope for four.
Storm clouds looming at Wanderers. Hope they don't spoil the fun. Exhilarating cricket today https://t.co/XYFW99n32i pic.twitter.com/9CJyWPgfe4
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) January 15, 2016
43rd over: England 181-4 (Root 71, Stokes 46)
Boundaries for each batsman, both shots bringing strangled cries of “catch!” First Root sends the ball flashing through the slip cordon, then Stokes pulls square. One interesting thing about Viljoen (one of many, and not really the most interesting. Sorry) is that he wears a very chunky white digital watch while playing. England don’t have any watch-wearing bowlers – though they all bowled with sweat bands on their left wrists, so could have one hidden away – but Morkel and Viljoen both go the digital route. Morkel’s is relatively svelte and traditionally black, but the debutant’s is not at all shy.
42nd over: England 172-4 (Root 67, Stokes 41)
Thwack! Morkel bowls right into Stokes, who squirms in a vain effort to stop the ball thumping into him. There follows an excellent pull shot, which flies straight to a fielder and yields only a single.
41st over: England 170-4 (Root 66, Stokes 40)
Root has a wild heave at a ball that’s not quite a short as he thought it was, and gets nowhere near it. And then … ooh! Root plays to mid off again and goes for a single, and this time there’s no misfield from de Villiers. Far from it! He whips up the ball and flings it at the bowler’s end, where it whistles just past the stumps with Root well short!
40th over: England 167-4 (Root 64, Stokes 39)
Morkel gets us going, and Root pushes to mid off, where De Villiers misfields to turn a single into a three. Those dark clouds creep ever closer to Wanderers, looking very mean and brooding.
Hello again!
Excellent Test cricket, this. England remain 151 runs behind with six wickets in hand, still a potentially worrying situation – though if no wickets fall in the next hour I’d expect it to look a good deal brighter. Talking of brighter, it’s actually darker in Johannesburg, where the clouds are dark and the lights are on.
That’s all from me - Simon Burnton will be your man until the close. Contact him via email or on Twitter.
Tea: England 162-4, trail South Africa by 151 runs
Another good session. Some truly splendid bowling in the first hour took a couple of wickets, but Root and Stokes - at present the two men that England definitely want at the crease - have hit back with some gusto. They’ve scored 71 runs at a rapid lick, and have caused the home attack to go off their game rather. England will have to hope that the cramp troubling Root isn’t too serious, but you’d imagine that some drinks and a good rub during the break will do the trick there.
39th over: England 162-4 (Root 60, Stokes 38)
Almost trouble before the end of the session for England - Stokes pushes towards mid-on and sets off for the single, but is sent back by the cramp-laden Root. He turns and dashes back from whence he came, but a direct hit would’ve had him out by a yard - alas for South Africa, the throw was just slightly awry. Stokes then flicks with gusto from a leg stump ball, and Van Zyl on the boundary stops four. Two more from a tuck off the hips, and that’s tea.
38th over: England 158-4 (Root 60, Stokes 34)
Starting to look a touch gloomy around the Wanderers, which doesn’t seem to be perturbing Root excessively, as he clips another four wide of mid-on. That cramp is bothering him a little more though, as he dashes through for another couple following a back-foot push through the covers.
37th over: England 152-4 (Root 54, Stokes 34)
Viljoen/Kenny Benjamin/Ryan Harris is back, and is driven a mite streakily through gully for four, to notch his half-century. They then go for a couple and Root pulls up, feeling his leg, which England will hope is cramp rather than anything more sinister. And, given the way he dashed the following single, it probably is that. The big man floats up a full-toss towards Stokes’ pads, which he duly flaps to the boundary. De Villiers chases in vain, dives and his trousers nearly come down. Close call.
36th over: England 141-4 (Root 47, Stokes 30)
Morkel tries to tempt Stokes with a full, wide one (which, assuming it was deliberate, isn’t the worst idea in the world with England in this mindset), but he doesn’t bite. A few balls later he does, and gets a juicy mouthful of a cut out to the cover ropes, then goes for a colossal hook that he top-edges over the slips and keeper for another. 50 partnership off 35 balls. Decent.
35th over: England 133-4 (Root 47, Stokes 22)
Splendid piece of running from England, as Root guides nicely just beyond gully, a shot that looks like a comfortable single but they actually turn it into two. Next up Root repeats the shot, but this time gets rather more - or, actually, perhaps less - on it, and gets four. And another boundary - this time flicked from around his knees in front of mid-wicket. Another two out to the sweeper, and that’s 41 runs from the last four overs - splendid counter-attacking from England.
34th over: England 121-4 (Root 35, Stokes 22)
Lovely boundary for Stokes, flicked off his toes from new bowler Morris, which mid-on briefly considers chasing, then reasons it would be quite the waste of energy. A couple of nice drives bring Stokes two, then Morris drifts towards his pads again, and the leftie perfectly picks the mid-point between deep backward square and fine leg. Four more.
33rd over: England 111-4 (Root 35, Stokes 12)
More Viljoen-a-likes, from Fred Hartman: “I’ve also been sitting here (in South Africa) ruminating over who it is Hardus Viljoen reminds me of. Then it came to me. In a bullish, barnstorming and rather thickset way. Ryan Harris. If not so much his bowling action, don’t you think the general demeanour of young Viljoen reminds one of the Aussie hardman?”
Viljoen certainly looked like Harris, knee made of dust and farts and all, when lumbering after a push wide of mid-on from Root, which came after a wide long-hop that was duly dismissed to the third man boundary. Slightly odd incident then, as Stokes drives straight, Morkel reaches down and it goes on to hit the stumps, Root out of his ground. Morkel initially claims he touched it, so thus umpire Tucker goes upstairs for the run-out, but then the big bowler reveals he was joking - a jape! A banter! A badinage! - and actually got nowhere near the ball, and everybody goes about their day.
32nd over: England 103-4 (Root 28, Stokes 11)
Biff, bash, bosh, boosh, biff again. Stokes, you would imagine, won’t be prodding and poking and ducking, and he gets absolutely all of a ferocious pull that sails over the mid-wicket ropes. Rabada might be tiring slightly, as he tries a few more short ones that don’t trouble Stokes in the least, one of which is called a wide. Then he tries a full, wide one that Stokes really has to reach for - pretty needlessly, really - and thick edges it over point for a streaky boundary. Bit of a ropey over that, and it might be his last for a while.
Max Williams, England fan writes: “Based on pitch prospects, current match situation and our bowling attack, what total must we limp to in order to stay in contention? 250-odd and hope we can skittle them? Sounds a brute of a wicket so imagine a 80+ deficit might be curtains...”
Any sort of deficit might be bad news given England have to bat last on this (although perhaps it might have lost some of its vim by then), but that sounds about right. That said, the way things are going they’d be absolutely delighted with 250.
31st over: England 92-4 (Root 28, Stokes 1)
Looking at the replay of that wicket, the bat really twisted in Taylor’s hands, suggesting that while you’re taught not to grip the bat too tightly, there’s such a thing as too loose, as well. Morkel is straight on Stokes with a couple of short snorters, one that the Durham man gloves at about shoulder height, and it loops through where leg gully might’ve been. Lovely, aggressive, hostile bowling, this.
“I did a Taylor once,” writes that magnificently monikered Robert Wolf Petersen, “in the grand final of the Wrigley’s under-11 schools 8-a-side softball tournament at Edgbaston, in 1990. We reached the grand final and were chasing a challenging yet gettable score. Presumably the pressure got to me, because I swung at one and the bat slipped out of my perspiration-drenched hands and flew towards the square leg umpire. He sidestepped it neatly, betraying not one iota of alarm. Pure class.”
WICKET! Taylor c Bavuma b Morkel 7 - England 91-4
Morkel is into the attack and it works straight away. Taylor gets a thick inside edge onto his thigh pad, it loops up very nearly just over the miniature Bavuma at short-leg, but he throws up a hand, parries it into the air and pouches it at the second attempt.
30th over: England 91-3 (Root 28, Taylor 7)
I know we should concentrate on the cricket and not laugh at stuff like this, but Bavuma’s face as Taylor’s bat flew past him just then was terrific. He didn’t seem alarmed at all, just mildly curious as the thing floated by his head. Anyway, solid maiden from Rabada.
29th over: England 91-3 (Root 28, Taylor 7)
Viljoen stomps in again, and Taylor goes after a short wide one with every ounce of strength in his wee frame. He missed, but alas he didn’t direct much of that strength into gripping the bat, as it flew out of his hands and rather implausibly ended up just in front of mid-wicket. Just one run from the over, and - this is key - it came from a Root shot in which he kept the bat in his hands.
Meanwhile, it had been bugging me all morning who Viljoen’s action reminded me of, and Scott nailed it. Front arm is a bit different, but it’s a good shout.
Viljoen's action quite similar to Kenny Benjamin
— Scott Oliver (@reverse_sweeper) January 15, 2016
28th over: England 90-3 (Root 27, Taylor 7)
Clearly nicely refreshed by whatever sports drink he favours, Root comes back from the break with a couple of delicious fours, the first clipped past wide mid-on that Bavuma chased gamely but to not avail, the second a textbook drive down the ground that no fielder had a sniff of stopping.
Nick Miller here now to gently guide you to tea. Correspondence to nick.miller@theguardian.com or tweet @NickMiller79, if you please.
27th over: England 81-3 (Root 18, Taylor 7)
Viljoen bowls across Taylor, just down the leg side, and as Vilas collects the bowler raises an arm and turns, ready to see the umpire raise his finger. Nobody else is remotely interested, and one top-order wicket from weak-ass leg-side deliveries would seem quite enough for now. Taylor, meanwhile, hits through cover for four, and to midwicket for a couple, at the end of which the players take drinks. And also a couple of fruit platters.
26th over: England 75-3 (Root 18, Taylor 1)
Rabada’s over starts with a wayward bouncer, banged in too short, that flies three feet over Compton’s head and off for three wides. The next ball gives the batsman no space at all, and brings the wicket. Good pace throughout from the bowler.
Extra pace aids South Africa. The fastest balls bowled by individual bowlers in this Test #CricViz #SAvENG pic.twitter.com/XU9Mnmiyk6
— The Cricket Prof. (@CricProf) January 15, 2016
25th over: England 71-2 (Root 18, Compton 26)*
A Compton single means we’ve now gone 10 overs without a maiden. South Africa once scored at least one run from 12 successive overs. Yeah, it’s not much of a stat, but it’s what I got.
* For technical reasons this update follows the news that Compton is out, which will probably seem strange.
WICKET! Compton c Elgar b Ramada 26 (England 74-3)
Caught him this time! Compton tries to push to cover and edges instead to third slip, where Elgar holds it with ease!
24th over: England 70-2 (Root 18, Compton 25)
Rabada returns as well, the only runs coming off Root’s pad, wide to the left of Vilas and away for four leg byes. The bowler’s line is otherwise fine. This Test is in a very interesting place currently, with this partnership suddenly – since that drop – progressing at some pace, but England still very far from any kind of comfort.
23rd over: England 66-2 (Root 18, Compton 25)
Compton has not retreated into any kind of shell, slamming a wide one past point for four, and pulling the next, too short once again, through midwicket for another. His first 43 balls brought three runs; his next 20 have brought 22. From shell to shellac. “Excellent tortoise-cricket lore from Phil Russell (17th Over),” writes Robert Wilson. “I remember that Caddick masterpiece. It was a thing of beauty. He clearly had a cob on for some reason (perhaps someone had said something unkind about his ears). I’d never seen an angry duck before. It was oddly majestic.”
22nd over: England 57-2 (Root 17, Compton 17)
Compton hits Morkel’s first delivery back the way it came for a couple, and then takes a wild swing a few moments later, comprehensively missing it, which may send him back into his shell for a bit. Now, time for Viljoen to have another go.
21st over: England 55-2 (Root 17, Compton 15)
Three dots and then a sharp single, Root just scampering home before the ball was returned from cover.
Updated
20th over: England 54-2 (Root 17, Compton 14)
Blammo! Morkel’s second delivery is punched through the covers by Root, lovely shot. Then he bowls one that fair cuts Root in half, hits him on the waist and flies to the slips, who make a half-hearted appeal.
Updated
19th over: England 50-2 (Root 13, Compton 14)
Dropped! Compton is dropped by de Villiers at second slip! First ball of Morris’s over squares him up, takes the edge near the top of the bat and flies towards the cordon. De Villiers dives forward and left but seems entirely in control of the situation, only for the ball to spill out of his hands and onto the turf! A few balls later Compton edges again, along the ground this time, wide of gully and away for four! So much for relative comfort. Then the over ends with a fine cover drive, and another four. Compton took 47 balls to make six, and then three more to take his total to 14.
18th over: England 42-2 (Root 13, Compton 6)
Compton doubles his score at a stroke, cutting a 150kph delivery from Morkel past point. The start to this session has been considerably less panicked than the end of the last, though we’re yet to see either Rabada or Viljoen, whose feet were pressed onto English throats before lunch.
17th over: England 39-2 (Root 13, Compton 3)
Not content with scoring England’s very first boundary in over No16, Root smashes a second in over 17, pulling smartly through midwicket. “As well as Nasser’s splendid 50-ball 2, I think credit is also due to Andy Caddick who sensibly saved himself for bowling a matching-winning 5-42 by taking 37 deliveries to craft 0*, and probably could have lasted longer if he didn’t have Tuffers and Devon for company in the dregs of the order,” writes Phil Russell. I believe Anderson produced a 55-ball 0 against Sri Lanka a couple of years back.
Updated
16th over: England 35-2 (Root 9, Compton 3)
Morkel continues, and Root pushes nicely down the ground for a couple when the ball is pitched full and straight, and then hoiks a wider one to deep point – free runs, with no fielder anywhere near. The umpires signal six, then change their mind and signal four (presumably they weren’t signalling a combined 10, which would be unconventional, though it was a very fine shot).
15th over: England 28-2 (Root 2, Compton 3)
Chris Morris bowls a maiden to Compton, who has now faced precisely 40 deliveries for his three runs. “I’ve done a bit of searching and can’t find any reference to the two occasions (presumably) in the first innings when Jimmy was warned for stepping on the protected area prior to him being withdrawn. Any one know?” It did seem that Anderson himself wasn’t aware of his being warned, so I’m not sure an OBOer would have had much chance.
14th over: England 28-2 (Root 2, Compton 3)
Morkel gets the afternoon under way, not entirely convincingly – he pulls out of a couple of run-ups – and Compton helps himself to a single, thereby sprinting past the Hussain innings Rob Smyth refers to here:
Compton has 2 from 33 balls. That's got nothing on Nasser's second-innings masterpiece here: https://t.co/bcxApvaVVw
— Rob Smyth (@robsmyth0) January 15, 2016
Right, out come the players. England, on 27-2, are teetering. Will they be pushed over the edge, or claw their way back from it? Time will tell, and not much of it either.
And here’s the Press Association digging out the section of the laws that forced Jimmy Anderson’s contentious removal from England’s attack this morning:
James Anderson was withdrawn from the England attack on day two of the third Test against South Africa. Here Press Association Sport reproduces the relevant section of the MCC’s Laws of the game.
Law 12 - Bowler running on protected area after delivering the ball
(a) A bowler will contravene this Law if he runs on to the protected area … after delivering the ball.
(b) If, as defined in (a) above, the bowler contravenes this Law, at the first instance and when the ball is dead, the umpire shall
(i) caution the bowler and inform the other umpire of what has occurred.
This caution shall apply throughout the innings.
(ii) inform the captain of the fielding side and the batsmen of what has occurred.
(c) If, in that innings, the same bowler again contravenes this Law, the umpire shall repeat the above procedure indicating that this is a final warning. This warning shall also apply throughout the innings.
(d) If in that innings the same bowler contravenes this Law a third time, the umpire shall,
(i) when the ball is dead, direct the captain of the fielding side to suspend the bowler forthwith.
The bowler thus suspended shall not be allowed to bowl again in that innings.
If applicable, the over shall be completed by another bowler, who shall neither have bowled any part of the previous over, nor be allowed to bowl any part of the next over.
(ii) inform the other umpire of the reason for this action.
(iii) inform the batsmen and, as soon as practicable, the captain of the batting side of what has occurred.
(iv) together with the other umpire report the occurrence as soon as possible after the match to the Executive of the fielding side and to any Governing Body responsible for the match, who shall take such action as is considered appropriate against the captain and bowler concerned.
So there you go.
Hello world!
As we go into lunch, I simply have to mention my favourite part of the previously linked-to Joy of Six: the bit where AB de Villiers helps a fallen boy to his feet and makes him listen to his penis on a stethoscope. It happens 34 seconds into this video to the de Villiers smash hit Maak jou Drome Waar, but here’s a screengrab of the incident:
And with that, I’ll hand over to Simon Burnton, who’ll take you through the first hour of the afternoon session. Should be quite spicy, if the 13 overs of England’s innings so far are anything to go by. Email him here or tweet @Simon_Burnton.
Updated
A lunchtime shout to the latest edition of Joy of Six, on run-outs: we’ve got Tom Davies on Michael Atherton in 1989, Vithushan Ehantharajah on Simon Katich in 2006, Dan Lucas on Derek Randall in 1977, Nick Miller on Bill Brown/Vinoo Mankad in 1947, Russell Jackson on Phil Tufnell in 1991, and Rob Smyth on Graham Gooch in 1987. It’s good. Even the bits I didn’t do.
Few things in sport are as strikingly futuristic as great fielding. That applies even more to some run-outs. The best, like AB de Villiers above or Jonty Rhodes’s short-haul flight against Pakistan in 1992, instantly broaden our understanding of the athletic and imaginative capabilities of mankind. Or, to put it another way, did that just happen?
Lunch: England 27-2, trail South Africa by 286 runs
An excellent morning of cricket. Five wickets have gone down, with some quick runs from South Africa and some even quicker bowling from all four of their attack. They already have put England’s openers back in the hutch, and Nos 3 and 4 don’t look especially comfortable against Morris, Morkel but especially Rabada and Viljoen.
13th over: England 27-2 (Root 2, Compton 2)
He’s a bit all over the place, Viljoen, but occasionally he sends down a snorter - and there’s one, pitching on off and moving away slightly, beating Root’s edge comfortably. He then drifts onto Root’s pads, allowing him to get off the mark with a push through mid-wicket. Some terrific bounce from Viljoen, beating Root’s edge again with the last two balls of the session. He looks like a rather exciting cricketer.
12th over: England 25-2 (Root 0, Compton 2)
Rabada continues, and it’s a marvellous maiden. No real drama to speak of, other than a wafted drive that Compton got nowhere near.
11th over: England 25-2 (Root 0, Compton 2)
So a four from his first ball faced, a wicket from his first bowled. Easy stuff this, for Viljoen. He gets a couple more to rear up at the new man Root, the final one goes off his hip for two down to fine leg.
Viljoen follows Shaminda Eranga, Nathan Lyon and 16 others: https://t.co/rJHChklV6L
— Scott Oliver (@reverse_sweeper) January 15, 2016
“You know how all of a sudden people realise that a player is in his absolute prime and the past master has waned?” writes Kirshnan Patel. “For example, we didn’t realise that Steve Smith was the new Australian talisman and not Michael Clarke for a long time. Do you think something similar is happening with Rabada taking over from Steyn?”
He certainly looks like the real thing, although calling him the new Steyn might be a bit much yet.
WICKET! Cook c Vilas b Viljoen 18 - England 22-2
The big unit Viljoen is into the attack, and gets a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket! To be frank it was a loosener down the leg side, that Cook flicks off his hip, straight to the keeper who takes a fine diving catch to his left.
Updated
10th over: England 22-1 (Cook 18, Compton 2)
My days. If you were watching yesterday you’ll have seen a few absolute jaffas from Finn, one of which got rid of Amla: well, Rabada has just bowled one that was better than all of them but misses Compton’s edge by a hair, which rather proves that if there is indeed a god, he or she is not just and fair. At least to fast bowlers. Maiden, but was nearly even better.
9th over: England 22-1 (Cook 18, Compton 2)
Morkel is into the attack, starting with a wide one outside off, then one near the stumps, then one down leg, which brought an aborted appeal for a catch, but that was off Cook’s hip, if anything. Cook neatly tucks a couple just in front of mid-wicket, and this is a decent battle.
8th over: England 20-1 (Cook 16, Compton 2)
Compton ducks under a snorter of a bouncer from Rabada. With Morkel and the reportedly rather spicy Viljoen to come, there’s plenty of pace in this South African attack to take advantage of this most sporting pitch. One from the over.
Meanwhile, here’s a rather splendid Joy of Six on run-outs done by a fine collection of writers including, well, erm, me.
Updated
7th over: England 19-1 (Cook 15, Compton 2)
More good pace from Morris, but he spoils things rather by donating a leg-stump half to Cook, who accepts, only denied four by a fine diving stop on the fence.
More from S.Burnton: ‘For completeness: average third-innings score is 290, average fourth-innings score is 286.6 (though four of the eight fourth innings have been curtailed by that team’s victory).’
6th over: England 16-1 (Cook 12, Compton 2)
Some pace in this pitch. Cook gets on top of a shortish one from Rabada and pulls him for three, but then one leaps up from roughly a length and nips back at Compton, clipping the top of his box. Could’ve been nasty, on a couple of levels.
Sean Clayton has the start of what looks an awful lot like a riff: ‘Possibly due to its similarities to Rabona, “doing a Rabada” definitely sounds like it should be A Thing. But what sort of thing? And what other cricketers’ surnames merit an named activity? In honour of his birthday, I’d suggest “doing a Sidebottom” should involve looking like you’ve already been nine hours in the field as you first arrive at the crease / office / chapel...’
5th over: England 13-1 (Cook 9, Compton 2)
Morris gets one to absolutely take off from only just shy of a length, to which Vilas can only get one hand, and they take a bye. Then some of what Geoffrey might call ‘roobish creeeket’ as Compton pats one to mid-off, Viljoen goes to underarm it back to Morkel at the stumps, but loops it over him and the batsmen help themselves to a couple of buzzers.
On whether South Africa’s score is a good one, Simon Burnton - who’ll be with you after lunch - has been having a look:
‘313 is the second highest first-innings score at the Wanderers in the last decade (way behind Australia’s 466 in 2009, but the average first-innings score in the last decade is 265.5). The average completed second-innings score in the last decade is 210.’
4th over: England 10-1 (Cook 9, Compton 0)
Not great that, from Hales. If a wicket could look like it was coming in an innings of only 10 balls, it was there.
WICKET! Hales c de Villiers b Rabada 1 - England 10-1
Ball tracking is back, back, back, apparently, but it’s not required for that one. Rabada pitches one up nicely to Hales, who decides footwork isn’t really necessary and stiffly drives, only succeeding in edging to de Villiers, who takes a smart catch to his left at second slip.
3rd over: England 10-0 (Cook 9, Hales 1)
Mystery solved - it wasn’t ‘no ball scratching’ that was said in the first over, but ‘no ball tracking’ - one of the cameras is on the blink, apparently, so presumably reviews will be an interesting business. Cook plays a pleasant drive straight to mid-off, which is misfielded and they take a single. Hales doesn’t look at all comfortable, but gets off the mark with a thick edge to gully’s left.
“I heartily agree with Rod Tucker that standards should be maintained on the cricket pitch,” sniggers Robin Hazlehurst. “No PE teacher worth his salt would allow even nose-picking at slip, let alone ball-scratching by bowlers, so why should it be different for professionals, especially with TV cameras trained on them. Down with that sort of thing!”
2nd over: England 8-0 (Cook 8, Hales 0)
Interesting that Morkel hasn’t been given the new ball - it’s Rabada from the other end, but he starts well by getting Cook to grope a little outside off, which is very much the danger area for the England skipper. Rabada troubles Cook some more, particularly with one he tries to work through mid-wicket, but gets a thickish leading edge on and it squirts out towards the cover boundary. A good stop by Van Zyl keeps them to three.
Yes, yes you can Edmund...
@NickMiller79 Can I just note that today is perpetual seam tryer and all round County Cricket hero Ryan Sidebottom's 38th birthday?
— Edmund King (@dmndkng) January 15, 2016
1st over: England 5-0 (Cook 5, Hales 0)
Cook flicks a couple to mid-wicket first up, then there’s a lengthy conversation involving the umpires and bowlers - the commentators think Rod Tucker said ‘no ball scratching’, but that can’t be right, as everyone then goes about their day. Morris cuts Cook in half with a ripping delivery, but then lets him off the hook with a leg-stump half-volley, which is clipped away for three.
Frankly after that peak stat the cricket is a mere sideshow, but apparently they’re insisting on playing on. The players are out, Alastair Cook and Alex Hales to open the batting for England, and Chris Morris has the ball.
One for you here. This is the 13th occasion in Test history that all 11 batsmen have reached double figures in an innings, the eighth time that all 11 plus extras have made double figures, but here’s the big one - it’s the first time all 11 have reached double figures, but nobody has reached 50.
Stick that in your stat pipe.
Updated
South Africa all out for 313
WICKET! Morkel c Cook b Stokes 12
Stokes takes over from Anderson, and first ball Morkel has a big drive and edges straight to first slip. Great captaincy to make that bowling change from Cook there.
100.2 overs: South Africa 313-9 (Viljoen 20, Morkel 12)
Drop! A tough chance for Bairstow, as Morkel flings everything at a wide one, the keeper goes for the catch high to his left, parries it up in the air but can’t take the rebound.
And this is interesting - looks like Anderson is being taken out of the attack for running on the danger zone of the pitch. He’s not happy, seemingly because he wasn’t aware he was warned before. Interesting.
99th over: South Africa 313-9 (Viljoen 20, Morkel 12)
Boof. A pair of boundaries for Viljoen, as Broad drops short to him: the first is pulled nicely in front of square and eludes the diving Taylor on the boundary, the second helped off his hips and down to the fine ropes. A couple of singles, then another short one that Viljoen top-edges high, but well over the slips/keeper and down to long-stop for another four. Big runs, these.
98th over: South Africa 299-9 (Viljoen 7, Morkel 11)
Morkel continues his metamorphosis into Matthew Hayden with a couple out to the sweeper boundary, then resembles Hayden facing Andrew Flintoff at Old Trafford in 2005, unable to lay a bat on one as Anderson beats both inside and outside edges.
97th over: South Africa 297-9 (Viljoen 7, Morkel 9)
Shot! What a stroke from Morkel, who produces a wonderful flowing on-drive down the ground, through the non-striker’s legs and to the boundary. Lovely. He then tucks a very neat single in front of square on the leg side. The man with an average of under 12 is in danger of looking like a batsman, here.
96th over: South Africa 291-9 (Viljoen 6, Morkel 4)
Is there a bowler who has beaten the edge more times in his career than Jimmy Anderson? He adds a couple more to the total, before Viljoen locates a substantial bit of willow and shoves a single into the covers.
95th over: South Africa 290-9 (Viljoen 5, Morkel 4)
Morkel pushes a single to cover, which they dash through for and make, but that was a spicy decision - if the fielder was someone more nimble than Finn, they could’ve been in some mither. Viljoen tucks a rather more secure single just in front of Taylor, who’s at a sort of short backward square leg/short leg gully position.
94th over: South Africa 288-9 (Viljoen 4, Morkel 3)
That was the sixth catch for Bairstow in the innings, equalling the record for pouches at the Wanderers, apparently. Morkel starts with a couple and a single, before Anderson tries a yorker, gets it slightly wrong and Vijoen leans forward, turns it into a full toss and punches his first ball in Test cricket down the ground for a delightful four.
Updated
WICKET! Rabada c Bairstow b Anderson 24 - South Africa 281-9
Anderson gets a couple to hoop past Rabada’s edge, two balls that he’s nowhere near good enough to hit, before the angle is adjusted slightly, he nicks it and he’s walking off before Bairstow even takes the catch.
93rd over: South Africa 281-8 (Viljoen 0, Rabada 24)
The big man Vijoen is the new bat. Apparently he ‘likes to play a few shots’, so we could be in for some big swings.
WICKET! Morris c Bairstow b Broad 28 - South Africa 281-8
Of course, as soon as I suggest he shouldn’t be in the attack, Broad takes a wicket. Morris wafts forward at a ball of decent line and length, offering a nick through to the keeper that is so regulation the fielders barely acknowledge it.
92nd over: South Africa 281-7 (Morris 28, Rabada 24)
It is rather curious that Finn isn’t bowling first up here. Sure, the big Middlesex quick only took the new ball yesterday because of Broad’s dicky tummy, but he was superb throughout the day and Cook’s bowling choices seem to be based largely on the hierarchy, rather than form. Three singles from the over, the last ball of which cut Rabada in half and nearly, nearly took an inside edge.
Meanwhile, CRICKET.
We should, for a short period, have four internationals going on at once in around 25 minutes: #SAvENG #AUSvIND #NZvPAK #BANvZIM
— Andrew McGlashan (@andymcg_cricket) January 15, 2016
Updated
91st over: South Africa 278-7 (Morris 26, Rabada 23)
Broad, with his gastric business a little more in check this morning, one would hope, has the ball from the other end. Rabada plays a profoundly curious shot first up, a sort of checked drive that loops gently over Broad’s head and to the left of mid-off, for two runs. Broad follows that up with a rapid bumper that Rabada gets nowhere near, and neither does Bairstow, the ball scooching away for four byes. Then another shortish one, this time around Rabada’s hip, which he wafts at, misses and again Bairstow can’t get there, and that’s another four sundries.
90th over: South Africa 268-7 (Morris 26, Rabada 21)
Anderson squares Rabada up with his first couple, then the third is pulled quietly out to deep square for a single. Satirist Chris Morris plays out the remainder of the over.
The players are out on the field, Jimmy Anderson has the ball from the evocatively named ‘Golf Course End’. Let’s play.
Have a read of this, too, an interview by the boy Will Macpherson with Ryan Carters, who sounds like a rather fascinating chap. Carters, that is, not Macpherson...
Come the end of cricket season, you’ll hear a regular refrain. “Winter well,” say umpires to players, players to coaches, and coaches to scorers. There’s a relief to it, the end of a long slog, but also an uncertainty, a sense of what-on-earth-now; winter, particularly in the UK of course, is a horrid, anti-cricketing time of bitter cold, away from the camaraderie of the summer game.
When the time comes for Ryan Carters to turn to his team-mates and say “winter well”, it’s fair to assume what he is off to do something rather different. Last close season, he sandwiched a stint playing club cricket in Oxford – a rare orthodox pursuit – between a trip “just driving and camping” through central Asian countries such as Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan (“in a word – raw,” he says) with a pair of schoolmates, and visits to Mumbai and Kathmandu, to track the progress of the projects run by the charity he founded, Batting for Change.
True to form, this year he’s stepping out of the ordinary once more. Carters is off to Silicon Valley to undertake a month-long internship with not-for-profit organisation The Khan Academy, who produce free, quality online tutorials for anyone with a web connection. The academy’s slogan is “You Can Learn Anything” which, on a number of levels, is ever so apt.
Spot of pre-play reading. From Ali Martin, on the contrasting days of the two wicketkeepers in Johannesburg, Jonny Bairstow and Dane Vilas.
At 7.30am, 600 miles from the Wanderers, in Port Elizabeth on the eastern Cape, a bleary-eyed Dane Vilas received a phone call from the South African management.
The wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock had suffered a freak injury while walking his dogs – two jack russells – on Wednesday and, after his knee had swollen up overnight, a replacement was needed behind the stumps in Johannesburg, sharpish.
By 8.40am he was buckling up his seatbelt on a flight. By 11.30am he was strolling into the Wanderers in flip-flops. And by 4.12pm he was walking out to the middle to face the England fast bowler Steven Finn, whose tail was very much up after he had claimed the wickets of Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis either side of tea.
Looks rather relaxing...
Latest initiative to get crowds into Test cricket. Sun beds. Misting spray. BBQs and a jacuzzi. pic.twitter.com/GrzDdTHqjf
— Jonathan Agnew (@Aggerscricket) January 15, 2016
Obviously I would never encourage you to go anywhere else today, but if white ball cricket is more your thing, our lovely boys Russell Jackson and Geoff Lemon are OBOing Australia v India in the second ODI from the Gabba. The Aussies have just started their reply, chasing a target of 309 - follow that one here.
Preamble
An excellent first day for England, then. On a pitch that always looked like it would be helpful to the bowlers, they were quite unlucky to only take seven wickets. Steven Finn produced some remarkable deliveries and will bowl much worse with a better return in the future. If they can keep South Africa down to around 300, they will be quite happy. A strong position going into the second day. Advantage England.
Or.
An excellent first day for South Africa, then. On a pitch that always looked like it would be helpful to the bowlers, they did well to keep England down to just seven wickets. They produced some stout batting to largely keep out some remarkable deliveries from Steven Finn, and a late charge by Chris Morris and Kagiso Rabada produced some valuable runs. If they can reach a total of around 300, they will be quite happy. A strong position going into the second day. Advantage South Africa.
Ah heck, I don’t know. Who does? You can most certainly file this one under ‘finely poised’. Should be a cracking day ahead.
Start of play: 8.30am GMT
Nick will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Mike Selvey on day one’s play:
Until a frustrating unbroken eighth-wicket partnership of 42 against the second new ball, England had fought their way back into the third Test, after an indifferent first session in the field had allowed South Africa to lay the foundations for what might yet be a significant score on a pitch on which no batsman was able to say with confidence that they had settled.
At various times South Africa were 44 without loss and 111 for one as the England bowlers strove for consistency and rhythm. For the best part of the next two sessions they set South Africa back, as five times Alastair Cook’s bowling changes paid immediate dividends. At 225 for seven, the day was evenly poised. So well did Chris Morris (26 not out) and Kagiso Rabada (20 not out) play against the new ball though, that South Africa will resume their innings on 267 for seven.
It is they who have their noses in front and it is hard to imagine that on this pitch, Morne Morkel, in particular, and the debutant Hardus Viljoen, fast and furious, with 40 wickets at around 13 runs apiece at the Wanderers this season, will not give the England batsmen a torrid time.
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