The ground was humming with anticipation after lunch, the smoke from the boerewors cooking on the braais drifting across the outfield as the crowd settled down to see whether South Africa, 16 for none and six runs in credit, could now truly assert themselves over the touring side.
But as any local will tell you, electrical storms can brew up quickly on the Highveld; from a period of relative calm they can suddenly hit. And on the third afternoon here in Johannesburg, that storm was Stuart Broad, producing a spell of fast bowling that would vaporise the home side in a series of lightning strikes.
This was the Broad of The Oval in 2009, Chester-le-street in 2013 and Trent Bridge last summer; the one who spies the prize and, quick as a flash, snatches it with both hands. As was the case for Australia in those three Ashes-sealing bursts, South Africa’s batsmen had no answer to this series-winner supreme as pace, movement and sheer force of personality proved irresistible.
While Broad’s six for 17, which included a stunning wicket-to-wicket spell of five for one run in 31 balls, was another of his hot streaks, the 29-year-old has long since moved beyond being simply a high-class performer when the force is with him.
No bowler in Test cricket has taken more than his 231 wickets in the past five years and, with Jimmy Anderson not appearing himself in this series and nudging towards the end of what has been a record-breaking career, there is a case for Broad to now assume the nominal mantle of being leader of the attack.
If Broad’s was the stand-out performance, the achievements of others in this storming of the Wanderers should not go under the radar, nor should the imperfections that mean England are far from the finished product.
After last summer’s Ashes there were many who believed Broad should have been man of the series ahead of Joe Root, so devastating was his eight for 15 in Nottingham, and here, in terms of the man-of-the-match award, the reverse could be applied when considering the surface.
Root’s 110 in England’s 323, allied with 58 from Ben Stokes, changed the course of this third Test, with the score a worrying 91 for four when they came together at the crease on Friday afternoon before a counterattacking 111-run partnership in 85 balls defied the convention of digging in under fire.
Jonny Bairstow, striving hard to improve behind the stumps, held nine catches in the match, two short of the world record 11 held by Jack Russell and AB de Villiers, both on this ground. The Yorkshireman’s 45 runs in the morning took him, in the space of three Tests, to 345 for the series and the most by an English wicketkeeper since Alec Stewart’s 465 against South Africa in 1998.
Steven Finn, now looking unlikely for the fourth Test after a side strain suffered during the chaotic afternoon, kept it together on the first day when others started flat, while Stokes claimed five wickets in the match, harnessing the swing on offer prodigiously.
Collapses often contain stunning takes – think Stokes at Trent Bridge – and to judge just how stunning one is, a decent barometer is when the fielders run like headless chickens in sheer disbelief at what has just occurred, as when James Taylor stayed low at short-leg to pluck a ball smashed off the middle of Hashim Amla’s bat, the first of two.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, with both the Ashes and now the Basil D’Oliveria Trophy regained in the space of six months, we must remember England still sit fifth in the world rankings and appear no closer to solving long-standing problems at the top of the order. For the head coach, Trevor Bayliss, they remain a kit not yet fully assembled.
For the Proteas, who will lose their No1 Test ranking to India by virtue of this series defeat, there is more to ponder about the direction in which their team is heading, especially with the new captain, De Villiers, not committing beyond the end of the series and making noises about wanting to cherry-pick future involvement while cashing on his value in Twenty20.
From the ashes of this series defeat at least one phoenix has risen in the shape of their rookie fast bowler Kagiso Rabada, however, a cult hero among the home support who tunefully adapted Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da by the Beatles as he went on to complete a fine maiden Test five-wicket haul in the morning session.
Little did they know there was a storm coming.
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