SA v Eng 4th Test Day 4 Review: Victory in sight for South Africa

Victory looked in sight for South Africa after Kagiso Rabada and Morne Morkel provided the Proteas with early breakthroughs in the fourth innings. England ended the day at 52/3 while chasing a target of 382 runs to win after South Africa declared at 248/5 in the evening on a rain-hit day of play.

South Africa began at 42/3 but were off to a very bad start as overnight batsman Stephen Cook and AB de Villiers were dismissed quickly in the same over by James Anderson.

De Villiers stunned everyone yet again after Anderson baffled him with a big in-swinger and trapped him LBW for a duck. This was for the first time in his Test career that he was dismissed for a pair. At 49/3 and a lead of just 182 runs, the Proteas were in a precarious situation.

Duminy came in to bat at number five and provided some stability to the South African scoreboard with a 56 run stand with Amla. However, Ben Stokes did not allow the partnership to grow any further and got the southpaw caught behind by Bairstow.

Amla and Bavuma went on to bat and put on a 116 run partnership to exhaust the English bowlers completely. Amla was very cautious today and took three and a half hours to reach his half-century and was unfortunately out just four runs short of his century. Bavuma had also completed his fifty by the time Amla was dismissed.

Rain interrupted again and South Africa eventually declared at 248/5 soon after batting for some time after the play resumed

English openers came out to bat but Rabada took no time to land the first blow to England’s chase. Alex Hale is currently finding it tough to find his foot at the Test level and fell LBW to Rabada. A straighter ball kept low and struck him in front of the pads.

Morne Morkel complimented the good start by removing the England captain soon after a couple of overs. Cook could not keep the ball low while trying to defend a ball which was shaping in. The ball went straight back to Morkel who took a one-handed catch to send the English Captain back to the dressing room. Cook needed only 45 runs to complete the milestone of 10,000 runs in Test cricket when he came out to bat this evening. However, he will have to wait till for a few month until his next chance arrives.

Rabada continued to haunt England. He found success immediately two overs later as he dismissed Nick Compton. Compton drives but gave away a thick edge to de Kock who did not make any mistake. Compton showed desperation when he immediately review the decision which went in vain eventually.

The light was getting dim and Umpire Dharmasena kept checking the visibility. Joe Root and James Taylor managed to survive the spin bowling of Piedt and Elgar which was introduced late by de Villiers before play was called off due to bad light.

First Innings:

South Africa: 475 all out in 132 overs (Quinton de Kock 129; Ben Stokes 4/86)

England: 342 all out 104.2 overs (Alastair Cook 76; Kagiso Rabada 7/112)

Second Innings:

South Africa: 248/5d (Hashim Amla 96; James Anderson 3/47)

England: 52/3 (James Taylor 19; Kagiso Rabada 2/15)