Ken Borland

The Proteas showed some of their beloved fighting spirit, but the golden arm of Ben Stokes and the brilliance of Jimmy Anderson could not be denied forever as England bowled South Africa out for 179 on Saturday to win the second Test by an innings and 85 runs.

Resuming on 23 without loss and still 241 runs behind, the Proteas were rocked by three wickets in the first hour, slumping to 54/3.

Proteas captain Dean Elgar (11) was bowled by a beautiful delivery from Anderson in his second over of the day, the left-hander having his off-stump knocked over by a ball that was angled into him from around the wicket and then nipped away.

Five overs later, Sarel Erwee (25) was undone by Ollie Robinson’s nagging line just outside off-stump, trying to leave the ball but pulling the bat away too late, and providing a catch to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, who scooped up a good, low chance.

Aiden Markram was saved from being bowled for a duck by Stuart Broad due to the paceman bowling a no-ball picked up by the TV umpire. But the embattled batsman only added six more runs before he was caught at second slip off the same bowler, edging a booming, millionaire’s drive on the up.

Keegan Petersen and Rassie van der Dussen, batting with a fractured left index finger, resisted through to lunch and then halted England’s charge for the whole second session.

Stokes had produced a probing spell just before tea, when he troubled Van der Dussen outside off stump and was unfortunate not to have him caught behind the wicket. The England captain finally broke the defiant 87-run fourth-wicket partnership, that spanned almost three hours, dismissing both set batsmen in successive overs.

Van der Dussen was caught behind in the first over after tea, reaching for an away-swinger, but his 41 off 132 balls was a courageous effort that saved some face for his team.

Petersen played one of his most determined Test innings, showing he was mentally and technically up for the fight, as he scored 42 in four hours, off 159 balls. He fell though to the ball of the day, Stokes getting a delivery to rear from back-of-a-length, while it was moving away as well; Petersen actually did well to get an edge.

What happened next with the second new ball was the daughter of Stokes’ success and phenomenal effort.

With the door open to the tail, Anderson, who took 3/30 in 15 overs to finish with 6/62 in the match, and Ollie Robinson (15.1-3-43-4) tore through as the last five wickets fell for seven runs in 31 balls.

With the series tied at 1-1, an intriguing decider is set up in the third and final Test starting at The Oval on September 8.

South Africa will have to make at least one change, with Van der Dussen’s departure due to his fractured finger being confirmed. All-rounder Wiaan Mulder, enjoying a stellar season with Leicestershire, has been called into the squad.

Kagiso Rabada became the second-quickest bowler, in terms of deliveries bowled, to reach 250 Test wickets during South Africa’s almighty thrashing of England at Lord’s, making it three Proteas inside the top-four of that particular statistical honours list.

The great Dale Steyn tops that list, needing just 9 927 deliveries to take 250 wickets, with Rabada reaching the milestone with his 10 065^th ball, a clever slower-ball that had a slogging Stuart Broad caught at backward point. Pakistani legend Waqar Younis is third on 10 170 deliveries, with Allan Donald, the godfather of Proteas fast bowling, the fourth quickest (11 559).

Since South Africa’s return from isolation in November 1991, they have taken over from the West Indies as the team that has consistently produced the most lethal fast bowlers, and it was great to see that traditional strength used to such marvellous effect at Lord’s.

Test cricket is arguably at its best, a heavenly spectacle indeed, when great fast bowlers are in action, especially these days when so much is loaded in favour of batsmen.

South Africa is clearly blessed to have four world-class pacemen at the same time in Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen, who played together for the first time at Lord’s.

Sadly, it seems they will not be given enough Test matches to put up the same numbers as some of the other great fast bowlers in the history of the game.

Rabada, for instance, takes his wickets currently at a rate of 4.71 per Test. With just 28 Test matches scheduled for the Proteas over the next five years, given the same strike-rate, Rabada will be on around 380 Test wickets, still well short of breaking Steyn’s mark of 439 as South Africa’s most prolific bowler. Even Steyn himself expected Rabada to cruise past his record, but if South Africa keep playing as few Tests as they do, it will take the man who sprang to fame as the spearhead of the U19 side that won the Junior World Cup until he is in his mid-30s to claim the record.

For neutrals, South Africa’s demolition of England at Lord’s must have made for compelling viewing. Surely the International Cricket Council would want to ensure their fans get to see more of that?

Coming after their impressive ODI series win over South Africa, the opening day of the Test series was a tough one for Bangladesh as they probably made the wrong decision at the toss by sending the Proteas in to bat and then bowled poorly in the morning session to compound the mistake.

Openers Dean Elgar (67) and Sarel Erwee (41) added 113 for the first wicket, before Bangladesh fought back in the afternoon to reduce the hosts to 180/4. But Temba Bavuma (53*) and Kyle Verreynne (27*) then made sure it was South Africa’s day at Kingsmead as they added an unbeaten 53 to take the Proteas to 233/4 at stumps.

Bangladesh coach Russell Domingo admitted a lack of confidence in batting first and an inexperienced attack was the cause of their woes. Pacemen Taskin Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain and Khaled Ahmed only have 25 Test caps between them.

“We’re still trying to improve our Test cricket and there is still a bit of uncertainty over our batting on pitches with pace and bounce, that was behind the decision to bowl first,” Domingo revealed on Thursday evening.

“We’re trying to address the confidence of the batsmen so they are able to front up when batting first on wickets that are tough. There was not too much in the decision and it would have been nice to actually start at 10am because the delay meant the clouds had burned off.

“A few of the batsmen are playing their first Test here and we’re trying to get them to have confidence in their ability, but there’s still a long way to go.

“We also have a very inexperienced attack and we bowled poorly in the first session. Obviously the guys were a bit nervous or over-eager, on a pitch they thought would assist them. But we were much better after lunch,” Domingo said.

The Bangladesh attack did clearly miss left-arm quick Shoriful Islam, one of the stars of the ODI series.

“Shoriful is injured, he has an ankle niggle which is why he missed selection, and is back is troubling him too,” Domingo revealed. “With only four bowlers, we could not risk one who was 50/50.

“The pitch has not done as much as we thought it would, but Khaled ran in hard, he bowled one ball at 150km/h and his attitude was fantastic. He showed good pace and control.

“We kept it nice and tight in the last session and the new ball is just four overs away. Obviously it will be fantastic if we can get one or two early wickets with it.

“If we can keep the Proteas to around 320 then we’re very much in the contest,” Domingo, a former South Africa coach, said.

Sisanda Magala may have bowled 20 overs and batted for more than two hours to rescue the Central Gauteng Lions this week, but as far as the national selectors are concerned, the bowling all-rounder is back in the dog kennel when it comes to the Proteas as he has been omitted from the squad for the three ODIs against Bangladesh starting on March 18.

Magala was declared unavailable for Proteas selection because he failed a fitness test. But that fitness test was held before the Lions’ CSA 4-Day Series match against the Northerns Titans. Not for the first time, the burly 31-year-old did not meet the national team’s fitness criteria, but his omission from the Bangladesh series has raised eyebrows because he put in a typically wholehearted effort against Northerns and was one of the few Lions’ players to shine.

All-rounder George Linde has also been left out in the cold in the only two changes to the squad which hammered India 3-0 in such impressive fashion in January.

Fast bowler Anrich Nortje was also not considered for selection because he is still struggling with his hip injury and is unlikely to play in the Tests against Bangladesh either. And Lungi Ngidi is in the squad but still needs to prove his fitness following his back problems in New Zealand.

Apart from the Magala controversy, the other main talking point around the selection was the retention of Aiden Markram, and he is likely to continue batting in the middle-order and providing a valuable sixth-bowler option. Apart from the other five batsmen who played against India – De Kock, Malan, Bavuma, Van der Dussen and Miller – the only other batters in the squad are reserve wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne and Zubayr Hamza, who would be an option for the top three.

“With World Cup qualification points in the balance, it was vital for us not to tinker with a winning combination,” selection convenor Victor Mpitsang said in the CSA statement announcing the squad on Tuesday.

“After a great performance against a very strong India side, we felt it was important to reward the good performances of the previous series and continue to back this growing team.

“Consistency in selection and performance are just some of the key elements that need to be looked after, especially when building up to a World Cup, and we are looking forward to seeing what this group will produce against fresh opposition,” Mpitsang said.

The first ODI is on Friday, March 18 at Centurion, followed by the Pink Day ODI at the Wanderers and March 20 and then the third and final match back at SuperSport Park on Wednesday, March 23.

Squad – Quinton de Kock, Janneman Malan, Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen, Wayne Parnell, Kyle Verreynne, Zubayr Hamza.