England has made a habit of coming up with an ordinary performance after a superlative one. In the last one year or so, the series against Pakistan, Bangladesh and India have witnessed the English side’s inconsistency and it was on full display on the opening day of the second Test against South Africa before the bowlers led the fightback.
James Anderson, who had taken an astonishing 53 wickets in just eight Tests at Trent Bridge prior to the match, gave the Three Lions the perfect start by sending back Dean Elgar for only six. A 48-run stand between Heino Kuhn and Hashim Amla then steadied the ship before a century-plus stand between the latter and Quinton de Kock set the Proteas on course to grab the honours.
However, two wickets a piece from Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes helped England to claw their way back into the game, as the visitors found themselves reeling at 235 for six from 179 for two. Vernon Philander (54*) and Chris Morris (34*) then shared an unbeaten partnership of 74 runs to even things at the end of the day.
Speaking after the day’s play, England batsman Jonny Bairstow admitted that the day could have totally gone South Africa’s way if Broad and Stokes had not managed to pick up those wickets after tea.
“It could have been quite heavily in their favour if we hadn’t got those four wickets in the last session so credit to the way that our bowlers bounced back,” Bairstow said. “We would have chosen to bowl first but they applied themselves well and got stuck in.
“No matter what you do you’ve got to try and do it well. They chose to bat and I thought they played well first up, counteracted the ball when there was any movement. We could have done perhaps better but you’re always looking for little things, bits of luck and a few that dropped short in the outfield. It could have been a different day,” he added.
Broad and Anderson walked into the match with brilliant records on the ground. While Anderson is the highest Test wicket-taker at Trent Bridge, Broad had ripped apart Australia with a sensational spell of eight for 15 a couple of years ago. And England’s pace spearheads began in the same manner but did not enjoy much luck. Both the pacers bowled in tandem and managed to keep South Africa under pressure during the majority of the 39 overs they shared.
“To bowl 20 overs each in a day is a tough task and I thought they were unlucky,” said Bairstow. “Especially early on, there were balls that beat the outside edge consistently and later on, the skill to make the ball move with a 65-70 over old ball was still there. On another day they could have got two, three, four wickets early on and it would have been a completely different day.”
“You could see in that spell – not the with the (second) new ball but the one before – that he was attacking the crease,” said Bairstow. “His rhythm was real nice. The pitch reacts differently for different bowlers. We saw some scooting low, we saw some carrying through so I don’t think that’s a fair reflection of how someone’s bowling.”