England Surpass 500,000 Test Runs On A Dramatic Day's Play In Johannesburg

An upbeat England cricket team achieved yet another milestone in the ongoing Test series against South Africa. The visitors became the first cricket playing nation to surpass 500,000 Test runs. The Joe Root-led side currently has a 2-1 upper hand as they went into the fourth and final Test of the series.

England have their noses ahead on a rain-hit day

However, their strong start was dampened with the Proteas bowling pack making a comeback and restricting the opposition to 192/4 on a rain-hit day of play at Johannesburg.  Jak Crawley hit a maiden fifty, courtesy 11 boundaries before losing his wicket to Vernon Philander. Dom Sibley, too, found himself among runs as he contributed with a gritty knock. He followed up a match-winning hundred in the last Test with a watchful 44. Joe Denly couldn’t convert a good start into a meaningful score while his colleague and star all-rounder Ben Stokes perished cheaply for 2. 

HALF A MILLION! ?
The first country to the milestone! ? pic.twitter.com/jodkHN8fcb

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) January 24, 2020

Dwaine Pretorious remained wicket-less but the rest of the bowlers scalped one wicket each. England were unshattered by South African pacers. Apart from Anrich Nortje, none of the seamers could bowl over the 140 kmph mark on a consistent basis. Lack of discipline didn’t help the hosts either. 

The hosts could have been in hot waters as the English openers put on a 107-run stand for the first wicket after rain wiped out the first session of play. But the side soon found tottering at 157/4. A fifth-wicket partnership of 35 runs was going fine when bad light stopped play. Root remained unbeaten on 25 and crossed a personal milestone of breaching the 7,500 run-mark. 

There were a few surprises in store ahead of the day’s proceedings. Pacer Jofra Archer failed a late fitness Test while Mark Wood played his second consecutive Test for the first time since 2017. Dom Bess was snubbed in spite of a five-for in the previous game. The visitors will look to wrap the series 3-1 while Faf du Plessis’ men are eager to salvage a win in order to keep sanity.