Boosted by the return of their skipper Faf du Plessis, South Africa thrashed England by 340 runs in the second Test at Trent Bridge on Monday (July 17) to level the four-match series 1-1.
New captain but the same old problem.If the Alastair Cook-led England side had struggled to churn out consistent performances, recent signs of the team under newly-appointed skipper Joe Root are not promising either. England under Cook never managed to sustain their winning momentum for long and that issue was perhaps the biggest challenge for Root but at the time being, it is safe to say that the new captain has failed to raise the hopes. England’s journey under Root began in an emphatic manner- a victory by a whooping margin of 211 runs in the first Test against South Africa- but in the second match of the series they were hammered by 340 runs.
Chasing an improbable 473 to take an unassailable lead in the series, England began the fourth day on 1 for no loss but could not get a good start as Keaton Jennings was clean bowled by Vernon Philander in the very second over of the day. And by the time the teams went it into the lunch break, the writing was very much on the wall as the hosts were reeling at 79 for 4 with two of their main batsmen- Alastair Cook and Joe Root back in the hut.
Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes managed to add just 5 runs after the break before the former fell to Keshav Maharaj. A 38-run stand between Stokes and Moeen Ali then stopped the rot for a while but the duo’s attempt to delay the inevitable did not last long as Maharaj struck again to remove Ali. Duanne Olivier wrapped up the things by dismissing Mark Wood and James Anderson on consecutive deliveries.
Brief scores:
South Africa 335 (Amla 78, de Kock 68, Philander 54, Anderson 5-72) and 343 for 9 dec (Amla 87, Elgar 80, du Plessis 63, Moeen 4-78) beat England 205 (Root 78, Maharaj 3-21, Morris 3-38) and 133 (Philander 3-24, Maharaj 3-42) by 340 runs