The embodiment of SA cricket’s present met its past at 2.18pm at the Wanderers in Johannesburg yesterday. Ominously, perhaps, they were parted 13 minutes later.
The present arrived when Dean Elgar feathered a delivery from Moeen Ali into Jonny Bairstow’s gloves. That brought AB de Villiers into the fray – for the first time as a Test captain.
De Villiers had a quick word with the man at the other end of the pitch, Hashim Amla.
Then he twinkle-toed down the pitch to hammer the second ball he faced down the ground for four. Moeen’s next delivery disappeared through midwicket for another boundary.
Easy as you like.
At 2.31pm, Amla’s footwork failed him when he tried to deal with a scything away swinger from Steven Finn. Bairstow held the edge.
SA could have done with their past and present staying in the moment for longer on the first day of the third Test against England.
Maybe then the immediate future wouldn’t look as bleak: they resume today on 267/7.
Amla was the only batsman removed by a ball worthy of taking his wicket. The rest succumbed either to tentativeness or recklessness.
De Villiers chased a leg-side long hop from Stokes and gloved it to the wicketkeeper.
Faf du Plessis scooped a shortish delivery from Steven Finn upward and into Alex Hales’ hands on the midwicket fence.
Elgar’s grubby little stroke was on the other extreme, as was Stiaan van Zyl’s clumsy leading edge off Stokes that looped to Bairstow.
Temba Bavuma was slow to get going and run out by Chris Woakes from mid-on when Dane Vilas wanted a single that was never there.
Vilas, at least, could be forgiven.
He should have been playing for the Cobras against the Warriors at St George’s Park, but Quinton de Kock injured his knee in a freak accident, and Vilas was summoned.
Had De Kock not removed himself from the equation, sources say he would have opened the batting as well as kept wicket and JP Duminy would have been recalled down the order.
So Van Zyl, who has now gone 13 Test innings without reaching 40 and has been dismissed in the single figures five times in his last nine trips to the crease, should kiss De Kock’s right knee – it’s all that seems to have kept him in the side.
Woeful SA succumb to England attack
The present arrived when Dean Elgar feathered a delivery from Moeen Ali into Jonny Bairstow’s gloves. That brought AB de Villiers into the fray – for the first time as a Test captain.
De Villiers had a quick word with the man at the other end of the pitch, Hashim Amla.
Then he twinkle-toed down the pitch to hammer the second ball he faced down the ground for four. Moeen’s next delivery disappeared through midwicket for another boundary.
Easy as you like.
At 2.31pm, Amla’s footwork failed him when he tried to deal with a scything away swinger from Steven Finn. Bairstow held the edge.
SA could have done with their past and present staying in the moment for longer on the first day of the third Test against England.
Maybe then the immediate future wouldn’t look as bleak: they resume today on 267/7.
Amla was the only batsman removed by a ball worthy of taking his wicket. The rest succumbed either to tentativeness or recklessness.
De Villiers chased a leg-side long hop from Stokes and gloved it to the wicketkeeper.
Faf du Plessis scooped a shortish delivery from Steven Finn upward and into Alex Hales’ hands on the midwicket fence.
Elgar’s grubby little stroke was on the other extreme, as was Stiaan van Zyl’s clumsy leading edge off Stokes that looped to Bairstow.
Temba Bavuma was slow to get going and run out by Chris Woakes from mid-on when Dane Vilas wanted a single that was never there.
Vilas, at least, could be forgiven.
He should have been playing for the Cobras against the Warriors at St George’s Park, but Quinton de Kock injured his knee in a freak accident, and Vilas was summoned.
Had De Kock not removed himself from the equation, sources say he would have opened the batting as well as kept wicket and JP Duminy would have been recalled down the order.
So Van Zyl, who has now gone 13 Test innings without reaching 40 and has been dismissed in the single figures five times in his last nine trips to the crease, should kiss De Kock’s right knee – it’s all that seems to have kept him in the side.
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