England vs South Africa
4th Test
Old Trafford, Manchester
August 4th 2017 – August 8th 2017
It was a dismal five days at The Oval for the Proteas as they succumbed to an astounding 239-Run defeat to England to fall behind 2-1 in the series with one final test in the series to beplayed at Old Trafford starting on Friday. Catch all the action on all five days with first ball at 11:00 (11am) BST.
On a record breaking final day in London, Moeen Ali became the only player in 127-years to claim a hat-trick at The Oval while South Africa became the first team ever to suffer four first-ball ducks in a single innings. This leaves the Proteas in a precarious position with a first series defeat in England in 19 years becoming a real prospect. They have not suffered back-to-back series defeats in over 50 years and will have the toughest of tasks on their hand if they are to claw themselves level in the series and salvage some pride.
New Three Lions skipper Joe Root has been the standout performer in the series so far and is the leading run scorer with 360 runs in 6 innings at an astonishing average of 60.00. He followed up his stunning century (190) in the first test at Lords with back-to-back half centuries (78 and 50) at Trent Bridge and The Oval respectively. He has been back up brilliantly by Jonny Bairstow (221 at an avg. of 36.83) and Ben Stokes (218 at an avg. of 36.33) with the latter reaching a career high 25
th place in the ICC Test batsmen rankings.
Dean Elgar, who stood in as captain for Faf du Plessis in the first test, is South Africa’s leading run scorer with 286 runs in 6 innings which includes a pair of half-centuries in each of the first two tests. His 136 in the second innings at The Oval was not enough to prevent a calamitous crumble however and despite his impressive performances, coach Russel Domingo will be hoping for more consistency from his opening batsmen who has turned in sub-ten scores in each of his other innings in the UK.
Spinners have managed substantial success in the series so far, accounting for 37 of the 116 wickets to have tumbled. That’s an astonishing 31.8% in a country whose conditions are usually more suited to the seamers than the slow bowlers. Moeen Ali with 18 and Keshav Maharaj with 14 are the leading wicket-takers for their sides and in the series respectively with James Anderson the only other England bowler who has taken 10 wickets or more. On the contrary, four South Africans have already achieved this (Maharaj, Morkel, Philander and Rabada).
Despite two ducks in six innings and only managing 92 runs in 6 innings at an average of just 15.33, South African born Keaton Jennings has been retained for the fourth and final test and will be given the chance to improve on his 48 scored in the third test as he fell an agonising two runs short of a maiden half-century caught by Chris Morris off the bowling of Kagiso Rabada. Steven Finn has been recalled to the side to replace the injured Mark Wood while Toby Roland-Jones who took 8 wickets on debut at the Oval, which included a brilliant 5 for 57 in the first innings, has earned a second call-up. The South African side is expected to remain unchanged.