England vs South Africa: 1st test review

By English Cricket
December 25 2004

England eased to victory in the first test against South Africa, in a match by their own admission they failed to perform at anywhere near top gear. Fortunately, less than 100% was enough to take care of an opposition that is probably at it weakest since its re-admission into world cricket.

Nevertheless, England were under some pressure going into this test match, given a less than convincing outing against the South-African 'A' side coupled with typical over the top reaction from the nations media. In times gones by this may have resulted in unnnecessary panic, but this team is made of much stronger stuff as they demonstrated the ability to perform when it mattered and silenced many doubters in the process. 
 
The performance of Strauss was without a doubt the key, as it was not only the weight of runs but the manner in which he scored them. I cannot recall the last English batsmen to have made such an easy transistion from county batsman to test cricketer. Surely, next years Ashes series will pose more questions but at the moment it appears the sky is the limit. 
 
Although Strauss was the shining light, a more than honourable mention should to go to Simon Jones, who was instrumental in South Africa's second innings collapse. Jones is generally viewed as the weakest link in England's four prong pace attack, but he showed that he is more than deserving of his place in the test side. Gone is the much hyped pace, but it has been replaced with consistency, accuracy and a hint of reverse swing - useful weapons at this level.     
 
However, England as they acknowledged, will need to work harder and make less mistakes than they did in the first test. The batting has been inconsistent, and some of the stroke play on show was more worthy of the final over dash in a limited overs game rather than a test match. South Africa was allowed back into the match on the third day when they really should have been shut out. The Proteas may not have been good enough to capitalise, but its not the sort of opportunity you want to be handing opposition teams especially with the Ashes around the corner. The other main worry for England is the form of their no.1 bowler, Harmison, who is struggling to regain the former he displayed in the Caribbean and in the summer. It may just be that he needs time to recover from the lengthy lay-off, but it is imperative that he gets his 'groove back' if England are to maintain that edge over other teams. Still, there is plenty to happy about given the knowledge that the team is not performing at its best and still winning, and all expectations will be towards England making it 9 in a row in Durban.
 
 
South Africa v England
Port Elizabeth
First Test Match

England beat South Africa by 7 wkts.

South Africa won the toss and decided to bat

Umpires: D B Hair, S J A Taufel


South Africa:
G C Smith (capt) , A B de Villiers , J A Rudolph , J H Kallis , H H Dippenaar , Z de Bruyn , A J Hall , S M Pollock , T L Tsolekile (wkt) , M Ntini , D W Steyn
England:
M E Trescothick , A J Strauss , M A Butcher , M P Vaughan (capt) , G P Thorpe , A Flintoff , G O Jones (wkt) , A F Giles , M J Hoggard , S P Jones , S J Harmison

South Africa first innings
Batsman     Runs Balls 4s 6s
GC Smith c Strauss b Hoggard 0 2 - -
AB de Villiers lbw b Flintoff 28 47 4 -
JA Rudolph c G O Jones b Flintoff 93 192 14 -
JH Kallis   b Harmison 0 7 - -
HH Dippenaar c Trescothick b S P Jones 110 245 11 -
Z de Bruyn   b Flintoff 6 23 1 -
SM Pollock c Trescothick b Hoggard 31 52 5 -
AJ Hall   b Hoggard 6 10 1 -
TL Tsolekile c Flintoff b Giles 22 83 1 -
M Ntini   not out 2 6 - -
DW Steyn c Strauss b Giles 8 10 - 1
Extras 0b 13lb 4w 14nb 31  
TOTAL: all out , 110.4 overs 337  

Fall of wickets: 1-0 (0 Smith, 1 mins), 2-63 (63 de Villiers, 79 mins), 3-66 (3 Kallis, 12 mins), 4-178 (112 Rudolph, 160 mins), 5-192 (14 de Bruyn, 19 mins), 6-253 (61 Pollock, 74 mins), 7-261 (8 Hall, 8 mins), 8-324 (63 Dippenaar, 105 mins), 9-327 (3 Tsolekile, - mins), 10-337 (10 Steyn, 8 mins)

 

Bowler O M R W
M J Hoggard 20 4 56 3
S J Harmison 25 2 88 1
S P Jones 16 4 39 1
A Flintoff 22 4 72 3
A F Giles 27.4 8 69 2
England first innings
Batsman     Runs Balls 4s 6s
ME Trescothick   b Steyn 47 139 4 -
AJ Strauss c de Villiers b Pollock 126 229 17 -
MA Butcher c Tsolekile b Ntini 79 193 12 -
MP Vaughan c Smith b Hall 10 14 1 1
GP Thorpe   b Smith 4 29 - -
A Flintoff c Rudolph b Ntini 35 70 4 1
GO Jones c Dippenaar b Ntini 2 3 - -
AF Giles c Hall b Pollock 26 39 3 -
MJ Hoggard c Tsolekile b Hall 0 5 - -
SP Jones c & b Steyn 24 60 3 -
SJ Harmison   not out 15 16 - 1
Extras 0b 21lb 1w 35nb 57  
TOTAL: all out , 126.5 overs 425  
Fall of wickets: 1-152 (152 Trescothick, 189 mins), 2-238 (86 Strauss, 111 mins), 3-249 (11 Vaughan, 18 mins), 4-267 (18 Thorpe, 39 mins), 5-346 (79 Butcher, 101 mins), 6-353 (7 Flintoff, 3 mins), 7-353 (0 G O Jones, 4 mins), 8-358 (5 Hoggard, 3 mins), 9-394 (36 Giles, 54 mins), 10-425 (31 S P Jones, 29 mins)
Bowler O M R W
S M Pollock 32 14 61 2
M Ntini 28 6 75 3
D W Steyn 25.5 2 117 2
A J Hall 22 1 95 2
Z de Bruyn 9 1 31 0
G C Smith 10 3 25 1

South Africa second innings
Batsman     Runs Balls 4s 6s
AB de Villiers c & b Hoggard 14 21 2 -
GC Smith c S P Jones b Flintoff 55 105 5 -
JA Rudolph c Trescothick b Giles 28 45 4 -
JH Kallis lbw b S P Jones 61 113 9 -
HH Dippenaar   b Giles 10 26 1 -
Z de Bruyn c Trescothick b Flintoff 19 42 2 -
SM Pollock c G O Jones b S P Jones 0 1 - -
AJ Hall   run out 17 51 2 -
TL Tsolekile   b S P Jones 0 10 - -
M Ntini lbw b S P Jones 4 5 1 -
DW Steyn   not out 2 2 - -
Extras 4b 3lb 1w 6nb 19  
TOTAL: all out , 69.1 overs 229  
Fall of wickets: 1-26 (26 de Villiers, 28 mins), 2-64 (38 Rudolph, 41 mins), 3-152 (88 Smith, 107 mins), 4-168 (16 Dippenaar, 25 mins), 5-201 (33 Kallis, 32 mins), 6-201 (0 Pollock, - mins), 7-217 (16 de Bruyn, 30 mins), 8-218 (1 Tsolekile, 17 mins), 9-224 (6 Ntini, 9 mins), 10-229 (5 Hall, 9 mins)
Bowler O M R W
M J Hoggard 12 2 38 1
S J Harmison 14 1 54 0
A F Giles 15 2 39 2
A Flintoff 15 2 47 2
S P Jones 13.1 3 39 4

England second innings
Batsman     Runs Balls 4s 6s
ME Trescothick c Tsolekile b Pollock 0 1 - -
AJ Strauss   not out 94 134 12 1
MA Butcher c Smith b Ntini 0 8 - -
MP Vaughan   b Steyn 15 25 2 -
GP Thorpe   not out 31 78 2 -
Extras 0b 3lb 0w 2nb 5  
TOTAL: 3 wkts , 40.4 overs 145  
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (0 Trescothick, - mins), 2-11 (11 Butcher, 12 mins), 3-50 (39 Vaughan, 49 mins)
To bat: A Flintoff, G O Jones, A F Giles, M J Hoggard, S P Jones, S J Harmison
Bowler O M R W
S M Pollock 11 2 36 1
M Ntini 6.4 1 24 1
A J Hall 9 1 14 0
D W Steyn 6 1 29 1
G C Smith 8 0 39 0

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