Johannesburg — Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj batted well on Thursday as South Africa’s lower order kept England at bay as the visitors piled on the runs on day two of the first Test at Lord’s.
IOL Sport’s Stuart Hess takes a look at the day’s action and gives us the five Plays of the Day.
FIVE-FER: Kagiso Rabada is a remarkable cricketer — which is stating the obvious, sure, but is worth saying anyway. All of the great bowlers need to leave their mark and there is no better place to do so than Lord’s where they stick your name up on the honours board in the visiting dressing-room when you achieve a landmark. Rabada was simply magnificent, rarely making a mistake in taking 5/52, earning his 12th ‘five-for’ and becoming the 12th South African to do so at the Home of Cricket.
DROP: It was almost comical because it appeared to be happening in slow-motion. The chance offered by Ollie Pope was a relatively easy one at slip, but the ball struck Sarel Erwee, in the chest, he pushed it up, missed it again, then had another two goes, and by now was on his back. And then the ball rolled away. Thankfully it wasn’t too costly and Erwee made up for it with the bat later.
SPELL: This was one of those classic Ben Stokes momentum shifters. The game was meandering along somewhat when he threw himself into the fray with a short ball barrage, that did for Erwee, before Rassie van der Dussen got trapped lbw. The spell read: 5-2-14-2.
SHOT: However then came the Proteas’s reply as Maharaj and Jansen took advantage against a tiring attack. Stokes, hobbling because of a sore left knee, returned for one final burst in the last half an hour of the day, but Jansen was set for the short ball and arrogantly swatted the England captain into the newly refurbished Bill Edrich Stand for six
LORD’S GOES RED: The Ruth Strauss foundation was set up by former England captain Andrew Strauss following the death of his wife to a rare form of cancer in 2018. The following year, the first ‘Red for Ruth’ day was held at Lord’s during an Ashes Test. It is now a tradition that on day two, spectators are encouraged to wear red clothes as a show of support. On Thursday both teams donned ‘baggy red’ caps for a short ceremony before the start of play. Each of those caps was signed by the players and they will be raffled off by the foundation which supports families facing the death of a parent while also driving the need for more research into non-smoking lung cancers.
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