JOHANNESBURG – Cricket writer Stuart Hess revisits the summer series between the Proteas and England that culminated on Monday afternoon. Here are his plays of the series:
Ben Stokes
On Sunday evening after stumps, having bowled in the morning and batted in the afternoon, Ben Stokes was doing shuttles on the Wanderers outfield. He is the hardest worker in the England team, mix that work ethic with his talent and unrelenting competitiveness and you get the kind of cricketer who doesn’t know when a match is lost.
He has scored 318 runs at an average of 45.42; with the ball he picked up 10 wickets at 22. He was the dominant figure against the Proteas and as good as the rest of the English players were, it is worth wondering how the Test series would have turned out had Stokes not played.
Batting
All three hundreds in the series were scored by Englishmen - one inevitably by Stokes - two by their rookies Dom Sibley and Ollie Pope. Both times they shared big partnerships with more experienced teammates, Joe Root and Stokes.
South Africa never had that - bar Quinton de Kock - standing up to provide guidance and support in the match. Rassie van der Dussen’s 98 yesterday was SA’s highest individual score of the series.
England's batsman Dom Sibley plays a shot on day three of the fourth cricket test match between South Africa and England at the Wanderers. Photo: AP Photo/Themba Hadebe
Turning point
Joe Root believes it was the final session of the last day at Newlands, where Stokes did his impression of Hercules, that the series was won.
SA’s best
Anrich Nortje. With the bat, he showed guts facing 293 balls in the series, and in three Tests he went into bat as nightwatchman. It is with the ball that he made a major impression. He finished as the leading wicket-taker in the series with 18, and keep in mind he only played the last Test after taking pain killing injections before the match.
Moving forward
SA don’t play a Test again until July in the West Indies. A lot of rebuilding is needed. Du Plessis won’t say if his Test career is over yet, but what this series and the last 12 months have suggested is that SA need to move on. Are there players domestically who can make this team better? Everyone says there is talent; Mark Boucher, Graeme Smith and Du Plessis.
That talent then, needs to take their opportunities, there is no point being talented if you don’t score runs, take wickets and show a stomach for the fight in Test cricket.