South Africa beat England to go No.1

Daniel Brigham at Lord's

South Africa went to the top of the Test rankings after winning a magnificent, unpredictable Test by 51 runs. England went down blazing to 294 all out, with Vernon Philander's five-for finally settling it in his team's favour.

A barnstorming 8th-wicket partnership of 74 runs from 66 balls between Matt Prior and Graeme Swann gave England real hope in front of a half-full but very noisy crowd. After tea they plundered 61 runs in 8.4 overs, cutting the target of 346 runs to 64.

When Swann fell for a 34-ball 41, excellently run out by Imran Tahir, Prior continued to attack. He got some luck when he was caught in the deep; trudging off he was reprieved when Simon Taufel's hunch that Morne Morkel had overstepped in his delivery was proved correct by the third umpire. But when Philander took the new ball, he produced a beauty that moved away from Prior and took the edge of the bat, Graeme Smith taking a superb low catch at slip. With Prior gone for 74 it was all but over, and the next ball it was red rover. Steven Finn prodded at one that moved away from him and Jacques Kallis took the catch that sent South Africa above England to the top of the world rankings.

England have lost six of their 11 Tests since becoming No.1 - and won only one out of four series - but today they showed the fight and skill that served them so well as they rose to the top a year ago. They will be left rueing the dropped catches that allowed Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers to add a further 154 runs, but it was the performance of Philander that really did for them. He took seven wickets in the Test and added a vital 96 runs from No.8 to constantly take the momentum away from England.

Looking to recover from their overnight 16 for 2, England started the day in embarrassing fashion. Losing Ian Bell in the sixth over was bad enough - his flash to a wideish one from Philander far too common in this Test - but then came England's most humiliating moment of a torrid series. Jonathan Trott, who was playing at everything as if he was trying to make up for the absence of Kevin Pietersen, pushed one nicely wide of mid-on. As the ball held up on its way to the boundary, James Taylor wanted a gettable fourth run. Trott hesitated, started, hesitated again and then stopped in the manner of a teenage boy wimping out of approaching a girl at a party. Taylor had sprinted up the pitch eager to make the run, but saw Trott stop and bounced back like a pinball. As he turned, the throw from Amla had already reached AB de Villiers, who took the bails off and Taylor trudged off for 4.

At 45 for 4, in came Bairstow, who lifted the mood of the crowd within five minutes of his entrance. He took on the bowlers, hitting four boundaries off eight Dale Steyn deliveries and then tucking into Morkel and Tahir. He and Trott out on fifty off 52 balls but, just as it looked like England were getting back into the match, Bairstow fell just after lunch. He was bowled by a flatter one from Tahir for a very controlled 54 - in some way an even more accomplished knock than his his first innings' 95.

Trott soon followed for 63, Steyn finding a bit of extra bounce and taking the edge with his first ball since lunch. England weren't done though. Stuart Broad scored a frenetic 37 as he shared a 62-run partnership with Prior. When Broad was out trying to hook Kallis, Swann and Prior looked to be smashing England to an astonishing victory. But, with the Test mace still just in England's grip, Philander finally yanked it from them once and for all.

Date: 20/08/2012 18:10:02 by DBrigham
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