The Cricketer takes a look at the events of day three as England threaten something special at Centurion...
England needed swift wickets in the morning session but the tourists rarely looked like taking one. Rassie van der Dussen and nightwatchman Anrich Nortje rarely looked troubled - other than the odd run-out chance - as they moved the hosts’ lead beyond 200. The pair’s 91-run stand was the highest partnership in the first three innings of the match.
England had little to no threat. It was all too easy for South Africa to nudge the game away from England. When blood and thunder was required, England were tame and the hosts expertly negotiated the opening hour and looked to have all but put the game beyond their opponents.
The bowlers’ combined lengths were all over the place. Too many deliveries were short and wide.
The second session of the day saw those errors corrected to an extent. Ben Stokes claimed the wicket of the danger man de Kock with a fuller delivery, seeking the edge and sending Quinton on his way.
Whatever the reason, England’s approach was muddled in the morning session. They could do a lot worse than watching some footage of Big Vern rolling in and hitting his spot.
Anrich Nortje
So England finish 2019 without an opening stand of three figures to speak of, but there were promising signs as Rory Burns - who struck his sixth Test fifty - and Dom Sibley combined for 92 runs. It was the tourists’ highest opening partnership of the year, surpassing the 85 shared by Burns and Keaton Jennings against West Indies at Bridgetown in January.
What was only England's fourth half-century opening stand in Tests in 2019 had threatened to mature into something seriously substantial before Sibley clonked one straight back to Keshav Maharaj for 29 - his highest Test score.
With two fifty stands together in five innings, though, the pair are currently averaging 42.8 for the first wicket which as far as England concerned, is progress. This is a team which has not registered a three-figure opening partnership in Test cricket in the last three years.
You could have been forgiven for giving up on this one and expecting it to all be over before the end of day three, but England’s batsman have quietened a few doubters, momentarily at least.
It will still require a monumental effort to shoot down what will be the highest ever fourth-innings score on this ground by a considerable distance. England’s 251-8 in January 2000 is the highest ever fourth-innings total at Centurion and that came with two innings being forfeited as, in Hanse Cronje’s words, the two teams “made a game of it.” The next highest fourth-innings score was England's 228-9 which secured a draw in 2009/10.
2019 couldn't deliver another moment of magic, could it?
Rory Burns is 77* overnight
South Africa will be without opening batsman Aiden Markram for the remainder of the series after he sustained a fractured finger on day two at Centurion. The opener is expected to miss a minimum of six weeks of action after injuring the fourth finger of his left hand during the Boxing Day Test.
The 25-year-old, who scored 20 & 2 at SuperSport Park, was playing in his first Test since missing a match against India at Ranchi in October having sustained a fractured wrist after striking an object in frustration following his second-innings dismissal at Pune.
On day two Mark Wood became the latest member of the England squad to be struck down by illness on the tour. Day three saw Jos Buttler and Joe Root added to that list - players eight and nine respectively who have suffered a sickness since the the tourists landed in South Africa.
Buttler did not take to the field on Saturday as Jonny Bairstow took over glove duty. The captain, Root, left the field during the morning session with stomach complaints and a fever but returned after a brief break, despite looking less than well.
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