England need eight wickets to win the second Test at Newlands, while South Africa need 312 more runs to claim a famous win. NICK FRIEND looks back on the penultimate day in Cape Town
One swan doesn’t make a summer, they say. And one hundred does not make a Test career. Nor does it necessarily solve England’s near-decade-long search for an opening partner, first for Alastair Cook, and then latterly for Rory Burns – just ask Sam Robson, Nick Compton or Adam Lyth.
But Dom Sibley might just be different. If there were any nervous nineties, then he can act as well as he concentrates. As Ben Stokes continued his rampant Cape Town supremacy, where he already holds the second-highest Test score, Sibley just carried on.
Where Stokes would deposit Keshav Maharaj all over Newlands, Sibley stood content, refusing to take up the left-arm spinner’s offer of a game of cat and mouse outside the right-hander’s leg stump. At least, that was the case until he found himself one run shy of a first international century.
Kevin Pietersen had spoken the previous day during one commentary stint of the relative ease of sweeping when the spinner errs too full. And as Maharaj did exactly that, Sibley unfurled the first sweep shot of an innings that would ultimately last 311 deliveries – a knock that only the waving arm of Joe Root could end. Sibley, as he has already shown in first-class cricket, would bat for days.
The ball raced away to the boundary and the Warwickshire batsman let out a punch of the air – a thump of the sky that bled a mixture of joyous relief and a sense of belonging. A first century by a visiting opener in South Africa for 27 Tests. This was a proper hundred – one that came against the intricacies of Vernon Philander and the relentless heat of Kagiso Rabada.
As Joe Denly’s Test career has ticked along – he has reached double figures in 86.96 per cent of his knocks, he has remained century-less. Pietersen suggested during his second innings 31 that a batsman only feels truly at home in Test cricket once he has crossed the line into three figures. “Fifteen runs have never felt like so many,” he laughed afterwards, referencing the gap between 85 and 100.
And with a planted front foot and a swish of a sweep shot, Sibley ventured from 99 to 103. Child’s play for a run-scorer as consistent as county cricket’s premier churner, but a significant step forward in a Test career that had, even three Tests in, been fraught with doubters.
It was Nasser Hussain who so rightly made the point as Sibley carried his bat through the third day: it has been easy to focus on the former Surrey opener’s deficiencies. Scepticism over his legside preference is supposedly why his introduction to this team took so long.
Those flaws exist (if that is what they are) and they have been well-documented; whitewashing them is senseless. Nobody is perfect. Even those with a technique born out of the front pages of the MCC manual have their weaknesses. Sibley will know better than anyone where they lie and what more he can do. But, equally, looking past his obvious qualities is a pointless exercise.
Dom Sibley reached a maiden Test century, ending unbeaten on 133
As Michael Atherton asserted, no batsman needs to drive the ball through cover like David Gower, only the capacity to navigate the offside in one way or another. There are no extra points for a high elbow. Graeme Smith, a scourge so often of English sides, might see some of his own game in Sibley’s bottom-hand dominance.
His game works for him; and, perhaps, this era more than most has shown that there is no problem with that. As one graphic displayed after he reached his landmark, few in the England side play the ball later than Sibley, with all the action happening under his eyes. It’s not a complicated game and there are few better places to watch it than there, with inches between bat, ball and eyes.
And contrary to popular belief, there is far more in his locker than a flick and a clip. He punched through the offside with a total competence, cut Maharaj when he dropped short and later hoisted him into the stands.
He is that kind of cricketer – Cook was not far different. Any physical shortcomings neutralised by a mental fortitude that has driven much of his success and an understanding of the game situation.
Nobody scored more runs in last year’s County Championship top tier; nobody faced more balls; nobody passed fifty more often; nobody surpassed his five hundreds.
When he gets into his stride – as he did here, that all makes sense. It is easy to see why. It was chanceless a century as any made by an Englishman for some time. There was hardly an appeal against him; the only drama of note came when Quinton de Kock questioned a decision to award byes against his name.
Even as England chased late runs, he hardly adjusted his game. His tempo changed naturally depending on those who stood with him. It was an exhibition in opening batsmanship. He gave his side a platform – one that he never left; he was Atlas holding up his world.
Vernon Philander’s first 13 overs in the second innings cost him 12 runs. His 14th cost 12 on its own. It was not so much a game-changing knock from Ben Stokes, for England were already well in charge. He was, for all intents and purposes, the beneficiary of Sibley’s stoicism. But his innings breathed a different kind of life into their charge for victory. A trot became a canter, without a gallop in between. There were 157 runs in the first session, all at a run rate of 5.81.
When Dwaine Pretorius landed one in his zone, Stokes dispatched him with a condescending nonchalance over long-on. To the next delivery, he reverse-swept the seamer through gully. He was the predator toying with his prey.
Until he slapped Maharaj at Rasside van der Dussen, there was a morning century on the cards. For a brief time, Brendon McCullum’s fastest Test hundred was under a modicum of threat.
Stokes, however, doesn’t care for such stats. He is selflessness personified; as the day drew to a close, he was still steaming in – seven straight overs of hostility on a dying surface with a sponge-like ball, clutching his back at one stage, but never waning for energy or desire.
Pieter Malan ended the day unbeaten on 63
It should be no surprise that a 30-year-old with Pieter Malan’s first-class record has looked entirely at home in the international arena.
The greatest compliment one could pay would be that while he and Dean Elgar ticked along seemingly without alarm in a partnership worth 71 runs, it was difficult to decipher the Test novice from one of the game’s most consistent openers of the last few years.
A 43rd first-class fifty felt something of an inevitability; he left the ball against James Anderson with a rare precision. He knew both the location of his off stump and the safety valve of everything beyond it. He rarely played unless enticed.
He had already been dismissed in the first innings by the time that Dom Bess came into the attack. South Africa – notably Elgar and Rassie van der Dussen – were criticised for their passivity against the Somerset finger-spinner. Malan, whether influenced by Bess’ previous success or his own natural instincts, used his feet to good effect. It is hard to recall when – or if – he was ever troubled.
There was something of a throwback about Malan – not so much in his style, but in his selection. A first-class career including 32 centuries would, for many, have resulted in an international bow far sooner than now.
Rewind to Centurion four years ago when England last toured South Africa, where Stephen Cook was handed a belated Test debut. He had already played 165 first-class games when, at the age of 33, he was given his chance. He even possessed a domestic 390 and 11,427 runs.
Malan might be 1,000 runs short of Cook, but the comparison remains. Cook, by the way, announced his arrival with a century in a South African win…
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