England keep South Africa in check

Hosts fail to make the most of toss advantage

Everything is relative of course, but when the coin comes down in your favour, a close of play score of 267 for 7 should be considered slightly underwhelming.

On day one of the third Test in Johannesburg, all nine batsman getting into double figures suggests a surface that can be batted on but none managing to raise a bat for a half-century – Dean Elgar leading the way with 46 – hints at wastefulness to a certain degree.

On the bright side for AB de Villiers’ side, it could’ve been worse had Chris Morris and Kagiso Rabada not shored things up in the final session, as they added an as yet unbroken stand of 42 to the tally.

Only Jimmy Anderson, who was economical if unthreatening, of the England attack failed to put a positive number in his wicket column but it was a good day’s work by the quintet who are growing in stature by the game.

Ben Stokes picked up two of the wickets to fall, tempting Stiaan van Zyl into a top-edged pull from an innocuous loosener and, rather more importantly, having de Villiers taken down the leg-side as he gloved an attempted pull.

Jonny Bairstow was involved in the first four wickets to fall, both the aforementioned pair and the downfall of Dean Elgar, who feathered one behind off Moeen Ali, and Hashim Amla who could only deflect a fantastic delivery from Steven Finn.

Elgar and Amla had added 73 for the second wicket, seeing the home side safely to lunch after a morning session in which England weren’t quite on the mark.

But, as Geoffrey Boycott can’t help saying, regardless of the state of the game, “add a couple of wickets to this and it’s a different game”.

Throw enough darts and one of them will eventually hit the bullseye and Boycott, on this occasion, was spot on as the tea interval was reached with the score reading a more balanced 152 for 3.

So right was the Yorkshireman - he hit the mark twice in one afternoon - that the dismissals of de Villiers and Faf du Plessis, who mindlessly picked out deep square-leg off Finn, put the tourists firmly in control of proceedings.

Dane Vilas, called up from a provincial game in Port Elizabeth as a late call-up to replace the injured Quinto de Kock, and Temba Bavuma looked comfortable enough before the latter was needlessly run out and the former hoicked Stuart Broad to the deep square boundary.

That left Morris and Rabada with 15 or so overs to see out and they prevented any further mishaps before stumps.

There was enough movement in 22 yards provided by The Wanderers’ groundstaff to suggest England are going to have their work cut out when it comes to their turn with bat in hand but for now they’ll be satisfied with their efforts and rightly so.