Radaba's seven puts hosts in the ascendancy

England facing uphill task in dead rubber

It wouldn’t take Sherlock Holmes to come to the conclusion that South Africa’s batting has been their Achilles heel in the series against England.

Gone are the days when, at any given time, a top six full of flair (Herschelle Gibbs), relentless run-gathering (Jacques Kallis), bottom handed cussedness (Graeme Smith), wristy Asian-style consistency (Hashim Amla), up and coming bravado (AB de Villiers) and a supporting cast (Ashwell Prince, Alviro Petersen et al) who were no mugs by any stretch.

Nowadays, Amla and de Villiers are still in the mix but the supporting cast, while with a touch of potential, are a shadow of their predecessors.

That is hardly a crime and in Dean Elgar, Stephen Cook, Temba Bavuma and Faf du Plessis, when he inevitably gets back into the side, there is a group who can only improve with age and experience.

In the fourth Test in Centurion, after three days, the South African batting line-up has done all that has been asked and at stumps they led by 175 with nine wickets remaining and the first innings centurions, Cook and Amla, at the crease.

That should be a strong enough platform from which, on a pitch that is hardly going to get better, they are able to forge a winning position and England are really going to have their work cut out if they are going to keep a clean sheet.

That they are behind the proverbial eight ball is down, not entirely but not far from it, to Kasigo Rabada.

The 20-year-old, with just five Tests on his CV and a confidence boosting maiden five-wicket haul at The Wanderers last week as evidence of a rapidly improving and increasingly important cog in the South Africa attack, showed that he really will be a force to be reckoned with from now on.

While the batting has struggled, the home side’s bowling has not produced as expected.

Prior to the series getting under way, Alastair Cook et al will have expected to be up against Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and, most probably, Rabada with a bit of spin thrown in.

As it’s turned out, Steyn hasn’t managed one game and Philander none leaving Morkel as the senior man with a host of raw colleagues as support.

The best of those, by some distance has been Rabada who, with decent pace and line of attack, ran through the cream of English batting to finish with the outstanding figures of 7 for 112.

After Morkel had seen off Cook who added just nine to his overnight 67, Rabada got to work by getting rid of Joe Root (76), James Taylor (14) and Jonny Bairstow (0) in quick succession and then claiming thr scalps of Ben Stokes and Stuart Broad to complete a highly satisfactory days’ work.

Moeen Ali ensured the last handful of wickets reduced the deficit by making his a worthy contribution in the shape of a good half-century and when he was the last man out, England trailed by 132.