The Proteas finished the second day of the second Test at Newlands in Cape Town on 215-8 with still a lot of work to do, trailing England’s first-innings total by 54 runs with the contest very much in the balance at the halfway mark of the match.
The home side came out on Saturday morning needing to take the final English wicket. It wasn’t too long before Kagiso Rabada got rid of James Anderson to render England all out for 269.
The Proteas innings got off to a woeful start once again as they scrambled to 60-3 at lunch, losing the wickets of Pieter Malan (5), Zubayr Hamza (5) and Faf du Plessis (1).
Stuart Broad and Anderson caused the right-handed Proteas batsmen specific problems, bowling from the Wynberg end as cracks began to open up on the pitch.
But Dean Elgar and Rassie van der Dussen then managed to steady the ship for the Proteas after lunch despite the latter receiving a few lifelines along the way.
The pair made the most of their time out in the middle adding a brilliant 117-run partnership for the fifth wicket, before Elgar lost patience with his score on 88, skying a Dom Bess delivery straight up for it to be taken safely by Joe Root.
Quinton de Kock joined Van der Dussen out in the middle and after looking his usual confident self, he also tried to go over the top but Sam Curran’s slower delivery meant the shot went straight into the hands of Anderson at mid-off.
Van der Dussen was the next batsman to fall (68) when Curran found the edge of his bat with Stokes making sure of the catch at second slip.
Stokes was having a busy day behind the stumps, taking his fourth catch when Anderson nicked off Pretorius.
Keshav Maharaj then became Anderson’s third scalp of the innings when he was caught by Dom Sibley for four in the final over of the day.
Vernon Philander (13) and Kagiso Rabada (0) will resume the Proteas innings on Sunday.
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South Africa: Pieter Malan, Dean Elgar, Zubayr Hamza, Faf du Plessis (c), Rassie van der Dussen, Quinton de Kock (wk), Dwaine Pretorius, Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje.
England: Dominic Sibley, Zak Crawley, Joe Denly, Joe Root (c), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Dominic Bess, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.
