South Africa pulled off a stunning 280-run victory over England in the fourth and final Test at the SuperSport Park in Centurion on Tuesday. Chasing a challenging target of 382, England were bowled out for a paltry score of 101 in just 34.4 overs. Kagiso Rabada (6 for 32) and Morne Morkel (3 for 36) were the destroyers-in-chief of the England batting order, putting the favourable conditions to good use and setting up the win by getting rid of the dangerous and in-form middle-order early in the day. James Anderson was the last man dismissed, getting trapped lbw for a duck to Rabada for the latter to finish with match figures of 13 for 144. The innings finished well before the umpires call for lunch. South Africa thus managed to break their winless streak that stretches back by more than a year with this win, with AB de Villiers recording his first win as Test captain. England though, walk away with the series with a 2-1 scoreline. Scorecard: South Africa vs England 2015-16, 4th Test at Centurion: Day 5
It was a collapse akin to that of that of South Africa in their second innings of the third Test at Johannesburg. England resumed from their overnight score of 52 for three, with Joe Root and James Taylor batting on 19 each. Morkel was the first to strike in the day, with Taylor getting a glove to a short-pitched Morkel delivery behind the stumps. England were in deep trouble when Root edge a Dane Piedt delivery, flighted outside off on full length, to Dean Elgar in the slips. Updates: South Africa vs England 2015-16, 4th Test at Centurion, Day 5
England still had hope of playing out the rest of the day with their in-form middle-order pair of Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow at the crease, with Moeen Ali yet to bat. Both Stokes and Bairstow got a couple of boundaries in their typical attacking style for the South African bowlers to increase their caution levels, given how the duo had minced them throughout the series.
Morkel and Rabada however, got rid of the pair to virtually end the match for the visitors. Bairstow initially edged a full-length delivery wide of the off-stump to Elgar in the slips, but survived after the umpires called for a no-ball after checking the replay. One would have expected the wicketkeeper-batsman to be a little more careful; instead he edged the next delivery to his South African counterpart Quinton de Kock to give Rabada his 10th wicket of the match, making him the youngest South African to achieve the feat. Stokes attempted to pull a short delivery from Morkel from outside off, with Stephen Cook a well-judged catch at deep square-leg. READ: Kagiso Rabada becomes youngest South Africa to record 10-wicket match haul in Tests
The tail clean-up job was Rabada’s thereafter. While Moeen Ali hit a couple of boundaries to bring up the 100 for England, Rabada got rid of Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad and James Anderson effortlessly in quick succession to end the game with more than two sessions left in the final day. His figures of 6 for 32 took his match tally to 13 for 144, which is the best figures at the SuperSport Park, beating former Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson’s 12 for 127 in 2014. It also made him an easy choice for the ‘Man of the Match’ award, with Ben Stokes bagging the ‘Man of the Series’ for his all round performance of 411 runs and 12 wickets. Rabada finished as the leading wicket-taker of the series with 22 scalps, while Hashim Amla finished as the leading run-getter, piling 470 at an average of 67.
Brief scores:
South Africa 475 (Stephen Cook 115, Hashim Amla 109, Temba Bavuma 35, Quinton de Kock 129*; Ben Stokes 4 for 86) and 248 for 5 (Stephen Cook 25, Hashim Amla 96*, JP Duminy 29, Temba Bavuma 63*; James Anderson 3 for 33) beat England 342 (Alastair Cook 76, Joe Root 76, Ben Stokes 33, Moeen Ali 61; Kagiso Rabada 7 for 112) and 101 (Joe Root 20, James Taylor 24; Kagiso Rabada 6 for 32, Morne Morkel 3 for 36) by 280 runs.
(Amit Banerjee, a reporter at CricketCountry, takes keen interest in photography, travelling, technology, automobiles, food and, of course, cricket. He can be followed on Twitter via his handle@akb287)
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