Johannesburg: Pacer Mark Wood dominated Day 2 of the fourth Test between England and South Africa at the Wanderers here on Saturday.
Wood first struck three sixes and two fours as he scored 35 as part of an extraordinary last-wicket stand of 82 with Stuart Broad. He then took three wickets as South Africa ended the day on 88/6 in reply to England’s 400.
South Africa had the upper hand for much of the first half of the day as Anrich Nortje picked up five wickets to dismiss England captain Joe Root, Ollie Pope, Sam Curran and Chris Woakes in addition to the wicket of Ben Stokes which he took on the first day.
Jos Buttler fell to Vernon Philander with England at 318/9 halfway through the second session.
Wood was joined in the middle by Stuart Broad and the tail-enders decided to go down swinging. In the process, they wiped out the slender advantage that the hosts had built for themselves over the course of their performances in the last three sessions of the Test.
Wood started off with a six off the final ball of the 91st over. That over produced 10 runs and the next seven overs went for 68 runs. Broad (43) finally fell to Paterson but not before he had hit a four off the first ball of the over which took England’s tally to 400.
Dean Elgar and Pieter Malan survived the first 11 overs of the South Africa innings to take them to Tea without the loss of a wicket. Seven overs into the third session, Wood got his first wicket with a delivery that was sent in at over 150kph and Malan edged it to wicketkeeper Buttler.
Sam Curran then got Rassie Van der Dussen out for a duck before Elgar fell to Stokes. Captain Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock tried to up the ante but the former ended up being dismissed by Woakes for 3.
Temba Bavuma then edged Wood to second slip where Stokes took a sharp low catch before Wood dismissed Nortje off the last ball of the day. South Africa trail England by 312 runs.
Brief scores: England 400 all out (Zack Crawley 66, Joe Root 59; Anrich Nortje 5/110) vs South Africa 88/6 (Quinton de Kock 32, Dean Elgar 26; Mark Wood 3/21)
Source: Zee News