Broad and Swann Leave South Africa Six Wickets Down
Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad ripped through the South African top order after tea to put England in position to win the second Test tomorrow at Durban.
South Africa 2nd innings 76-6 (Smith 22, Boucher 22*, Swann 3-22 Broad 3-18)
England 1st innings 574-9 declared (Bell 140 Cook 118 Collingwood 91, Morkel 3-78)
South Africa 1st innings 343 all out (Smith 75 Kallis 75, Swann 4/110)
Swann and Broad took three wickets apiece to leave the Proteas lacking any recognised batsmen and the entirety of day five to bat for the draw.
Bell and Matt Prior had combined earlier in the day as their partnership of 112 saw the wicketkeeper become the fourth man to pass fifty with his top-edged sweep for six.
The bouncy wicket suited Prior’s fast hands through backward point and mitigated his tendency to remain rooted to the crease.
Bell was meanwhile crisp in his movements as he moved towards his century. Prior went before Bell’s milestone, dragging a wide JP Duminy delivery on to his stumps on 60.
Bell was not to be denied however and the emphatic nature of the lofted drive over mid-on off Paul Harris, with which he brought up three figures, repaid in full the selectors’ faith in him before this Test.
If Broad and Bell were then guilty, before lunch, of not pushing England’s scoreboard advantage, the Proteas matched them in bowling Duminy and waiting for the declaration.
And Graeme Smith was made to wait until England were 231 runs ahead, as Andrew Strauss called time shortly after Bell’s dismissal for 140.
South Africa’s innings began badly as Bell pouched a bat/pad chance off Ashwell Prince one-handed off Swann on 16 before his spin bowled Hashim Amla through the gate.
Batting soon looked more difficult and Broad grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck as he induced three costly leaves.
First Jacques Kallis shouldered arms to an in-ducker that knocked out offstump before AB de Villiers was adjudged leg before to an identical looking delivery. It was third time lucky for Broad as Duminy also chose not to offer a shot but the inside edge of his raised bat directed his first ball into off stump.
Swann was not to be upstaged by Broad’s return to a fuller length and form and had Graeme Smith LBW, significantly costing the hosts their second review, as the Proteas captain tried in vain to overturn the decision.
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