Proteas coach Mark Boucher and his team would have spent most of last night praying for rain at St George’s Park today.
Hulle blommetjie is besig om vinning te verlep and it can only be saved by rain on the fifth day of the third Test against England.
Boucher’s men only have themselves to blame for the status quo, though.
They looked flat in all departments in this Test.
Not only could they not bowl out the tourists, who scored a whopping 499/9 before declaring, but they then got themselves bowled out for 209 and are now in a fight to avoid an innings defeat.
As hosts, I am pretty sure SA had some say in how they wanted the pitch to play.
Therefore, it came as a huge surprise to yours truly that the pitch at St George’s Park didn’t help fast bowlers much.
What it helped was spin bowlers. And that played straight into the hands of the visitors.
The Proteas are known strugglers on dust bowls and once again it was a spinner that wreaked havoc in the first innings, with Dom Bess taking 5/51.
Still, the hosts had a fighting chance when play resumed on the fourth day yesterday.
With Quinton de Kock (63*) and Vernon Philander (27*) at the crease and SA on 208/6, there was some hope avoiding the follow-on.
CAN'T BELIEVE IT: Proteas' Vernon Philander. Picture: BACKPAGEPIX
That hope didn’t last long as Philander was clean bowled by Stuart Broad with the last ball of the first over without adding to his overnight score.
De Kock followed in the next over, with Sam Curran knocking over his bails.
Broad then cleaned up as SA went from 208/6 to 209 all out.
If that wasn’t enough, part-time spin bowler Joe Root then took his team to the edge of glory, taking 4/31 in SA’s follow-on innings as the host crashed to 102/6 at stumps.
DANGER: England’s Stuart Broad. Picture: Siphiwe Sibeko/REUTERS
Mark Wood got the wickets of Dean Elgar (15) and Zubayr Hamza (2), with Pieter Malan (12), Rassie van der Dussen (10), De Kock (3) and Faf du Plessis (36) all going out to Root.
Still trailing by 188 runs, SA’s best bet for a result is for rain to wash out today’s play.