England allrounder Ben Stokes bowled his team to a series-levelling 189-run win over the Proteas in the second Test at Newlands on Tuesday.
With the hosts fighting tooth and nail for survival to see out the day and force a draw, it was Stokes (3/35) and England that had the last laugh after he removed Dwaine Pretorius (0), Anrich Nortje (0) and Vernon Philander (8) in the final session of Day Five.
Not only did Stokes take the final wickets, but the Man of the Match took six catches in the encounter and also scored 47 and 72 with bat in hand to complete a superb allround performance that swung the match in his team’s favour.
The Proteas, chasing 438 for the win and having started the day on 126/2, ultimately just couldn’t see out the final hour of the day.
This, despite the best efforts of Pieter Malan (84 off 288 balls), Rassie van der Dussen (17 off 140 balls), Quinton de Kock (50 off 107) and Philander, who faced 51 balls for his eight runs to frustrate the visitors’ bowlers.
FRUSTRATION: SA star Quinton de Kock. Picture: Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix.
Of the defeat, De Kock says: “The boys fought really, really hard.
“The second innings of ours, England kept fighting the whole way and bowled really well - congrats to them.
“We tried to push them as far as we can.
“Unfortunately we fell a little bit short, I guess it’s 1-1 now.”
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/SAvENG?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SAvENG #ProteaFire pic.twitter.com/ckef5yGXod
— Cricket Fanatics Magazine (@cricfanaticsmag)
With South Africa having won the first Test at Centurion Park by 107 runs, the series is now level at 1-1 with the two teams heading to St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth on January 16, before the final match at the Wanderers.