Cape Town — The Proteas extended their lead to 161 runs on the third morning before Keshav Maharaj struck twice for the visitors to take firm control of the first Test against England at Lord’s on Friday.
Resuming on 289/7, the Proteas lost their bowling hero Kagiso Rabada on just the third ball of the day due to a fabulous one-handed diving catch by Stuart Broad.
England would have hoped that was the early breakthrough they needed to rapidly bring the Proteas’ innings to a close, especially with the new ball just two overs away.
However, the hosts found Marco Jansen and Anrich Nortje in an obdurate mood for the majority of the remainder of the morning. The duo may not have added many more runs, but they survived a short-ball barrage from particularly England captain Ben Stokes.
It seemed to be a waste of the second new ball because when Stuart Broad eventually started pitching it up outside the right-hander’s off-stump, he managed to find both Jansen and last-man Lungi Ngidi’s outside edges.
But that was not before Nortje had moved to 48 off 79 balls (4x4, 1x6) and just two runs off what would have been a well-deserved half-century.
Ngidi’s dismissal brought the Proteas’ innings to a close on 326 — a cumulative lead of 161.
Rabada, who put his name up on the Lord’s Honours Board on Thursday with a first-innings 5/52, was almost back among the wickets early on, but Alex Lees was dropped in the slip cordon.
Proteas captain Dean Elgar then surprised everyone by tossing the ball to left-arm spinner Maharaj, who duly responded to his captain’s call by removing both the struggling Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope, to leave England in tatters on 38/2 and trailing by still 123 runs.
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