Ben Stokes brightened another difficult day for England by taking three South African wickets on a long and heavy second day and although the tourists extended their lead to 124 at stumps, Stuart Broad said the feeling in the home dressing room was good. “We’re very confident that we’re back in the game,” he said.
Having recovered from adversity to win their first four Tests of the summer, England will refuse to be daunted by the situation they face in this one.
After reducing South Africa from 138 for one to 210 for six, with Broad taking the last of those wickets, his 100 at Lord’s, a free partnership of 72 between Keshav Maharaj and Marco Jansen brought the tourists back to the rise
“When you’re getting relatively cheap in the early innings, you have to make it a first-inning, fourth-inning game,” Broad said. “So we have to try and get enough progress to try to defend it on days four and five on relatively dry ground. I think the game is very well set up.
“Obviously we’re going to have to have a couple of great days, but we’ve shown this summer that anything can happen and we’re feeling really positive in the dressing room that we’re back in the game.”
Sarel Erwee top-scored for South Africa with 73, an innings that ended when he bowled Stokes wicketkeeper Ben Foakes behind the stumps. The England captain then trapped Rassie van der Dussen lbw in his next over, before again dismissing Maharaj shortly before stumps.
Ben Stokes celebrates after taking the wicket of South Africa’s Rassie van der Dussen. Photograph: Peter Cziborra/Action Images/Reuters
“He brings an inspirational style to what he does,” Broad said. “We needed a couple of breakthroughs. The bouncer to get rid of [Erwee] it was a really big wicket, it gave us some energy and got the crowd going a bit. And that’s what those types of players do – they put bums on the seats because you want to see these guys, the theater they bring, and I thought Stokes brought great theater in that middle period after tea.”
Broad admitted that the partnership between Maharaj, who was dismissed for 41, and Jansen, who remains unbeaten on the same score, caused some frustration but also some optimism. “They played really well, a little moment on the counter-attack,” he said.
“We had the ball swinging, then we turned the ball over and it didn’t really do anything for us. I thought it was really good South African cricket to realize that the conditions had changed and they could get on top and attack us a bit. But the batting conditions were very good, especially when the ball became softer. That’s something we’ll want to build on, knowing that when the ball gets softer we can score a lot of runs.”
Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers’ views on the biggest stories and a review of the week’s action
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertisements and content funded by third parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Erwee, on the other hand, thought that “the conditions got a bit trickier as the day went on, the port got a bit two-paced.” The 32-year-old was playing just his fifth Test innings but looked anything but impressed by his surroundings.
“I’m trying to do the best I can, I’m trying to stay in the moment and not think about other things that might fill my mind,” he said. “There are moments, when you have a drink break or change gloves, you look around and think, ‘Wow, it’s the home of cricket, it’s a special place.’ But I try to control my thoughts as much as possible.”
The former said his team had been revitalized by the contributions of Jansen and Maharaj as the shadows lengthened. “Seeing that little partnership just gives you a little more energy,” he said. “I think the dressing room started to boil a little more. Guys want to do well for each other, that’s what our team spirit is all about.
“We are in a good position at the moment, we are full of confidence and we have a bit of momentum with this partnership at the end. If we raise the same energy tomorrow, we’ll be ahead of the game, I’m sure.”