A dominant England took just 5.3 overs on Monday to complete a nine-wicket win over South Africa in the third and final Test at The Oval. Chasing a target of 130, England resumed the final day in London on 97/0, but lost Lees in the 29th over to Kagiso Rabada before Zak Crawley hit the winning runs. England thus completed a come-from-behind 2-1 series win over South Africa.
It capped a sweep of series wins this summer in a successful start to the new era under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum. England started the summer with a 3-0 win over World Test champions New Zealand in June and victory in the rescheduled, one-off Test against India in July.
“Under Stokesy and Baz at the moment, it’s a really enjoyable environment,” said England fast bowler Ollie Robinson, who was picked as player of the match after claiming seven wickets across two innings. “You can see how we are playing, everyone has a smile on their face. We are just having a great time out there.”
England captain Ben Stokes and South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada won player of the series awards for their respective teams.
“This game, with it being shortened, our main goal was to make sure it ended in a result,” Stokes said. “We felt we owed it to ourselves, to the nation who have showed support towards us... We will always continue to play in a way we feel is going to entertain people.”
The match was reduced to a three-day affair. After Day 1 (Thursday) was washed out and Day 2 (Friday) was canceled following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, play finally started at the Oval on Saturday with England bowling first.
Wearing black armbands, England and South Africa players held a minute’s silence before a bell was chimed once by a high-ranking member of the military at the Oval.
Then England pacers took over, dismissing South Africa for 118. England however stumbled to a 36-run lead after a remarkable Day 3 as bad light brought an early end to play.
The following morning, England were bowled out fo 169 for a lead of 51 runs with Marco Jansen (5/35) and Rabada (4/81) leading a Proteas fight back. But England pacers took 56.2 overs, two more than what they bowled in the first innings, to dismiss the visitors for the second time in the match.
And it was followed by a 108-run opening stand from Alex Lees (39) and Crawley (69) to all but assured a win for England. That's two series wins, and six victories in seven matches under the new regime which is now defined by relentless 'Bazball'.
South Africa won the first test at Lord’s and England won the second at Old Trafford.
England now lead South Africa 66-35 in 156 Test meetings. 55 matches have ended in draws. England also lead the Test series head-to-head 22-9 in 36.
