England v South Africa - First Test

Lord's, London

England: JB Hobbs, *L Hutton, PBH May, WR Hammond, GP Thorpe, IT Botham, +LEG Ames, FS Trueman, DL Underwood, JB Statham, RGD Willis.
South Africa: BA Richards, TL Goddard, *WJ Cronje, RG Pollock, DJ Cullinan, JN Rhodes, +DT Lindsay, MJ Procter, NBF Mann, AA Donald, NAT Adcock.

Debuts: GP Thorpe (ENG)
Umpires: AR Crafter (AUS) & BL Aldridge (NZL)
Toss: South Africa

England handed a debut to Graham Thorpe and a recall to Peter May in an attempt to shake up the batting after the drawn series against Pakistan, but it was the South African batsmen who made the early running at Lord's, with Richards and Goddard putting together an attacking 114 run opening stand. Richards looked nailed on for a century but played on against Underwood for 80, and midway through the afternoon session South Africa had stumbled to 175-5, with Underwood claiming all five for just 17 runs. Lindsay attacked the Kent left-armer after tea though, and with Pollock stroking a fine 76, South Africa's sixth wicket pair put on 119 in just 31 overs to reclaim the high ground. Lindsay eventually completed a fine century before providing the hugely disappointing Bob Willis with his sole wicket of the innings, and a total of 364 just about gave the advantage to the tourists on a pitch that was already beginning to misbehave.

England struggled in reply as a succession of batsmen got themselves in only to get themselves out, the one exception being Hammond who departed for his second successive duck when he was bowled by Goddard. Thorpe contributed 39 on debut before becoming one of four victims for the impressive Adcock, and once again it was left to Ames to prop up the tail, with his 42 top-scoring as the last two wickets pushed England's score to a disappointing 231 shortly after lunch on day three.

With batting becoming ever more difficult, South Africa's lead of 133 gave them a huge advantage at the halfway stage, and a wonderful century from Graeme Pollock took the Proteas just about out of sight on day four. England were able to chisel away wickets at regular intervals throughout South Africa's second innings, but Pollock was immovable and remained undefeated on 117 out of South Africa's 268-9 when Cronje declared at tea, his third century in his last four innings and the nineteenth of his ATG career. England now required a record 402 to win, and with the aid of bad light and good fortune - Hutton edged through the slip cordon no less than three times before he reached 20 - the score reached 53-0 at the close of the fourth day.

The draw was clearly going to be the limit of England's ambitions on the final day, but a disastrous morning session saw them reduced to 98-4 as Mann began to extract appreciable turn from a pitch that now resembled crazy paving. Hammond bagged an inglorious pair when Adcock removed his middle stump third ball, and last season's 'batsman of the year' has now produced a run of scores - 9, 1, 6, 0, 0, 0 - that reads more like a telephone number. Whether this proves to be Hammond's nadir remains to be seen, but with an Ashes tour on the horizon, England's selectors now have a difficult decision to make.

Hobbs and Botham knuckled down though, and England made it through a tense afternoon session without further loss, tea being taken with the scoreboard reading 173-4. South Africa thus needed to take six wickets in the final session, and when Goddard removed Botham and Ames in quick succession it was down to Hobbs to save England from defeat as Cronje took the new ball. Hobbs duly completed a most deserved century, but after more than six and a half hours his rearguard was finally ended when he edged Procter behind, and South Africa now had 15 overs to take the final three wickets.

Trueman and Underwood dug in, and both managed to survive for over an hour as the edges kept flying wide or dropping short of the increasingly frustrated South Africans. Adcock finally coaxed an lbw decision out of umpire Aldridge to remove Trueman though, and with Statham spooning a catch to Rhodes first ball, the last pair of Underwood and Willis would now have to bat out eight overs to save the game. Willis immediately survived a huge shout for lbw, but with just twelve deliveries remaining he nibbled at a wide one from Adcock, Lindsay made no mistake and South Africa had won by 177 runs. England had been thoroughly outplayed, and improvements will need to be made if they are going to be competitive in the second Test at Trent Bridge.

1st innings scorecards (click to enlarge)

2nd innings scorecards (click to enlarge)

Scores
SAF 1st Inns 364 (Lindsay 104, Richards 80, Pollock 76, Goddard 46; Underwood 5-56)
ENG 1st Inns 231 (Ames 42; Adcock 4-34)
SAF 2nd Inns 268-9 dec. (Pollock 117*)
ENG 2nd Inns 224 (Hobbs 107; Adcock 4-37)

SOUTH AFRICA WON BY 177 RUNS


Man of the Match: RG Pollock