Confidence-starved Proteas batters will need to learn to bake a cake

On the first day, England were content to allow left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj to bowl his first 21 overs for just 26 runs, before Ben Stokes and Ollie Pope launched on the second day, sharing a partnership of 203 in 58.3 overs as the tourists declared on 499 for nine.

South Africa, in contrast, attacked spinners Dominic Bess and Joe Root early on and gifted them 10 wickets between them in the match, compiling totals of just 209 and 237.

The preheating bit for England is done by the solid top-three of Zak Crawley, Dominic Sibley and Joe Denly, who batted for more than 60 overs on the first day to take the visitors to 134 for two.

But even strokeplayers like Root, Stokes and Pope took their time to first get in before trying to stamp their dominance on the bowlers.

“England’s top three are very boring but they do a very good job, they are stuck in their game-plans, but then Root plays with a bit more freedom and then there’s Stokes. But the top three sets it up. Stokes has really matured his game because he has different levels, and that’s the learning for Quinton de Kock, to have different gears. Those x-factor players are so dangerous.

“Take the game away from us is what Stokes has done. At the start he trusts his defence and then he switches and puts the pressure on the bowlers. But then he senses there are moments when he needs to pull his game back and I was surprised how well he did that in the first innings. But the big thing is what comes before, those batsmen have a big responsibility to lay the foundation,” Proteas captain Faf du Plessis said after the defeat.

The home skipper was content with how his bowling attack had performed, but now they will be without spearhead Kagiso Rabada, the leading wicket-taker in the series, at the Wanderers for the final Test, which they have to win to gain a share of the series spoils.

Kagiso Rabada. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Rabada has been suspended for one match having reached the threshold for a ban in terms of demerit points.

Left-arm paceman Beuran Hendricks has been recalled to the squad and could replace Rabada at his home ground, being the most like-for-like replacement.

“It was frustrating, you need some things going in your favour when you’re spending every session under pressure. The best Kagiso Rabada is the one who is pumped up, fired up, he bowls better then. He’s a fantastic bowler when he’s in a fight, when it’s you versus me. We saw that when he got Root out, it was a really big wicket for us.

“The problem is that we ask him to show that emotion, that spirit, but then it gets taken away by the celebration when it’s obviously in the rules that you’re not allowed in the vicinity of the batsman. So for a seriously important Test we’re without our best bowler and another experienced player. It’s going to be a massive Test and we need to be as strong as possible,” Du Plessis said.

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