Unfortunate Nortje pushed into explaining Proteas’ 40 minutes of madness

As if Anrich Nortje has not been thrown into enough daunting situations by his team-mates already in this series, the gutsy 26-year-old rookie then had to try and explain in Saturday evening’s press conference South Africa’s inexplicable tactics at the end of the England innings, which saw the tourists finish the second day of the fourth Test at the Wanderers in complete control.

Nortje had bowled with tremendous spirit, pace and good sense to heave South Africa back into the contest with his maiden Test five-wicket haul, reducing England to 318 for nine.

He bowled one more over at the last-wicket pair but then retired from the attack, understandably spent after his exertions, having bowled eight overs shortly before lunch and then five straight after the break.

And then it all fell to pieces for the Proteas.

Mark Wood (35*) and Stuart Broad (43) lashed 82 runs for the last wicket – a Wanderers Test record – in less than 10 overs.

It took England to 400, a massive psychological boost and making it extremely difficult for South Africa to bat themselves into the winning position they need to draw the series.

Of course the Proteas then batted themselves into an almost certain losing position by crashing to 88 for six by stumps.

But it was the sight of eight fielders on the boundary during the stand between England’s numbers 10 and 11 that was the most galling memory of the day.

Followed closely behind by the bowlers who replaced Nortje banging the ball in short, at much lesser pace, and allowing two sloggers the luxury they craved of being able to free their arms and swing for the rafters.

Poor old Nortje then had to try and explain what extraordinary plan this was when quizzed by the media after the end of play.

“I don’t really know, maybe we’ll have to chat again about it, but we did have targets and plans for them, but they just hit the ball so cleanly. It was similar to Keshav Maharaj and Dane Paterson last week, but it’s definitely something we’ll look at. The other bowlers are highly experienced and it’s Beuran Hendricks’ home ground so he knows what to do. Things just didn’t go our way, it just didn’t happen for us.

“You can’t blame anyone, we tried full-and-straight as well. It’s difficult to say why there were eight fielders on the boundary, I don’t have the answer. But they were hitting sixes all over and it’s about executing your strengths as a bowler and maybe we missed one or two things,” Nortje said.

It’s one thing having a last-wicket pair like Maharaj and Paterson having some fun in what was always going to be a losing cause, quite another on the second day of a Test match when a young man trying his heart out has bowled you into a decent position in the game, only for it to be thrown away in a 40-minute period of madness.

“It just didn’t happen for us” is a telling remark though because it reveals how passive the Proteas were, almost going through the motions in the hope that one of the batsmen would get himself out.

Faf du Plessis has been a top-class captain for South Africa, but there was a distinct lack of inspiration from him on Saturday as the Proteas dug their way into a deep hole. Apart from a ridiculous field setting, there seemed to be a lack of communication between him and a very inexperienced bowling attack, Vernon Philander not being used at all against the last pair of batsmen.

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