Ok so maybe England losing a Test Match isn't the most remarkable thing in the world, nor is it all that unexpected but when I got to work this morning let's just say that I was quietly shocked that they actually forced South Africa to bat again, because early into day four, England's situation looked perilous.
In their first dig, England struggled to find anything with the bat and none of their players even made it past 50; the best of the batsmen was Kevin Pietersen who edged it behind at only 45. In what would have been even a rather poor one-day total, England only managed 203 off of 53 overs.
In reply South Africa made 522 with both Prince and de Villiers finding centuries with 149 and a massive 174 respectively. Faced with a total of 319 to even force South Africa to bat again, England was always going to find this a difficult task at best and it looked like they were digging in to salvage a draw.
England went into this test with five bowlers which let Flintoff back into the side; consequently it meant that Tim Ambrose was batting at number six, which he looked quite out of his depth at - still he still made 36 off of a patient 94 balls. Cook's 60 at the beginning of the innings laid down the foundation but again, the England scorecard sort of dribbles rather than yells. What on earth Pietersen was doing in the second innings made no sense to me, his 13 came only off of 5 balls, and three of those were smacked to the boundary. Some rescue attempt was made by Broad who at 67 found himself stranded at the close of innings. In all England did force South Africa to bat again, but only needing 7, which they made in 4 minutes.
It's not that the England side is terrible, because if we remember vack to the first test at Lord's they did declare at 593-8, so the problem is not to do with the batting line up. It's more to do with England's lack of bite in the bowling department. At Lord's they were able to force South Afica to bat again because they'd posted such a big total but going into Headingley, choosing five bowlers meant that they created a longer tail which is fine if the bowlers are going rip apart the opposition which England isn't currently capable of doing.
A 1-0 lead in the series is very little to do South Africa's pluck, but more about England's impotence.
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