England beat South Africa by nine wickets in the third Test to secure a 2–1 series victory; Ben Stokes’ team needed just 25 minutes to make the necessary 33 races on day five at the Kia Oval and post six wins in seven under new captain and head coach Brendon McCullum this summer.
It took England just 25 minutes on day five to seal a nine-wicket victory over South Africa in the third Test at the Kia Oval and cruise to a 2-1 series win.
Starting the day 97-0, just 33 runs away from their goal, Alex Lees and Zak Crawley brought out their century position from the second ball of the day.
Lees (39) went down after outplaying Kagiso Rabada behind the next ball, but the South African fast bowler sacked him lbw, after a review, in the next over.
However, Ollie Pope (11th) came out to join Crawley (69th from 57 balls) and they quickly led England to their goal. He fell to the opener under pressure to hit the winning runs, hitting Marco Jansen for four through the covers.
The victory continues England’s remarkable turnaround in Test cricket under the leadership of head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes.
After a run of one win in 17 Tests before their appointments, England have won six of seven this summer with a 3-0 sweep of Test world champions New Zealand, an unprecedented chase to beat India and now it comes from behind to watch from a Proteas team that started the series at the top of the ICC World Test Championship standings.
Although the match went to day five, only 151.3 overs were bowled in the match, less than two days of cricket, with the first day scrapped and the second canceled as a show of respect following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
Before play resumed on day three, the Queen was honored at The Oval with a military guard of honor and a minute’s silence.
The next step for the test team is a first tour of Pakistan since 2005. The first test of three starts on December 1. The cue ball team is in Pakistan at the end of September for seven T20 internationals ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia. , which begins in October.
England Captain and Series Player Ben Stokes: “I think it’s been a great series for us as a team.
“It’s been a series where we haven’t had any standout individual performances, but different people throughout the series have raised their hands at crucial periods for us.
“For me it’s about clarity of decisions. Brendon (McCullum) and I are the guys who are sending this message to this group of players, I told the guys in the locker room the other day that the person who is delivering the message can only do so much.
Man of the match, England bowler Ollie Robinson: “It’s been a very nice comeback for me and the team.
“The experience of the last few weeks has been very nice and it’s been great to be with the boys again.
“It’s nice to get to where I am right now, but I don’t think it’s the finished article by any means.”
Nasser Hussain of Sky Sports Cricket: “Often it just ticks a few boxes. You play good cricket but you don’t win every game, sometimes you play boring cricket but you get the result. They’ve pretty much ticked all the boxes.”
“The captain has been exceptional, the coach has been unbelievably good and kept a consistent message throughout.
“The message is very clear, and I think that’s what Stokes and McCullum have done. It’s a very clear message that we will be back.”
