England vs South Africa: Proteas on back foot after Dean Elgar’s ruesome decision to bat first

International sportsmen are never big on outwardly regretting decisions, but you suspect Dean Elgar might return to his hotel tonight quietly rueing, even if only to himself, his decision to bat at the toss.

After a welcomingly slack bowling performance by England in the series’ opening Test at Lord’s last week, South Africa decided to reciprocate here with their own act of generosity, inserting themselves under cloudy Manchester skies and letting England’s bowlers have a good go at them.

In truth the South African spirit of generosity began before the toss, the decision to drop Marco Jansen in favour of second spinner Simon Harmer seeming particularly curious, given the former’s performance at Lord’s and the success of the tourists’ seam attack there in general.

South Africa’s decision to play two spinners no doubt influenced their decision to bat first, hoping for an advantage bowling last in the Test. On the evidence of the first day, they have not been a judicious pair of choices.

England’s batters looked a little shell-shocked after their humbling at Lord’s, the Bazball balloon well and truly burst by the pace of Anrich Nortje and the precision of Kagiso Rabada, so they must have been delighted to find themselves in the field at the start of play, pouching catches behind the wicket and watching opposition batsmen forlornly trudge off the pitch instead of themselves.

An outstanding performance with the ball!

All 🔟 South Africa first innings wickets to fall.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #ENGvSA 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/GwEPILweYx

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 25, 2022

Reprieved from having to immediately humiliate themselves with the bat, England were as magnificent with the ball as wasteful they had been in the last Test, James Anderson striking inside the first five overs and the side never really looking back from that moment.

Data crunchers CricViz calculated that 44% of the deliveries England bowled in the first eight overs drew a false shot from South Africa, the most at that stage of the innings in any Test so far this summer – and with the recalled Ollie Robinson combining brilliantly, albeit lucklessly, with Anderson, the tourists faced an extremely tricky morning.

In fact, Robinson should have had Elgar excellently caught at short leg by Ollie Pope, but he sloppily overstepped, one of the three no balls he bowled in an otherwise excellent return to the side. Even with Robinson’s efforts largely unrewarded, England still found ways to prosper with the ball, Stuart Broad seemingly not smarting from the decision to take him off new ball duties – picking up the wickets of Elgar and Keegan Petersen coming in as the first change, to reduce South Africa to 40/3 inside the first 15 overs.

A team’s spinner getting the token last over before lunch is a well-worn cricketing trope, although here, South Africa managed to put a new and from their point of view almost certainly unwelcome twist on it, with Simon Harmer finding himself out in the middle with his pads on having to bat the last over of the session.

South Africa were 77/5 at Lunch, and brief Rabada resistance aside largely continued in that vein afterwards, all out for a paltry 151. England’s crumbly top order still found time for a wobble of their own – only serving to reinforce the idea that South Africa choosing to bat first was madness – but by the close, they were 111/3, only 40 behind and returning home forever grateful for Elgar’s decision in the morning.

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