South Africa v England, 2015-16

	England claimed the Test series 2-1 © Getty Images Enlarge
Related Links Series/Tournaments: England tour of South Africa Teams: England | South Africa

Test matches (4): South Africa 1, England 2
One-day internationals (5): South Africa 3, England 2
Twenty20 internationals (2): South Africa 2, England 0

Few Test series have everything, but the four matches between South Africa and England came mighty close. They contained imperishable, sometimes record-breaking, individual performances, a dramatic resignation, the emergence of two black players who may yet change the course of the game in theircountry, and an unexpected 2-1 triumph for the tourists.

South Africa had the leading run-scorer in Hashim Amla - revitalised, even freed, by his decision to give up the captaincy halfway through the series - the leading wicket-taker in Kagiso Rabada, and the leading outfield catcher in Dean Elgar. They had more centuries (six to three) and five-wicket hauls (four to one). Yet England, despite some obvious weaknesses - especially in their batting and catching - thoroughly deserved victory, which removed their opponents from the No. 1 spot in the rankings.

Only a late meltdown in the limited-overs matches robbed the tour of some of its gloss. Alastair Cook's team secured the Test series with overwhelming wins in the first game at Durban, by 241 runs, and the third at Johannesburg, by seven wickets. If the initial victory was a collective effort, the next yielded scintillating exhibitions from Joe Root and Stuart Broad, whose burst of five for one in 31 balls was among the greatest spells by an England bowler. The Second Test at Cape Town was drawn, but produced a litany of memorable displays, most spectacularly from Ben Stokes, who scored England's fastest double-hundred,and shared a Test-record sixth-wicket stand of 399 with Jonny Bairstow. The fourth match at Centurion, a dead rubber, went resoundingly to South Africa. Although it was difficult to dispel the feeling that England played as a team who had already completed their mission, this should not diminish the redemptive nature of their hosts' win.

Nor did it detract from the contributions of Rabada, who took 13 wickets - to give him 22 in the series at 21 apiece - and Temba Bavuma, who embellished his charming maiden hundred, at Cape Town, the first by a black South African, with another vivid innings. They represented the hope that cricket in their country could be truly inclusive.But it was Stokes who was Man of the Series. Consistently dazzling with the bat - his strike-rate was a one-day-like 109 - he was increasingly impressive with the ball. He was the first to score 400 runs and take ten wickets in a series for England since Andrew Flintoff during the 2005 Ashes. These seven weeks may come to be seen as Stokes's coming of age as an all-rounder of the highest calibre. But too many of the rest were less productive, leaving England with unresolved issues that included at least three places in the batting order and,that old chestnut, the requirements of the modern-day wicketkeeper.

Of equal concern was the manner in which they gave up a 2-0 lead in the one-day series, then disintegrated in the final Twenty20 match.If England began as underdogs, South Africa had their own difficulties,having recently returned from a 3-0 mauling in India, where their concerns were many and varied. They started at the top - with the widespread opinion that the understated Amla was the wrong captain - but embraced the balance of the side in all respects. Almost a quarter of a century after readmission, the quota system was still causing angst. But that was compounded by the simpler issue of how many bowlers and batsmen should be in the team. The injuries to the new-ball partners Dale Steyn, who played only the first game, and Vernon Philander, unfit throughout, exacerbated the selectoral muddle. The impression was of constant bewilderment, with players added match by match, and 17 used in all - four of them only once, and four twice. England, by contrast,needed only 12, with Chris Woakes's presence in the first and last games prompted by injuries.

There could hardly have been a falser portent than when Steyn removed both their openers inside seven overs on the first day in Durban. England went on to record their first victory in the opening Test of an overseas series -Bangladesh excepted - since defeating the same opponents in Port Elizabeth 11 years earlier. But their diligent recovery was itself an unreliable guide to subsequent events.It was marshalled by Nick Compton and James Taylor, the chief beneficiaries of a restructured batting order. Compton had not played Test cricket since May2013, when he was dropped, partly because of form, and partly - it was widely inferred - because his face did not fit.

But, at Durban, he offered a minor masterclass in the craft of batting in unpromising circumstances, leaving the ball again and again, and playing shots only on his terms. Yet, as the series wore on, he seemed to neglect this principle, which was so essential to his style. He was lured into something alien, playing at balls he would have been wiser to ignore. There was conjecture he had been influenced by remarks made by England's coach, Trevor Bayliss, about wanting two attacking batsmen in the top three. Bayliss was not being prescriptive, but the Compton of the last two Tests was not quite the Compton of the first two.Taylor, too, never looked as determinedly solid as he did in the First, and didn't pass 27 in the last three. Instead, it was in another capacity that he left an impression, taking three stunning catches at short leg, two of them in quick succession during the march to victory at Johannesburg. In an age when every ball is analysed, and data processed to the nth degree, short leg has seemed like an unturned stone. But Taylor reminded us it is a specialist position demanding specialist skills, as well as bravery.One other incident in England's victory at Kingsmead provided a motif for the series.

When Amla edged behind early in his first innings, Bairstow -moving slightly late to his right - muffed the chance. It was the first of seven lapses behind the stumps - six catches and a missed stumping - which revived the argument about the basis on which Test wicketkeepers are selected. Sound judges insisted there was plenty to work on, and Bairstow seemed eager to learn. And, despite his shortcomings, his 20 victims were a record for England in a four-match series.His batting, however, was almost beyond approach. He was at his finest during the astonishing partnership with Stokes at Newlands. While Stokes embarked on a blaze of unfettered strokeplay - he later confirmed he wanted to hit every ball for four or six - Bairstow was an admirable foil. England were left holding the Test partnership records for the sixth, eighth and tenth wickets,all established in the previous six years.Few nailed-on draws - and England's second-innings wobble barely altered that perception - can have supplied such a welter of drama. Not the least of it came as Bavuma and Rabada, playing together in aTest for the first time, gave a nation hope for the future. Despite concentrated efforts - sometimes frantic,sometimes misguided - in the past 24 years, cricket has not always been a sport of choice among the black population. Stars can change that: Rabada and Bavuma already have.

	Ben Stokes was named Man of the Series for his strong all-round display in the Tests © Getty Images Enlarge

At one hotel on the final morning of the series, the(mostly black) reception staff were excited about impending victory: "We're gonna win today, we're gonna win!" That would not have happened even ten years ago. There were no more exciting words spoken all series.And it helped soften the blow of Amla's resignation. The timing was odd:he had just returned to form with a double-hundred to ensure England would not go 2-0 up. But he had never seemed comfortable with the captaincy. He had made his mind up, it appeared, before the series started, and the manner ofhis exit was characteristically dignified - though it could be asked why he was appointed in the first place. The job went to A. B. de Villiers, temporarily at first, then permanently once the Tests were over. A more vocal presence, he delivered occasionally conflicting messages. He wanted the job - and to manage his playing schedule more constructively. As captain of South Africa'sone-day team, and one of the most sought-after players in Twenty20 franchise cricket, he faces a constant struggle in an overcrowded programme. While deVilliers never quite confirmed how he might resolve it, his acceptance of the role was an indication of his intentions - despite the discovery that captaincy can brutally affect a player's form: he finished the series with three successive ducks, and rarely looked comfortable against Broad.

he first of those ducks came at the Wanderers, where Broad swept aside the entire South African top order, having already made light of the absence of the injured Jimmy Anderson at Durban. In the three matches Steven Finn played before injury struck him down again, he did enough to suggest he was fully restored as a Test fast bowler, claiming 11 wickets at 26. Moeen Ali still took important wickets, including seven at Durban, but at 48 apiece (which more or less cancelled out the contribution of South Africa's own off-spinner,Dane Piedt, who collected ten at 45).Root bestrode the rest of England's batting like a colossus. He was in too early too often, as at the Wanderers, where his 110 was exemplary. It followed another failure for the opening pair of Cook and Alex Hales; six of their partnerships did not go beyond 22. Hales, Cook's eighth opening partner since Andrew Strauss, played fitfully - and uncertainly enough to suggest there would need to be a ninth.

But England were hardly alone in having a defective top order. South Africa's confused thinking was further reflected by the selection of Stiaan vanZyl, a non-specialist opener, for the first three matches. When they eventually turned to the 33-year-old Stephen Cook, a lifelong opener, they were rewarded with a craftsman's century - and a solid partner for the reliable Elgar.By then England had run out of steam, and were duly steamrollered. For allthe apologies offered, and their assurance that Test cricket remained the acme,they could not disguise the feeling that their work had already been done. For the first time since Michael Vaughan's England lifted the new Basil D'Oliveira Trophy in 2004-05, a visiting team other than Australia had won a Test series in South Africa.South Africa won both the limited-overs series which followed. If this put into perspective the progress England had made in both formats in recent months, they could - and perhaps should - have won the one-day series.Victories in the first two matches, with the sort of uninhibited strokeplay which had marked their renaissance, suggested a team full of conviction. Hales,Root and Buttler were at the top of their game.

Freed from the confused approach which plagued his batting in the Tests, Hales looked as if he knew once more what he was supposed to do. He finished the 50-over series with a century and four fifties, including 99 to anchor the chase at Port Elizabeth.England's strategy appeared plain and simple: make big totals at a rapid lick to ease the burden on the bowlers. And in the series opener at Bloemfontein,they reached 399, comfortably their highest score overseas, with Buttler butchering a 73-ball hundred. The trouble occurred when it started to go awry.When Plan A was not working, there was no Plan B, and it cost them dear, as South Africa rediscovered their own reserves of self-belief. Eoin Morgan's team had one golden chance to take an unassailable lead in the ODI series. At 2-1 ahead, they reduced South Africa to 211 for eight in the fourth match at the Wanderers, still requiring 52 when Rashid put down a steepling catch in the deep off Morris. England lost the plot a little thereafter.South Africa's batsmen, not least de Villiers, found their range.But England kept contriving to lose quick middle-order wickets, and in the first Twenty20 game missed the chance to force a super over when Topley fumbled Root's over-the-stumps return. The limitations of their bowling were also exposed, with the new ball and at the death, and the tour ended in a humbling defeat at the Wanderers - a few weeks earlier the scene of one of their most memorable Test victories. It was atour which, ultimately, couldn't quite settle on a story line.

Match reports for

Tour Match: South African Invitation XI v England XI at Potchefstroom, Dec 15-17, 2015
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Tour Match: South Africa A v England XI at Pietermaritzburg, Dec 20-22, 2015
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1st Test: South Africa v England at Durban, Dec 26-30, 2015
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2nd Test: South Africa v England at Cape Town, Jan 2-6, 2016
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3rd Test: South Africa v England at Johannesburg, Jan 14-16, 2016
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4th Test: South Africa v England at Centurion, Jan 22-26, 2016
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Tour Match: South Africa A v England XI at Kimberley, Jan 30, 2016
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1st ODI: South Africa v England at Bloemfontein, Feb 3, 2016
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2nd ODI: South Africa v England at Gqeberha, Feb 6, 2016
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3rd ODI: South Africa v England at Centurion, Feb 9, 2016
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4th ODI: South Africa v England at Johannesburg, Feb 12, 2016
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5th ODI: South Africa v England at Cape Town, Feb 14, 2016
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Tour Match: South Africa A v England XI at Paarl, Feb 17, 2016
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1st T20I: South Africa v England at Cape Town, Feb 19, 2016
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2nd T20I: South Africa v England at Johannesburg, Feb 21, 2016
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