Zeenews Sports Bureau
The Oval: After Hashim Amla, it was Dale Steyn’s time to shine at the Oval. The champion pacer dismissed four batsmen on the fifth and the final day as South Africa defeated England by an innings and 12 runs.
It was England’s first defeat at home in two years. Steyn once again made his countrymen proud as South Africa comprehensively outclassed the hosts in front of their home crowd.
England resumed the innings on the final day and Bopara was dismissed early as an inside edge crashed onto his stumps. Matt Prior joined Ian Bell and both of them stabilised the innings as they tackled the South African pace attack without much difficulty.
Earlier in the day, Bell was dropped on 20 when a leading edge was spilled down by AB de Villiers. Since then, he played some quality strokes as the ball found the middle of his bat on numerous occasions.
South African bowlers had to wait for quite some time as Bell and Prior added 86 runs for the sixth wicket before Prior was caught at slips by Kallis.
It was a big wicket which exposed the tail-enders. Once the new ball was taken, it was just a matter of time as Steyn dismissed Ian Bell (55), Broad (0) and Swann (7) in quick successions.
Apart from Steyn, Imran Tahir picked up three wickets while Philander and Morkel shared two wickets between them.
Hashim Amla, who became the first South African to score a triple ton was adjudged the Man of the Match for his stupendous innings.
The Proteas have made their skipper extremely proud who was playing in his 100th Test match.
Smith himself scored a century, followed by another one from Kallis and a historic triple ton from Hashim Amla. Steyn’s five-wicket haul was the perfect end to what was a great Test for the visitors.
First Published: Monday, July 23, 2012, 15:52