Date-stamped : 22 Aug94 - 14:29 England v South Africa, Test 3, The Oval, 18-22 Aug 1994 ====> Day 1, 18 Aug 1994 South Africa won the toss and batted first. Day 1: RSA 326/8 (McMillan 91*, Donald 11*, Rhodes 8 ret hurt South Africa omitted Hudson and played Cullinan, with the Kirsten brothers opening the innings. England omitted Gatting and Tuf- nell. SA won the toss and batted on a fast bouncy pitch. At close of play SA were 326-8, with McMillan 91*. McMillan came in after Rhodes had retired hurt with concussion and gone to hospital after being hit on the helmet. When Wessels was out shortly afterwards, not long after lunch, SA were in some trouble with 5 wickets down for just over 100, but Richardson made 58 and added 124 for the sixth wicket with McMillan. Donald hung on for the last few overs, and it may be that Rhodes will be able to bat tomorrow. DeFreitas was probably the pick of the bowlers, but Benjamin had the best figures on his Test debut, 4-42. Contributed by John.Hall (John@jhall.demon.co.uk) ====> Day 1, MORE As in the Headingley test England had South Africa in a fair amount of trouble early on but allowed the middle and lower batsmen to get big runs. South Africa dropped Andrew Hudson and brought in Darryl Cullinan while the England team showed two changes. Out went Tufnell and Fraser and in came Devon Malcolm and Joey Benjamin. Gary and Peter Kirsten opened the SA innings but were soon in trouble against some good English fast bowling. Gary Kirsten had a rare failure as he fell for just 2 runs, caught behind off the bowling of DeFreitas. This brought Cronje and Peter Kirsten together and both of them demonstrated how fast bowling shouldn't be played as they pushed and prodded at the ball. Cronje, in particular, appeared to have forgotten everything he has ever learnt about footwork and was fortunate to score 38. Peter Kirsten was bowled middle and leg by Devon Malcolm the very ball after snicking Malcolm over the top of slips for four while Cronje fell lbw to Benjamin shortly before the lunch break. Cullinan came in, hit one superb cover drive, but then lost his wicket in the over leading up to lunch. This wicket was just reward for some good bowling by Phillip DeFreitas. With South Africa on 85/4 at lunch, England needed to press home their advantage but once again found themselves frustrated by the SA middle and lower order. Jonty Rhodes had to retire hurt soon after lunch after ducking into a ball that didn't get up above waist height. He was taken to hospital for treatment and spent the night there as a precautionary measure. Meanwhile, Wessels scratched and pushed his way to 45 after being dropped in the gully with his score on 29. The loss of Wessels with the score on 136 meant that South Africa (with Rhodes in hospital) were effectively 136/6. McMillan and Richardson got together and stuck around till well after tea at which time they had steered South Africa out of trouble. They added 124 runs at close on 4 runs an over and showed the top order batsmen how to bat on this wicket. Richardson scored his fourth test fifty while McMillan recorded his second successive half century against England. McMillan is playing some of the best cricket of his career - he hasn't failed with the bat against England, he picks up 2 or 3 slip catches per innings and he almost always chips in with a couple of wickets as well. The partnership was broken by Joey Benjamin when he found the edge of Richardson's bat and Rhodes took a comfortable catch behind the stumps. Matthews didn't last long before being caught in the slips for 0. De Villiers came in and stuck around as a further 35 runs were added for the 8th wicket but when he was out South Africa still had to face 6 or 7 overs before the close of play. Donald was the last man in but Rhodes was still in hospital and would only be able to bat the next morning. If South Africa last a further wicket before the close it would mean the end of their innings. England came very close to getting that last wicket as Donald was dropped by Atherton off the fourth last ball of the day. It was a difficult chance in the covers and would have been a great catch if he had held on to it. So, at close of play South Africa were 326/8 with McMillan just 9 runs short of his century. I thought Phillip DeFreitas was the best of the England bowlers while Darren Gough was quite disappointing. Contributed by Frank.Sokolic (sokolic@mtb.und.ac.za) ====> Day 2, 19 Aug 1994 Day 2: RSA 332/9 inn. closed. Eng 281/7 (DeFreitas 37* Gough 25*) After morning rain, play resumed about an hour late, and there- fore continued until 7pm instead of the usual 6pm. The late fin- ish means that the normal requirement to bowl 90 overs in the day does not apply, and in fact SA finished 14 overs short, averaging only 12.3 overs per hour. England can`t really complain, as they averaged only 13.3. SA added only 4 this morning, the innings ending at 332 when McMillan was out for 93, giving De Freitas a fourth wicket. Rhodes did not bat (or field), on medical advice. Atherton was out to de Villiers for 0 off the first ball he faced, and shortly after lunch Gooch was out for 8. Hick was yorked by a fine ball from Donald for 39. Thorpe was out after tea for 79 (he clearly has a weakness in the seventies :-), soon folowed by Crawley for 5. Stewart was going like a train when he went to pull a short ball perhaps slightly too wide of the off stump for the shot, and played on. Rhodes went in the same over for 11, and England were in some trouble at 220 odd for 7. However, in the last 40 minutes or so of the day, DeFreitas and Gough took the attack to the South Africans, taking the close of play score to 281-7 in a stand made at better than 6 an over. DeFreitas is on 37 and Gough on 25. They took 16 (I think) off the last over of the day, bowled by Donald. Donald`s figures had been something like 3-44 but are now 3-79. Contributed by John.Hall (John@jhall.demon.co.uk) ====> Day 2, MORE The second day ended like a limited overs game with England scoring 46 runs off the last four overs of the day. In the morning South Africa added only 6 runs to their overnight score and McMillan fell 7 runs short of his first test century. He edged a ball to Hick at second slip who took a good catch high above his head. England started their innings badly and were reduced to 1/1 when Michael Atherton was out to the first ball he faced. Atherton was later fined half his match fee for showing dissent after his dismissal. Gooch hung around, taking 20 minutes to get off the mark and England crawled to 21/1 at lunch. Gooch departed soon after the break, caught behind off the bowling of Donald. Donald was bowling a lot better then at the Headingley test but McMillan was bowling all over the place. De Villiers and Matthews were steady without really threatening the batsmen. Graeme Hick played another typical Hick innings - he started off well, got into the thirties and then lost his wicket. He was bowled leg stump by an excellent yorker from Allan Donald. Graeme Thorpe played another good innings as he compiled a polished 79. This was his third successive score of 70+ against South Africa and it came in good style. He was eventually bowled by Matthews when he look well set for a century. Crawley still hasn't settled down at test level and was out for just 5 runs. Alec Stewart started slowly but gradually increased his scoring rate. Towards the end of his knock he was scoring boundaries almost at will and was reponsible for lifting the England scoring rate to over 3 runs an over. He was out trying to hook a ball from outside off stump and dragging it onto his stumps. De Villiers struck again in the same over and removed Steven Rhodes for 11. With England at 222/7 and 40 minutes left till close of play, Darren Gough and Phiilip DeFreitas tore the South African bowling apart as if they were playing a one day game. They threw the bat at everything and brought up their 50 partnership in just 37 minutes. They scored 46 runs off the last 4 overs with 16 coming off Donald's last over. England ended the day on 281/7, still 51 runs short of the SA total but with 3 wickets in hand. This test is very evenly poised. Contributed by Frank.Sokolic (sokolic@mtb.und.ac.za) ====> Day 3, 20 Aug 1994 Day 3: Eng 304; RSA 175; Eng 107/1 (Atherton 42* Hick 27*) A remarkable day`s cricket - perhaps the most remarkable in Eng- land since 1981 in fact. The England first innings ended for 304 after about half an hour this morning. SA then slumped to 1-3 and never really recovered. They were all out about 45 minutes after tea for 175 in 50.3 overs, with Malcolm taking 9-57, the 6th best Test figures of all time. The one batsman to put up prolonged resistance was Cullinan, who made 94 and was the one batsman to escape Malcolm. Rhodes came in at number 9. England needed 204 to win, and began their second innings at 5 to five, with 16 overs to face. Rhodes was able to field. England started as if they meant to get the runs by close of play. When Gooch was bowled by Matthews for 33, the score was 56-1 after 5 overs. Donald was hit out of the attack after bowling 2 overs for 27. Together with his last 2 overs on Friday evening (he didn`t bowl this morning), this meant he had conceded 57 runs in 4 overs. Later he came back for another 2 overs and was hit for 18. At close of play England were on 107-1, made off 16 overs, with Ath- erton on 42 and Hick on 27. Contributed by John.Hall (John@jhall.demon.co.uk) ====> Day 3, More England had just about sealed victory by the end of the third day thanks to an historic bowling performance by Devon Malcolm. Malcolm claimed 9 wickets in the South African second innings to record the sixth best bowling figures in test history as South Africa were bundled out for just 175. In the morning ses- sion England restricted the South African first innings lead to just 28 runs and then Malcolm blasted out the first three South Africans to have them reeling at 1/3. Malcolm got the first three wickets in the space of nine balls and South Africa were never able to recover from such a disasterous start. Their innings was saved from total disaster only by Darryl Cul- linan who scored 94 but otherwise it was a bit of a pro- cession. Malcolm picked up the first 7 and the last 2 wickets to end with figures of 9 for 57. No prizes for guessing who gets man of the match award in this test! In the end England set about chasing 204 to win with two whole days and 16 overs left in the match. They proceeded to further demoralise the South African bowlers by scoring 107/1 in the 16 overs before the close of play. The first 50 runs came in just 27 balls! Tomorrow England need another 97 runs to win and will square the series at 1-1. Contributed by Frank.Sokolic (sokolic@mtb.und.ac.za) ===> Day 4 England cruised to an easy victory today, scoring the 97 runs needed to win with only the loss of Atherton. In the first part of the morning, Atherton and Hick continued to punish any ball even slightly off line and length, and a scoring rate approaching 6 an over was maintained. Whilst the pace slackened later in the morning, victory was achieved with a straight drive for 4 by Thorpe, a few minutes before lunch. Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)