Hashim Amla resigns as South Africa captain after draw...
Wednesday 6 January 2016 17:17, UK
Sir Ian Botham says England will take plenty of positives into the final two Tests of the series despite South Africa coming close to forcing a win in the second Test at Cape Town.
England were 116-6 at one stage, leading by only 118 with more than 50 overs left in the day, and in danger of earning the embarrassing honour of being the first team to score over 600 runs in the first innings of a Test and lose.
But bad light ended play on day five early, with England having rallied slightly to 159-6 and they now take a 1-0 series lead with them to the third and fourth Tests in Johannesburg and Centurion, with Hashim Amla having resigned as South Africa captain.
"Sometimes when you've got a game that is 600-odd plays 600-odd, you maybe think, 'that's it, it's all over'," said Botham. "You relax a little bit, or lose concentration, and go through the motions.
"That's dangerous as suddenly you find yourselves in a little bit of trouble like England did. They should never have got to 159-6 on this pitch.
"I did not see Hashim Amla's decision coming, but I understand it. There was a lot of criticism from the media over here, and from the public, about his captaincy.
"I don't think his heart and soul was in it in the first Test at Durban and whether that was because of his form, or the form of the players coming back from India, that's something only he can answer. But the impression I got was that he wasn't wholly there and it definitely affected his game and his thinking.
"There will have been undercurrents, talk from his family, peer pressure. He has come here, led from the front and scored 200 - that big lead weight lifted from his shoulders - and proven his worth.
"He has set it all up for the series now and said, 'I don't really want this, my family doesn't really want it and someone else can do it all'."
Amla scored his fourth Test double-hundred and Ben Stokes smacked the record-fastest 250 in Tests as England and South Africa scored a combined 1,256 for 13 in their first innings.
Stokes managed only 26 second time round - perishing in the deep when top-edging a sweep off off-spinner Dane Piedt - but Botham isn't concerned.
"Stokes is going to play one way," he added. "He will be disappointed as he didn't quite get hold of all of it, but you can't take anything away from the way he plays.
"There will be a couple others disappointed with the way they got out, that's for sure, but the team bats all the way down to 10, and we weren't talking about batting for two days here, so I was pretty confident they'd always be alright.
"Let's not forget Stokes still scored 258, Jonny Bairstow 150, and the bowlers did a good job on a flat pitch.
"Up in the Highveld for the final two Tests, the bowlers will get more rewards for doing a good job like that, it might swing a bit up there, and it will have pace and carry which will suit Stuart Broad and Steven Finn, the taller bowlers.
"We didn't see any swing in this Test until this morning - the ball that Joe Root got was a good one - and that was partly due to the overhead conditions, as it went very muggy.
"The only thing England should be worried about for the rest of the series, is can we start catching the ball please?"
Our coverage of the third Test between South Africa and England begins at 8am on Thursday 14 January.
