England can beat South Africa, if they locate the off stump

Much hilarity was to be had at the author’s expense just after the lunchtime session on Friday when James Anderson picked up Neil Mackenzie swinging at a wide one, directly after yours truly had confidently stated “He’ll never get him out bowling it there.”

But so much of cricket is about doing the basics right. The old adage about Glenn Mcgrath’s success was his natural line and length was to hit the top of off stump. And it is off stump that is England’s problem.

Do they even know where it is?

As Duncan Fletcher (whose stock seems to be rising by the day) noted in the Guardian on Monday, “Bowlers can be tempted into thinking that when a batsman plays and misses he is bowling the right line. But often he is bowling just too wide for the batsman to hit it.”

South Africa’s batting at Lords and in their more difficult sessions at Headingley were superb examples of batting. But Smith & Mackenzie, and de Villiers & Prince, were able to grind out such long innings waiting for the bad balls because so many of the deliveries they faced were not wicket taking balls.

If bowlers do not force the batsmen to play a shot, there is little chance of getting him out other than a moment of madness.

One of the features of modern television cricket coverage is the endless search for new graphics. But the analysis of where South Africa’s deliveries reached the batsmen makes an interesting comparison with England.

Irrespective of the yard of pace advantage, and late swing they can impart, South Africa’s bowlers bowled almost entirely at a nagging line and length just on and outside off stump. Even the best batsmen struggle with deliveries in what Geoffrey Boycott would call "the corridor of uncertainty." And when this is combined with pace and late movement, it can be lethal.

But it isn’t just England’s bowlers who need to programme their Tom Tom. Their batsmen proved themselves wholly incapable of knowing where their off stump is.

At Headingley a brief look at the scorecard reveals a large number of "c Smith/Boucher"—edges to slip or keeper. Strauss edged outside the off stump in both innings, while Flintoff played two drives on the back foot he couldn’t control.

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