Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

89 the home side’s morale had been lifted by good innings from Bland and Graeme Pollock, while for the tourists the injury list had become a mounting concern. After breaking a finger when catching Goddard on the boundary in the previous Test, Barber had returned home. With Brown and Price both looking doubtful, strained tendons now ruled out Cartwright. At the moment when England needed to find a partner for Boycott, Brearley, who had started the tour brightly, was describing a bat as ‘an instrument of torture’. He and Murray had opened in the two most recent matches, Brearley scoring a laboured 43, 7 not out, 0 and 5, while Murray, with more recent evidence of form, had managed only 2, 17 not out, 7 and 9. There was talk of playing the semi-fit Cartwright as a batsman, but in the end the vote went to Murray, while Parks, ‘unfathomably’ to one scribe, retained the gloves. Meanwhile, to share the new ball with Thomson, the call went out to Ken Palmer of Somerset, who had been on stand-by while coaching in Johannesburg. ‘The team spirit which Smith has done so much to develop will be a valuable commodity between now and Wednesday week,’ wrote John Woodcock. With not a hotel bed to be had within miles of Port Elizabeth, the match began on a pitch which the soothsayers had not expected to last. Winning the toss gave South Africa the advantage they sought as England’s makeshift attack, in which Boycott was liberally used as third seamer, strove to contain their batsmen. On the second day they had the full might of Graeme Pollock with which to contend. While he made 137, others such as his brother Peter and Pithey were dilatory. So England, replying to a score of 502, had to bat for only the last 65 minutes of the second day, during which they lost Murray. On resuming there was a mix-up between Dexter and Boycott which deprived them of their best stroke-maker. Boycott and Barrington then dug in, adding 157 at a pedestrian rate. When both fell shortly before the close, the remaining batsmen were left with work still to do. Thomson, the second nightwatchman used in the innings, exceeded expectations, but Mike was out for 26, Parfitt failed to score and it was thanks to a ninth wicket stand of 64 between Parks and Allen that England reached 435. With 62 runs in two hours, the start to South Africa’s second innings hardly suggested a challenging target that might save the series. The final day was enlivened by fine batting from Graeme Pollock, enabling a declaration at lunchtime. Shortly after, increasingly heavy rain brought a sadly anticlimactic close to the series. If Triumphant in South Africa