History-making start for debutant Viljoen

JOE ROOT scored his ninth Test century and arguably the most important of his career, taking the match and series situation into consideration, to give England every chance of taking the all-important first innings lead in the third Sunfoil Test match. England finished day two only 75 runs adrift with 5 wickets in hand, including those of Root and Jonny Bairstow, after bad light and then rain brought an early close to Friday’s play at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium. Kagiso Rabada was the pick of the South African attack while Hardus Viljoen had a memorable debut, dismissing England captain, Alastair Cook, with his first delivery in Test cricket. Rabada also shared a 56-run partnership for the eighth South African wicket with Chris Morris, making it the third highest of the match to date and one that played the major role in enabling the Proteas to achieve their initial target of taking their total past 300. The last four South African wickets were, in fact, worth 101 runs which was a substantial improvement on what they had achieved previously in the series.