South Africa v England: third Test, day one – live!

72nd over: England 168-4 (Stokes 17, Pope 5) Ooof! Maharaj hangs one outside off stump, Stokes tries to slog sweep it, and when he misses it completely the ball zips just past the stumps!

71st over: England 167-4 (Stokes 17, Pope 4) Stokes drives Paterson to mid-on, where a diving fielder stops it reaching the rope. Next time he drives a bit straighter, and there’s no stopping this one.

70th over: England 161-4 (Stokes 9, Pope 4) Ye traditional Maharaj maiden.

69th over: England 161-4 (Stokes 9, Pope 4) Close! Paterson comes back and Stokes edges his first delivery straight to first slip only for the ball to bounce a foot short of the fielder!

68th over: England 161-4 (Stokes 9, Pope 4) Close! Stokes nudges one just wide of the fielder and short leg, who throws out a hand but can’t hold. “I don’t think the protocol is right for the circumstances of the Ben Stokes DRS,” says Gary Naylor. “Some of the ball struck in line with the stumps, so it hit ‘in line’. Umpire’s Call is irrelevant because they is no predictive element.” This reminds me of football’s offside/VAR issues, which are also a question of fact but there people are demanding a bit of flexibility. We can’t have it both ways, and I for one am entirely happy with the idea that DRS is there to correct clear umpiring errors and that didn’t constitute one.

67th over: England 160-4 (Stokes 9, Pope 4) Rabada flings a full toss at Stokes, who hits it past mid-on for four with such nonchalance that he might have been packing a pipe in his parlour.

66th over: England 153-4 (Stokes 5, Pope 4) Maharaj was absolutely convinced that Stokes was out there, and was not shy about telling him so. Not to be, alas. Pope pummels the last ball to deep point for four to take England past 150.

But he didn’t. Not even close. That’s a review lost.

65th over: England 148-4 (Stokes 3, Pope) A simple forward defensive would have dealt with that, but Root moved backwards and limply, vainly waved his bat at it. England patiently plodded to 100, and are chaotically tumbling to 150.

The ball stays a bit low, Root gets nowhere near it, and it destroys off stump!

64th over: England 147-3 (Root 27, Stokes 3) Shot! Root sweeps past square leg for four, an excellent shot, and then tickles the next to fine leg for another. Another sweep off the last, but it doesn’t have the legs to reach the rope.

It was close, though. Umpire’s call on contact, which saves him.

Maharaj is again the bowler. It might have hit him outside the line, but it’s worth checking I think.

63rd over: England 136-3 (Root 17, Stokes 2) Rabada extracts what menace he can from an unhelpful pitch.

62nd over: England 134-3 (Root 17, Stokes 1) Maharaj has bowled excellently today to control England’s scoring – he’s going at 1.23 an over – and thoroughly deserves his reward.

That is as lbw as lbws get. Still, the umpire didn’t see it and it took until the last second of their thinking time for South Africa to go with it.

The umpire says no, but if this hit the pad before the bat he’s in big trouble.

61st over: England 133-2 (Denly 25, Root 16) Another wide and loose Rabada delivery to start the over, which Denly cuts for four! England have scored a scarcely imaginable 16 runs in three overs!

60th over: England 124-2 (Denly 18, Root 15) A 20th over for Maharaj yields a single off balls one and six. “I take a vicarious pleasure in watching players move up the ranks in the all time records list on Cricinfo’s stats page – and today is a real treat: a Root century will see him rise from 40 to 34 on the all time runs scored charts,” writes Richard Morris. “Given the current England run rate this is more exciting than actually watching England bat just now.”

59th over: England 122-2 (Denly 17, Root 14) Root knocks the ball gently into the off side and goes for a single, and Denly was a yard and a half short of his ground when the throw zips just past the stumps! Then Rabada’s final delivery is wide and loose and Denly thumps it away for his second boundary of the day!

The players are on their way back out. A big session ahead, as always.

58th over: England 117-2 (Denly 13, Root 13) One more maiden to complete the session. South Africa have eked out a couple of wickets and England have scored 56 runs from 31 overs. Honours approximately even; I’ll be back in a bit.

57th over: England 117-2 (Denly 13, Root 13) A fine, aggressive maiden over from Philander. “People might complain that the SR of the top three is boring or not modern, but it’s perfect for this situation imo,” says Chris Parker. “With Paterson, Rabada, and Nortje, SA have three guys who are at their best when bowling fast in short spells, and they’re already approaching 10 overs each for the day. Wear those guys out and let the middle order take advantage.” It’s a question of weighing up the benefits of best utilising ideal batting conditions or wearing down the bowlers.

56th over: England 117-2 (Denly 13, Root 13) Root comes forward to Maharaj and nearly finds himself yorked. A single off the last brings him level with Denly.

55th over: England 116-2 (Denly 13, Root 12) Philander’s back, concluding Nortje’s fine spell. “Intrigued, I binged Lulu the 19th century trapeze artist,” writes Robert Blanchard. “No words, but a few 1870s promotional items of her act at the Holborn Hippodrome. She was a believable she.” There’s a picture of her here, if you’re interested.

54th over: England 115-2 (Denly 13, Root 11) A late cut brings Root four more, these scored more deliberately and chancelessly. He has 11 runs from 19 balls, Denly 13 from 73, though the latter is occasionally attempting aggressive shots, particularly against Maharaj; he backs away from the last to give him room to slap it straight to a fielder at cover.

53rd over: England 110-2 (Denly 13, Root 6) More streaky runs for Root, who bottom-edges into his waist and thence away for four, and then hooks the last, off the top part of the bat if not the edge, to square leg, where no fielder is present to complete the catch. Sky show an interesting graphic, illustrating how much straighter Nortje has bowled since lunch, the tactic that led eventually to Crawley’s dismissal.

52nd over: England 105-2 (Denly 13, Root 1) Root gets off the mark in streaky style, top-edging a sweep that dropped just short of Nortje, running around from square leg!

51st over: England 103-2 (Denly 12, Root 0) A Nortje maiden to Root. “I’m sure that it is not the case – and I really must stress that to her lawyers – but calling the distraction to your distraction a ‘trapeze artist’ does sound a bit like a euphemism,” writes Robin Hazlehurst. Not at all. She was a trapeze artist, and really quite famous for it. What she wasn’t, in transpired, was a she.

50th over: England 103-2 (Denly 12, Root 0) Denly’s strike rate is going down, now at 17.64 after another Maharaj maiden (53% of his 15 overs have brought no runs). Of his 24 Test innings only one has been slower, and that only lasted 24 balls. We’re treated to a few more replays of that Van der Dussen catch, which really was exceptionally good.

49th over: England 103-2 (Denly 12, Root 0) Crawley swings his bat at a shoulder-high delivery that was heading just down leg side, nudging the ball a little wider for four, and England’s score into triple figures. Three balls later, he’s gone.

That’s a fantastic catch at leg gully! Crawley clips the ball off his legs, and Van der Dussen dives to his right and just about holds the catch, which bounces off one hand, off the other, and finally settles in both!