The upshot is that England are in a commanding position at Newlands; they lead by 264 with six wickets in hand. Even better, an architect of England’s second innings is one of the new boys. Every team functions better when their captain is scoring runs and Root is forever under scrutiny. At the same moment Stokes by taking the chance became the first English fielder – as opposed to wicketkeeper – to take five catches in a Test innings. By then England were 155 runs ahead and Root was in no mood to spend the rest of the afternoon kicking away deliveries from Maharaj.

Source: The Irish Times January 05, 2020 18:31 UTC