England v South Africa 1924

Played at Leeds, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, July 12, 14, 15.- The third of the Test matches decided the rubber, England winning by nine wickets. If not quite so marked as at Lord's their superiority. At every point except wicket keeping was obvious. Still, though England had the best of the game all the way through and won very comfortably, the form on the whole was not as convincing as at Lord's. Mr. Fender having for the time being lost his bowling, Macaulay was brought into the England side and of the twelve players picked by the Selection Committee, Ernest Tyldesley was given the preference over Sandham. The South Africans had Nupen and Carter in their team and did not give further trial to Parker. The first day's play went far towards determining the result, England scoring 396 in something over five hours and then, in less than half an hour, getting two South African wickets down for 15. Fortune was certainly kind to England, as, if all the catches had been held, their total must have fallen a good deal short of 396. Hendren, who had the satisfaction of hitting up his first hundred in a Test match, was let off twice- first when he had made 24 and then again at 37. It was a confession of weakness that the South African bowlers indulged so persistently in the leg theory. Still, if Hendren had been out to the first chance he gave, results would have justified the policy. Hobbs and Sutcliffe opened England's innings by scoring 72 runs together in an hour, but Hobbs would have been run out by yards in the first over if Deane had lobbed the ball back to the bowler instead of throwing hard at the wicket. Hearne stayed while 58 runs were added, but Woolley failed- a fine ball from Pegler beat him- the second and third wickets both falling at 130. The best batting of the day was clearly that of Sutcliffe. Out fourth at 201, he played flawless cricket for three hours. The leg theory kept him quiet, but he hit a dozen 4's. Hendren, settling down to fine form after his two escapes, played very brilliantly. He was not cramped by the bowling as some of the other batsmen were, and showed great skill and resource in scoring on the leg side. Out eighth at 365, he scored his 132 out of 235 put on during the day, his innings including twenty 4's. In driving, cutting and leg hitting, he was equally goo, but he had not much chance of indulging in hooking and pulling. Among the five bowlers, Pegler stood by himself

The South Africans had a terribly up hill game to play on the second day and for some time everything went against them. Three wickets going down in the first half hour, their score, with five men out, was only 34. Taylor and Catterall saved the side from complete disaster, but no one else could cope with Tate's fine bowling and the innings ended for 132. On no other occasion, perhaps, in the Test matches was Taylor so nearly at the top of his form. With nothing in the pitch to give him the least assistance, Tate did great work in taking six wickets for 42 runs. The South Africans had to follow on against a balance of 264 and when their fourth wicket fell at 135 it seemed quite possible that the match would have finished off on the second afternoon. However, Taylor and Catterall, playing very finely added 97 runs and were still together at the drawing of stumps. Only 32 runs being required to avoid the single innings defeat, the South Africans had a good chance of causing England some trouble, but fate was against them. A rash call by Catterall resulted in Taylor's wicket being thrown down from third slip by Macaulay, and following this disaster Tate clean bowled Catterall and Blanckenberg. Deane, backed up by Nupen and Pegler, played so well that the last three wickets added 79 runs, but a total of 323 left England with only 60 to get. Hobbs played on at 17 and then Sutcliffe and Hearne hit off the remaining runs in half an hour.