ENGLAND v SOUTH AFRICA 1951

This Test will be remembered as Tattersall's Match. Whereas rain helped South Africa to their victory in the first Test at Trent Bridge, this time it provided a wet pitch for the England bowlers and Tattersall exploited the conditions to such an extent that he took twelve wickets for 101 runs. A thunderstorm in the early hours of Friday morning after England, by enterprising batting, had scored 311 on the opening day transformed the pitch, but in the absence of powerful sunshine it never became a glue-pot like that in 1934 when Hedley Verity took 14 Australian wickets in one day.

Happily for England, Brown won the toss--the only time in the five matches of 1951--and, moreover, he insisted that his batsmen took the initiative, though that was no simple task against keen bowling and fielding. Although Hutton soon left, Ikin, hitting splendidly to leg, and Simpson made steady progress. The first delivery of the match by Athol Rowan was a no-ball and Simpson drove it on the half volley high into the pavilion for 6. When Ikin was bowled after playing over a yorker, he had made 51 out of 89, including six fours, in eighty minutes. McCarthy returned and promptly accounted for Simpson, so that three wickets were down for 103.

On Watson joining Compton, the struggle for supremacy became desperate. Mann bowled his left-arm slows with such accuracy that from the time he went on at 70 until he was relieved when McCarthy took the second new ball at 202, his analysis was: 24 overs, 11 maidens, 28 runs, 1 wicket. Meanwhile Compton (seven fours) looked more like the player of two years back, but trying to deflect McCarthy to leg, he fell leg-before, the fourth wicket stand having put on 122 in two and a quarter hours. In the first innings at Trent Bridge, the same pair added 141.

With Compton gone, England felt the effect of carrying a long tail. If not quite so convincing as in his first Test, Watson showed that he possessed the big match temperament and he shared with Compton the distinction of making the highest score in the Test before he fell to a fine catch near the long-leg boundary. Watson batted nearly three hours and hit nine fours.

South Africa again owed much to the steady fast-medium bowling of Chubb. He always made the ball do a little on leaving the pitch and the last six England wickets went down for 86, Chubb's share being five after the initial damage was done by McCarthy. Incidentally there were five left-handed batsmen in the England XI: Ikin, Watson, Wardle, Statham, Tattersall.

Ten minutes remained before the close and South Africa scored four without loss. During the night came the rain and on resuming Brown soon introduced Tattersall and Wardle. The previous month, when appearing at Lord's for MCC, Tattersall upset the South Africans by taking eight wickets for 51 runs and now on his first appearance in a Test at cricket's Headquarters, Tattersall carried almost everything before him.

For the most part he bowled over the wicket at medium pace to a cluster of short-legs and a silly mid-off and silly mid-on. He varied his pace and used the seam as an alternative to finger-spin. Tattersall owed much to the excellent support he received from the fielders and particularly Ikin, who, with Hutton, Watson and Brown, made some brilliant catches.

Indeed, South Africa's failure might well have been attributed to the dismissal of Eric Rowan who, undismayed by the nature of the pitch, punished severely anything in the shape of a loose ball till he was third to leave at 47, magnificently caught five yards from the bat with the left hand by Ikin in the leg-trap.

Nourse, the captain, left half an hour later, when he swept a long-hop high towards the square-leg boundary, so that at lunch four men were out for 78. There was no respite for the Springboks and the remaining six wickets went down in an hour for 37.

Consequently, at 3.20 p.m., South Africa followed on 196 behind and when shortly after 5 p.m. four more wickets had gone for 57, including those of Eric Rowan and Nourse, visions arose of the match being over in two days. Cheetham and Fullerton prevented such a calamity by staying together till the close and adding 79, while the total rose to 137 for four wickets. Of the fourteen wickets which fell that day for 248 runs, Tattersall's share was nine for 88.

Next day, the match continued in a drizzle and poor light. A stiff neck handicapped Cheetham, but another half-hour passed before Statham ended a partnership of 94 by removing Cheetham's middle stump. Cheetham batted for two and a quarter hours, hitting seven fours, and Fullerton, who soon followed him to the pavilion, stayed almost the same time and hit five fours.

With the departure of this pair, the end was in sight. In fact South Africa were all out before lunch and, as England wanted only 16, the match was over at 2.20 p.m. with more than two and a half days to spare. One of the surprises was the failure of Wardle on a surface more or less made for him. The Yorkshire left-arm slow bowler was disinclined to pitch the ball up to the batsmen who were able to play back and deal with him.

Altogether 80,151 people were present, 74,451 paying. During the tea interval on Friday, both teams were introduced on the field to Princess Elizabeth.

With the match finishing so early on Saturday afternoon a short time-limit game was played to entertain the spectators.