England v South Africa 1924

Played at Kennington Oval, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, August 16, 18, 19.- The rubber having been decided so decisively weeks before, it was not to be expected that the last Test match would excite vast amounts of interest. In the circumstances, a crowd of 12000 people on the first afternoon- 8827 paid for admission- was far from unsatisfactory at the prices charged. As it happened the match could not be played out, a couple of drenching showers on the third day reducing the ground to such a condition as to put further cricket out of the question. With the first day's lay the South Africans had abundant reason to be pleased. Keeping England in the field all the afternoon, they hit up a total of 342. The start did not suggest anything of this kind, Hearne running himself out and Commaille being bowled with only seven on the board. However Susskind and Nourse saved the situation. Nourse had a narrow escape of being run out before he had scored, and then the two batsmen added 79 together in an hour and forty minutes. In what would have been the last over before lunch Nourse mis-timed the ball and was out to a simple catch at short leg. After the interval the cricket was more cautious to a degree. Susskind was patience personified, and Taylor, naturally anxious to do himself justice in the last Test match played with extreme care for three quarters of an hour. At last, however, he was tempted to jump in and hit and from a hard return Tyldesley caught and bowled him very smartly. As at Birmingham and Lord's, the chief honours fell to Catterall, who played a delightful innings, and only failed by five runs to get his third hundred in Test matches. Out at last to a catch at short third man, he scored, in just two hours, 95 of the 151 runs put on during his stay, driving splendidly on both sides of the wicket and showing great skill in his strokes on the leg side. His only mistake was a chance to Tate, at short leg, when he had made 28. In strongest contrast to Catterall's brilliancy was the steadiness of Susskind, who took three hours and forty minutes to get his invaluable 65.

On the second day, the weather was always threatening, but the rain held off till the tea interval. Then it came down in torrents for ten minutes and there was no more cricket. In the time at their disposal, the Englishmen scored 232 runs and lost six wickets. In the circumstances, this was a remarkable performance, rain in the night and on Sunday afternoon having made the wicket very different from what it had been on the first day. But for two blunders in the field, which proved terribly expensive, England might have fared badly. Hendren, who as things turned out was the most successful batsmen, gave a chance at square leg when five and another at backward point with his score at 15. Up to a point, runs were very hard to get, Hobbs being at the wicket an hour and a quarter for 30, but Pegler alone, among the South African bowlers, looked really difficult on the slow ground. Woolley was the first batsman to gain any real mastery, making some glorious drives and scoring 51 runs out of 65 in seventy minutes. Sandham and Hendren put on 101 together for the fifth wicket, and then came some dazzling cricket, Hendren and Tate adding 90 runs in less than fifty minutes. When rain cut the day's play short, Hendren was not out 92. On Tuesday morning Hendren and Gilligan set themselves to get runs as fast as possible and succeeded in their object, but Gilligan had a lot of luck. In his efforts to force the pace Hendren was out at last to an easy catch at mid off from a skyer. Though disfigured by three chances, his innings of 142, which lasted just three hours, was for the most part splendid. His hits included two 6's- drives off Carter's bowling- and fourteen 4's. When rain caused the match to be given up, England, with two wickets in hand, held a lead of 79 runs. If the afternoon had turned out fine, the South Africans might have had some difficulty in avoiding defeat as the wicket was clearly becoming difficult.