“I knew I was under the pump a little bit,” he said. “I needed an innings to save my place, there’s no doubt about that. It’s very pleasing — I felt pretty fluid all the way through my innings. It’s nice to take some of my form in the nets out to the middle. It’s helped give us enough scoreboard pressure to go out and take some wickets.”
Apart from the winning position into which England have so adeptly manoeuvred, the most gratifying aspect of this Test match for them has been the hundreds that Alastair Cook and now Bell have made. While the former made technical adjustments after the Ashes series, Bell reappraised not so much his technique as his approach after twin failures in the first Test in Centurion.
“Looking back to Centurion, I’ve changed a few things I did need to change,” Bell said. “I went back to what I’d been doing for Warwickshire last summer. [Morne] Morkel bowled well, with good pace, but it was nice to get through last night and the first hour today and cash in at the end.”
What Steyn described as the worst day of his cricket career, Bell admitted could hardly have gone any better for England.
“The whole day was exactly as we wanted it,” he said. “Straussy asked us to win the first hour; we moved on and got the runs on the board.
“The important thing was not to let South Africa back in — if we’d given them two or three early wickets, we wouldn’t have been able straight after lunch to put our foot down and take that momentum into our bowling.”
It was Bell’s brilliant one-handed catch low to his right that brought England the breakthrough wicket of Ashwell Prince that precipitated South Africa’s collapse. He revealed that he and Cook, England’s bat-pad specialists, have been doing a lot of work with Richard Halsall, the bowling coach, on close-quarter catches. “Against Australia and South Africa, you have to take the kind of half-chances that can change the course of a game,” Bell said. “Cooky held a couple of sharp ones at Centurion.
“Swanny settles on to a fantastic line and length, and seems to make things happen as soon a he gets on. You’re ready for any half-chances as you know he’s really on top of his game at the moment.”
Stuart Broad, who was hit for six sixes in an over by Yuvraj Singh on his last appearance at Kingsmead, was singled out for strong praise from Bell.
“I remember sitting down before the game and joking about those with Broady,” Bell said. “I don’t think it really fazes him — he’ll keep running in for England all day. Today was a great example again of how he’s maturing. With his height and the lengths he bowls, he’s going to be tricky for any batsman.
“That was the great thing about that spell — asking the question around the top of off stump, which as a batter is the hardest place. It’s still a good wicket and you have to bowl accurately on it.”
Spreading the play
• Ian Bell’s hundred was his first in 11 Test matches and 20 innings dating back to July 2008, when he scored 199 against South Africa before giving Paul Harris a return catch. The left-arm spinner denied him a double hundred then, but couldn’t prevent a century this time, the Warwickshire batsman coming down the wicket and lifting him down the ground to bring up three figures. That was one of Bell’s ten fours, equally spread between off and leg sides, the Hawk-Eye graphic establishing the variety of shot he has when on song.
No comments:
Post a Comment