Light goes out on a perfect climax! England’s big moment ruined as cricket shoots itself in the foot

Only cricket can find new ways of shooting itself in the foot just as the most exciting and invigorating of Test summers was about to reach the perfect climax.

The Oval was almost full, just 33 runs needed by England with all wickets remaining, the floodlights were on and the openers were seeing it like a football when the umpires decided light was not good enough to conclude this deciding Test.

What a joke that is. What an embarrassment at the end of what has been an extraordinary two days of Test cricket after the ECB took the brave and correct decision to play on in honour of the Queen.

England have all but secured the Test series win vs the Proteas, needing just 33 runs tomorrow

Captain Ben Stokes had bowled a crucial spell to help dismiss South Africa for 169, 129 ahead

The game has got everything right in the most difficult of circumstances, from the moment Laura Wright sang the most spine-tingling of national anthems on Saturday and both England and South Africa have put on a show worthy of the occasion, albeit one played at a very modern, frenetic speed.

Then they all walk off to come back for an anti-climax of a finish on Sunday. It was like Shakespeare ending his play before we all found out what happened to Romeo and Juliet. Why couldn’t common sense prevail? 

Why couldn’t the umpires have gone on the evidence of their own eyes rather than their cursed light meters and decided, at 6.37pm, conditions were good enough for another half-hour or so to let England complete their win?

Surely even South Africa captain Dean Elgar would have preferred to get the game finished. Even the ultimate conservative pragmatist must have conceded, with no rain forecast, that it was best to play on for the greater good of Test cricket.

Ben Stokes’ look of incredulity on the Oval balcony was a picture. His mission all summer has been to promote and even save the oldest and greatest format of the game.

He and Brendon McCullum have not only transformed England but rewritten the Test cricket playbook and evidence suggests they are attracting as many new spectators to cricket as the Hundred.

This will hardly have helped their cause because any newcomer watching riveted towards the end of a pulsating and compelling ‘second’ day would surely have been baffled and frustrated that play should end with floodlights shining on this famous old ground. 

Ben Stokes had pushed through the pain barrier to help England bowl South Africa out for 169

Captain Stokes continued a gruelling spell despite a sore knee and was rewarded with the wicket of Marco Jansen in the last ball before tea, having seen Jansen edge to slip off a no-ball

At least Sunday’s crowd got good value if not a conclusion, with England conceding the advantage given to them when they demolished South Africa for 118 by giving away far too many wickets cheaply in their determination to be as aggressive and assertive as possible.

England’s lead was only 40 when they lost their last three wickets for four runs in 16 balls on what was officially the fourth morning of this third Test. 

And South Africa clawed their way ahead when they gritted their teeth and made their way to 83 for one.

That was when a Dukes ball England had tried in vain to get changed when it offered them little before lunch started to swing round corners and Stuart Broad claimed the key wicket of Elgar that should never have been given.

Broad had seen two lbw appeals turned down by umpire Nitin Menon before England went up so loudly and confidently for a third in the same over that the South African captain all but walked before the Indian umpire’s finger went up. But replays showed the ball would have missed leg stump.

It was a wicket that took Broad past Glenn McGrath and into second place, behind only Jimmy Anderson, in the all-time list of seam bowling Test wicket-takers. 

It was one that sparked yet another demonstration of the skills of England’s masterful old seamers. 

South Africa’s Dean Elgar and Sarel Erwee scored quickly to put their side back in the lead

England captain Stokes put himself on to bowl and took the wicket of batter Erwee for 26 runs

Stokes celebrates the breakthrough as he ended the partnership of captain Elgar and Erwee

Both Anderson and Broad were wicketless before lunch, but now they were near unplayable as South Africa desperately tried to apply themselves and hang on. But England kept on coming at them with some devastating swing bowling.

Anderson claimed Keegan Petersen and Broad added Ryan Rickelton before Ollie Robinson joined in the fun to add his seam bowling to the mix and dismiss both Wiaan Mulder and Khaya Zondo.

What a series Robinson is having on his return to this England side and how promising for the future it is that he should reach 50 Test wickets at fewer than 20 apiece.

But if Broad, Anderson and Robinson were all mightily impressive, it was the captain who surely won this series for his side with his double wicket maiden either side of tea.

Stokes was visibly wincing from the pain of the knee injury that will surely need surgery sooner rather than later, but summoned up another huge effort to bowl Marco Jansen, who has been the best South African batsman in the series, with a big inswinger.

It came the over after Stokes had seen Jansen caught by Ollie Pope, only for the wicket to be ruled out by a no ball. ‘That is simply star quality,’ said Kevin Pietersen on Sky.

It gave England their seventh wicket and their sixth of the afternoon session. It then took Stokes just two balls after the break to add Kagiso Rabada as South Africa’s resistance was well and truly broken. 

Ben Foakes was England’s last man out as they only added four runs to their score on Sunday

Broad and Anderson, given a new lease of life this summer by Stokes and McCullum, completed the job and confirmed the utter folly of England leaving both out for the dying embers of Joe Root’s captaincy in the Caribbean earlier this year.

That left England 130 to win — the same target, superstitious types noted, Australia needed at Headingley in 1981 — and 35 overs left to wrap up the first home victory in a two-day Test since Nasser Hussain’s team won at Leeds in 2000 against West Indies.

Maybe England would have suffered 1981-type nerves had Alex Lees been caught by Jansen off the very first ball of the innings, but he was badly dropped and England’s under-performing openers went on to play as well as at any time this summer.

Crawley raced to his 50 off 36 balls and Lees rode his luck to reach an unbeaten 32 alongside him, with South Africa well and truly beaten by the time of Menon and Richard Kettleborough’s unwelcome intervention.

It has been bonkers stuff but not nearly as bonkers as a decision that has left some of that egg Elgar promised England on the face of the whole game. 

There was even a drinks break, for goodness’ sake, at 6.10pm with the light starting to fade. Another 10 minutes wasted.

England will win their sixth Test from seven played this summer on Monday morning, but some of the gloss has been taken off that fantastic achievement by the inflexibility of officialdom.