Proteas thrash England

Nottingham : Vernon Philander led a fine all-round bowling effort as South Africa thrashed England by 340 runs in the second Test at Trent Bridge yesterday.

Victory saw the Proteas level the four-match series at 1-1 after they themselves had been well beaten by 211 runs in the first Test at Lord’s.

England, set a mammoth 474 runs for victory, collapsed to 133 all out 40 minutes before tea on the fourth day.

Man-of-the-match Philander took three wickets for 24 runs in 10 overs, including an early double strike.

That gave him five wickets in total in a match where he also made scores of 54 and 42 with the bat.

No England batsman made a fifty in a second innings where former captain Alastair Cook’s 42 was the top score. The most made by any side to win in the fourth innings of a Test is the West Indies’ 418 for seven against Australia at St John’s in 2003.

But the more immediate task for England yesterday was to see if they could at least keep South Africa in the field.

They failed miserably, the hosts bowled out in 44.2 overs despite South Africa being without Kagiso Rabada after the fast bowler was suspended for swearing at England’s Ben Stokes at Lord’s.