Anderson poised for England return

South Africa captain Hashim Amla has admitted that his side are suffering from a lack confidence due to consistent batting woes but expressed that it was time for him to lead the team with the bat.

Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad – who had ripped through South Africa’s top order in its first innings – picked up the last two wickets.

He will be replaced by Kagison Rabada while Quinton de Kock is likely to return as wicketkeeper, having been dropped for the last five Tests, Amla added but said a final decision had still to be to be taken.de Kock’s return would take pressure off A.B.de Villiers, who returned behind the stumps for the Durban Test but looked pressured with the burden of extra work.

England, meanwhile, have added James Anderson to the eleven who won in Durban.

In Durban, South Africa needed de Villiers to bat through the final day, but when he was trapped lbw by Ali with the third ball of the morning, the game was up. “If he’s fit and he’s ready and he’s confident he’ll be opening the bowling but we’ve got to make sure he’s right. We don’t want to hinder ourselves and have an injury caused that we could have prevented”.

Amla said De Kock’s inclusion depended on the selectors. “It gives us the option of getting Quinny in and taking a load off AB”. “They’ve lost some world-class players…” Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy and Temba Bavuma have all struggled.

First-choice paceman Dale Steyn looks doubtful with a shoulder injury and seamer Kyle Abbott has a hamstring strain, leading to squad call-ups for Chris Morris and uncapped Hardus Viljoen. Ali had seven wickets in the match.

“It was a pretty good test match”, a smiling England captain Alastair Cook said afterwards.

“The reality is when you win or lose a cricket game it’s either going to be praise or criticism, that’s just the nature of worldwide sport”, said Amla. “That’s just the nature of worldwide sport”. “When people criticise the team there is going to be some value in it, so you take it on the chin and move on”.

“I certainly haven’t got to the bottom of why we’ve been so inconsistent as a side over the last 10 months or so and this is another test for us”.

“England have an excellent opportunity to win this series quite comfortably, so long as they do not succumb to their own inconsistencies”.

“2015 was a year when we were up and down a lot”, he said, referring to the Ashes series against Australia, where wins were followed by defeats before England clinched the series 3-2.