Cook urges triumphant England to maintain pressure on Proteas

Hashim Amla is keen to retain the South Africa captaincy despite struggling with the bat in 2015.

South Africa’s top pace bowler Dale Steyn is doubtful due to a shoulder injury and he will probably be replaced by Kagiso Rabada or Chris Morris while Quinton de Kock will return behind the stumps to lighten the load on gun batsman AB de Villiers. Graeme Swann’s 85 runs against South Africa in 2009 came at a strike rate of 104.93.

So here we go again.

Cook’s iron will and determination to prove the doubters wrong got him through.

One of those five wins also came against South Africa in Durban, in 2009, when they defeated the hosts by an innings and 98 runs.

“England wouldn’t be talking Anderson up if there was any kind of doubt”, he said.

The second Test of the four-match series against South Africa will be played at Newlands from Saturday.

When a team are losing and the captain is not scoring runs then questions about that leader’s suitability to the role are inevitable. Amla’s yearly average has not gone below 45 since 2010.

Having regained the Ashes and now beaten South Africa, who not too long ago were miles ahead in the world rankings, England are clearly making progress.

Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott told BBC Test Match Special: “I thought it would be close this series”. A look of shock on his face soon subsided.

2010 – The last time before the Durban Test that England had won an overseas Test opener.

But it was not just the abrupt end to Compton’s first spell in England colours, after just nine caps, that made him an unexpected pick to tour his native South Africa.

Yet his form this year has been remarkably poor. South Africa have played eight Tests this year.

In his past 10 Test innings he has made just 150 runs.

England started this morning needing six wickets to go 1-0 up in the four-Test series and they needed less than a session to do it as the world’s top-ranked side were cast aside.

“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and it’s just been disappointing not to get the runs”.

When asked if he wanted to continue with the captaincy, Amla responded: “I definitely do”.

On the two days between Test matches, he added: “It’s a really short turnaround now – the shortest I’ve ever done – so we’ve got to be careful with the recovery”.

“In Test cricket there is a role for someone who is able to get through those tough periods and make hundreds. There’ll be a lot said and written and lots of comments on Twitter and Facebook and to try keep the noise out and keep believing in what the team is capable of is going to be the most important thing for us because we know this team is capable of doing special things”, he said, confident that the team can bounce back. “You can do well in the nets but it has got to materialise out on the field and we have that hunger to get more runs”.

England are likely to retain faith in Bairstow for the New Year Test, with the only likely change being James Anderson for Chris Woakes.