England Win First Test In Durban By 241 Runs

They lost their final six wickets within two hours on the final day of the match for just 38 runs.

And it soon became apparent South Africa would not alter that statistic when star batsman De Villiers missed a turning off-break from Moeen and was given out lbw and upheld on review.

De Villiers was trapped leg before wicket to Ali and failed to overturn the decision on review with the television technology showing the ball would have grazed the leg stump.

The last day in Durban began with South Africa four wickets down, after Steven Finn had snared Faf du Plessis in the final over of the fourth day as South Africa battled to save the game or make a distant target of 415.

It has been a mixed year for England who won six and lost as many matches out of the 14 Tests they played in 2015.

South Africa on the other hand have to come back from this with so many areas of concern to address.

Woakes quickly deepened England’s in-roads thereafter, inducing a bat-pad catch from Piedt in his first over and while Morkel and Duminy added 19 for the 10th wicket off 42 balls, they could not see out the session. “It was an interesting toss, the overheads were suggesting you want to bowl first but the pitch was quite dry”, said Cook. It was a matter of getting through that first day. We are always grappling with it. There is no definitive answer…no right or wrong.

South Africa captain Hashim Amla has admitted that his side are suffering from a lack of confidence due to consistent batting woes but expressed that it was time for him to lead the team with the bat. “It was particularly pleasing to back up our form under pressure in a Boxing Day Test match”.

“If we can get our noses ahead again, it will be fantastic”, he said.

“There is a big opportunity that presents itself when you play like that”. “Hopefully, if we get a good lead, we can take the momentum forward to when they bat in the second innings”.

Alastair Cook believes his Kings of Kingsmead can become the Cape Town crusaders and put the series beyond South Africa in double-quick time, writes Dean Wilson in Durban.

The speed with which England dispensed with the Proteas on Wednesday morning was astonishing, and underlined the doubts hanging over the world’s No. 1 team, which has struggled through most of 2015 and will lose its top ranking if it loses this series. “It’s a good side to captain, there’s a good balance, the guys are happy and they seem really hungry”.

That run has left it with some questions on the best team composition.

“Momentum is a amusing thing because in our dressingroom everything feels really good and I’m sure it doesn’t feel so good in South Africa’s dressing room at the moment”, he said.

“I definitely do”, he said when asked if he wanted to continue with the captaincy.