A sensational lower-order partnership of 72 off 75 balls between Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj during the extended third session at Lord’s on Thursday maintained SA’s advantage in the first Test.
Maharaj joined Jansen at the crease after the dismissal of Kyle Verreynne with SA struggling on 210/6 and a lead of 45 runs and the two lower-order batters provided the rescue act to dig the visitors out of trouble.
At that time, England were on a fightback after the lunch break as they tried to deny the Proteas gaining a stranglehold on the see-saw match were there was action aplenty.
At the end of what turned out to be a riveting day of Test cricket, where 11 wickets fell and more than 300 runs were scored, the Proteas have their noses in front on 289/7 and a crucial first innings lead of 124.
With three days to go, momentum is with the Proteas despite England claiming the five wickets of Aiden Markam (16), Sarel Erwee (73), Rassie van der Dussen (19) Verreynne (11) and Keshav Maharaj (41) after tea.
Before the Jansen and Maharaj show SA found themselves in a spot of bother as the middle order looked shaky with batters losing their wickets at regular intervals.
The South Africans were struggling to cope with the spin of Jack Leach and speed of Ben Stokes and Broad.
SA will resume on day three on Friday with Marco Jansen (41) and Kagiso Rabada (3) at the crease and looking to further stretch their team’s lead considerably.
Earlier in the day, SA bowled England out for 165 inside the first hour of the day with premier fast bowler Rabada registering his 12th Test fifer, his first in England, and a place on the honours board at the home of cricket.
Rabada ended his first innings bowling shift with impressive figures of 5/52 and he was ably supported by Anrich Nortjé with three wickets of his own and Jansen with the other two.
With bat in hand, Ollie Pope was the most notable scorer for England with 73 runs as the top and middle batting order collapsed under pressure from Rabada, Nortje, Jansen and Lungi Ngidi.
At that stage the advantage was firmly with SA and openers Elgar and Erwee negotiated their way to lunch with a foundation-laying opening partnership of 27 off 72.
Things started to fall apart for after lunch as SA lost Elgar (47) and Petersen (24) in quick succession to reach tea on 158/2 and still trailing England by seven runs.
Wickets continued to tumble in the third session as Markram (16); Erwee, who was the most notable scorer for SA with a gallant knock of 73; Van der Dussen (19) and Verreynne (11) succumbed.
England stayed in the game largely due to the efforts of Stokes with three wickets while James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Matthew Potts and Jack Leach contributed one each.
One of the most significant moments of the third session came in the 63rd over when Verreynne was caught by Ben Foakes off the bowling of Broad who claimed his 100th wicket at Lord's.