England vs South Africa Third Test 2008: South Africa Sealed the Series
By leading South Africa to an excellent five-wicket victory in the third test, Captain Graeme Smith has become only the third captain of South Africa to have won a test series in England. South Africa confirmed their series victory with a test at hand. Chasing a modest target of 281 in the second innings, South Africa easily reached the mark thanks to a mind blowing unbeaten innings of 154 from Smith, hitting 17 boundaries. Smith has already termed it as his best ever test innings.
South Africa also won the second test by 10 wickets- thus the visiting side is leading by 2-0 in the series at this moment. Except Smith, South Africa’s top order was not up to mark in the second innings. Chasing 281, South Africa got a good start as the openers put on 65 runs on the board, before Neil McKenzie went back to the pavilion for 22 runs. Following his dismissal, South Africa suffered a little collapse in the middle order as they lost four wickets within 28 runs, making the score 93/4, which made the home crowds hopeful. However, that was of no avail, as Smith made a 78-run fifth wicket partnership with AB de Villiers. England could see the ray of hope for the last time when Panesar got AB de Villiers out for 27, leaving South Africa 171/5. Then Mark Boucher came into the wicket and formed an unbeaten 112-run sixth wicket partnership with Graeme Smith leading South Africa to a series victory. Boucher remained no out on 45. For his outstanding innings of unbeaten 154, Graeme Smith received the man of the match award.
For England, Andrew Flintoff and Monty Panesar took 2 wickets each, while James Anderson took the other wicket. The fourth test of the series will kick off at Oval on 7 August. Now, let us see if England can come back and manage to get a consolation victory in the final test of the series.
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