England’s Paul Collingwood lauds Mark Wood’s X-factor and backs ‘world-class’ Jos Buttler to come good
Paul Collingwood was understandably bullish when contemplating England’s position in the fourth Test at the Wanderers after a dominant day three for the tourists.
South Africa face a chase of 465 over the last two days of the final Test, with England’s task of taking 10 wickets looking the most likely outcome, as does a 3-1 win. The Proteas looked out on their feet even before they were presented with the mother of all targets.
“We’re 465 runs ahead they’ve got to knock them off at the Wanderers, which history would tell you is not an easy thing to do,” Collingwood, England assistant coach, told BBC Test Match Special.
Light work was made of South Africa’s first innings, with 88 for six becoming 183 all out. Though it was short of the 200 follow-on target after England’s first innings of 400, no thought was given to the follow-on. The second effort, of 248 all out to boost the lead, was a move to take their advantage and “drive it home”, as Collingwood said.
The option to do so in such emphatic fashion was brought about from Mark Wood taking two of the morning’s four wickets to return a second five-wicket haul, of five for 46.
Collingwood, who was a team-mate of the fast bowler at Durham, was particularly delighted to see his fellow man from the north-east excel after an impressive performance in the previous Test in Port Elizabeth – his first in 11 months.
“I’m absolutely delighted for him,” beamed Collingwood. “I’ve played a lot of cricket with Mark Wood and to play back to back Test matches will be a lot of confidence for him. He brings his personality to the changing room and on to the park itself.
“He can win games. The more match-winners we have in the dressing room the better. The impact he has on opposition when he’s bowling 90-plus mph. He may not take the wickets but it might get wickets at the other end. This is what you need in international cricket. Some of the pitches you come across you just need an X factor and Woody’s got that.”
Another player of “X-Factor”, according to Collingwood, is Jos Buttler.
The wicketkeeper batsman, famed for his destructive qualities, went out with a whimper in his final innings of the series: scoring eight then fending a delivery from Anrich Nortje through to the keeper. He finishes with a total of 115 runs from seven innings at an average of 16.42.
From the outside, Buttler looks like a man whose travails over the last 12 months, including a gruelling World Cup and Ashes series, are catching up on him. But Collingwood refuted the idea the 29-year old needs a break and defended his output over the last month.
“If our batting line-up does the job, which it has in this series then he can go out there and be positive. Sometimes that’s not going to come off but we know what a world-class player he is. He can adapt to Test cricket and he will win games for us. He has done in the past. Players like that you’ve got to back to the hilt. Simple as that.”
South Africa coach Mark Boucher, meanwhile, has faint hope of staving off defeat.
“If you look at the amount of time we’ve got in the game, we’ve still got to look at going for a win.If we bat for two days, the run-rate is very gettable. It’s quite a few runs to chase down – it’s never been done before – but we’ve got to hold on to some sort of positivity, regarding tomorrow. And also the fact that quite a few of our batters are due as well. It’s going to be tough but we will give it a go.”
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