England vs SA 3rd Test: Momentum shift?

England's tour of South Africa is indeed turning out to be an intriguing one and far better contest than was expected prior to the series. When England won the first test, there was a chorus that could be heard about how strong the English side was and how it could challenge the Aussies in no time. The chorus did also include me. The first test by all means did signal a side that believed in itself and one that had the mental toughness necessary to be a top team.

However, subsequent to the first test, the tide seems to have slowly turned the South African way. In the second test, the English side did tremendously well to force a draw in a game where they were in a very poor shape after the first innings. At the end, when bad light stopped play, the game was actually tilted England's way. However, the third test saw no English fightback in the second innings after a similar to the second test debacle in the first innings. The fact that they batted last did not have anything to do with change - South Africa is extremely poor in its spin resources to pose any major problems on a wearing wicket. Although the lower half of the batting order did put up a fight and reduce the margin to less than 200, it still was a one-sided loss for the English.

So has the mometum shifted? I guess it is early to say. Although, this must have given a tremendous boost to the South African confidence after their pretty ordinary outing in India. They looked like a fighting unit. The fact that the entire team was ostensibly playing on merit and form, probably allowed for a stronger team spirit and it showed on the field. I believe this has been recognized by the South African selectors and they have recalled Mark Boucher for the fourth test - inexplicably no solid reason has ever been given for his dropping - which by all accounts was arbitrary. Boucher today is probably the second best batsmen amongst wicketkeepers in the world - after Adam Gilchrist. It will be interesting to see if he gets his job straightaway from AB De Villiers who seems to have performed a decent job with the bat and the gloves. It has also helped that Jacques Kallis is back to his best and his recent form is testimony to the fact that he has toppled Dravid as the number one batsman on the ICC rankings.