England vs South Africa – 2nd Test Match Preview & Prediction

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THE FACTS

When is England vs South Africa taking place? Thursday, August 25th, 2022 – 11:00 (UK)

Where is England vs South Africa taking place? Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester

What is the expected weather for England vs South Africa? 19-24c with a chance of thundery showers on Day 1 and light rain across Day 5, but dry across Days 2, 3 and 4 with sunny intervals on the latter two of those three days.

What channel is England vs South Africa on? The match will be televised live on Sky Sports for UK viewers

Where can I stream England vs South Africa? Sky Sports subscribers in the UK can stream this match live via Sky Go

LAST MEETING
South Africa beat England by an innings and 12 runs

THE TEAM NEWS

ENGLAND

• After four consecutive Test victories this summer, England were brought back down to earth with a bang at Lord’s as their batting line-up was twice demolished by South Africa, subjecting the hosts to an innings thrashing, their first defeat under the permanent Test captaincy of Ben Stokes.
• Whilst England are unlikely to panic themselves into making changes, pace bowler Ollie Robinson will replace Matthew Potts whilst on the batting front, Zak Crawley's tortuous run of form surely cannot carry on for much longer, with the lack of other opening options perhaps being the main thing keeping him in the side at present.
• One of the best performing domestic batters of the summer Harry Brook could come in and open instead of Crawley having been on the edge of selection all summer, but that would be an extremely big ask of a batter who primarily bats in the middle order.

SOUTH AFRICA

• Question marks were asked of South Africa’s batting line-up heading into this series, but they stood up well enough at Lord’s to accrue 326 in their first and only innings following England’s 165, which proved more than enough for the Proteas’ magnificent bowling attack to work with, running through England again for 149 and sealing an innings win.
• Kagiso Rabada was a doubt for the first Test but after passing a fitness test, the fast bowler proved why he is one of the best players in the world, taking seven wickets across the match including a five-wicket-haul and having shown no ill-effects from that ankle injury, Rabada should be set to go again in Manchester.
• At Emirates Old Trafford, pitches have proven notoriously conducive to spin in Test cricket so it would be no surprise if the tourists replaced one of their four pacemen (most likely Lungi Ngidi) with a second spin-bowler in Simon Harmer to partner Keshav Maharaj, but aside from that potential change the same South African side is expected.

THE PREDICTION

With the greatest respect to both New Zealand and India, England came across comfortably the strongest bowling unit they have faced since the appointment of Stokes and Brendon McCullum as Test captain and coach respectively. Pace, accuracy, deception, South Africa have got the lot and when a player of Harmer’s quality is carrying drinks, that says everything about how strong they are. England’s old frailties came to the fore and there was no bashing their way out of trouble this time. As Root and Bairstow twice fell cheaply, so did England’s chances and things won’t get any easier for them this time round. South Africa’s batting may not be of the same standard as their bowling, but they are gritty and dug in extremely well at Lord’s.

It doesn’t matter what sort of pitch is prepared at Emirates Old Trafford, South Africa will represent formidable opposition either way. A pitch with pace allows Rabada and Anrich Nortje to work their magic, a pitch that turns brings Maharaj (and potentially Harmer) into the game, whilst a pitch which offers nothing to any bowler greatly reduces the likelihood of a result, which England desperately need with them being 0-1 down in the three-match series. Whichever way this second Test goes, expect ball to dominate over bat on both sides and backing under 956.5 total runs to be scored across the match has to be favoured.