England will head into the fourth day of the second Test at Newlands in complete control after gaining a healthy lead with the bat, writes ANDRE HUISAMEN at Newlands.
The visitors reached stumps with a score of 218-4, extending their lead to 264 after South Africa were bowled out for 223 early Sunday.
Opener Dom Sibley started his innings on the front-foot but lost his opening partner in Zak Crawley, who was caught behind by Quinton de Kock off the bowling of Rabada for 25.
Joe Denly was the next man in and continued his solid form with the bat this series when he and Crawley combined for a 73-run partnership as England began to take the game away from South Africa.
Nortje managed to get a breakthrough though when he lured Denly into a hook shot, which was brilliantly caught by Dwaine Pretorius at fine leg.
Sibley then went on to his maiden Test half century shortly after the tea break and with captain Joe Root at the other end they brought up another 50-run stand and took the lead past 200 runs as the Proteas bowlers began to run out of options.
Spinner Keshav Maharaj tried to vary things up by coming over the wicket to the right-handers and despite finding a few edges that didn’t carry to Faf du Plessis at first slip, he also didn’t cause England too much trouble.
Root eventually went on to his first half-century of the series before Dwaine Pretorius finally broke the 116-run partnership after getting a ball to bounce sharply as Root edged one to a grateful Du Plessis.
Dominc Bess arrived as a night-watchman but was dismissed for 0 in the final over of the day when a review correctly found that a Nortje bouncer had graced his glove down leg-side which was duly gobbled up by De Kock behind the stumps.
Sibley will continue on Monday with his score on 85 and will greet Ben Stokes in the middle at the start of play.
The visitors begin in a commanding position and perfectly poised to set the Proteas an unassailable target as they look to square the series before heading to Port Elizabeth.
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South Africa: Pieter Malan, Dean Elgar, Zubayr Hamza, Faf du Plessis (captain), Rassie van der Dussen, Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Dwaine Pretorius, Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje.
England: Dominic Sibley, Zak Crawley, Joe Denly, Joe Root (captain), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Sam Curran, Dominic Bess, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.
Photo: BackPagePix
