Watch day four of the second Test between South Africa and England, live on Sky Sports Cricket from 8am on Monday
Sunday 5 January 2020 18:05, UK
Dom Sibley dominated with the bat on day three in Cape Town, but his opening partner Zak Crawley also hinted at great promise to come.
Sibley's determined knock has undoubtedly cemented his place at the top of the order for not just the remaining two Tests of the series, but the foreseeable future - likely confining Crawley to a place on the bench once Rory Burns returns from his footballing injury.
But, as Sibley tentatively tallied three from his first 30 balls, Crawley had confidently cracked 25 off 35 deliveries at the other end. It was full-blooded, at times flawed, but also great fun to watch; "compelling cricket", according to Sky Sports' Rob Key.
Crawley showed bravery, standing up to some testing short-pitched bowling from Kagiso Rabada, while he also fired five crisply-struck boundaries in his entertaining cameo before ultimately playing one shot too many and edging Rabada behind when attempting a full-blooded drive.
Sometimes, it's not always about the amount of runs you score, it's the way you score them. Isn't that right, Jos Buttler?
Not since Haseeb Hameed made his debut in 2016 at the tender age of 19 - scoring 31 and 82 against India at Rajkot - has a new England batsman looked so unflustered so early on at Test level.
Hameed serves as a cautionary tale, however. Since injury cut short his tour three years ago, he has failed to earn a recall as his domestic form has dropped off a cliff. Hameed averaged 9.7 in 17 innings in 2018 and was released by home county Lancashire at the end of last season.
Crawley is also young, just 21 years of age, averages just a shade over 30 in first-class cricket for Kent and his two single-figure scores registered before his second-innings effort at Newlands certainly hint at the hard work still ahead.
Nasser Hussain, while impressed by Crawley, also spotted a technical fault in his eventual dismissal that will need ironing out.
"Crawley was playing nicely, positively - he took a couple of blows from Rabada - and he got his tempo right," Hussain told Sky Sports. "But something that really frustrates me; I've now seen a number of young England cricketers come in, who cannot play a proper cover drive. That's what's so impressive about Ollie Pope.
"I was doing a split-screen [on commentary] on his [Crawley's] technique, on the dominance of his bottom hand.
"It's not an overall criticism of him; Graeme Smith played in this part of the world with a closed bat face and nearly got 10,000 Test runs.
"But just be careful, as they do no bowl on your pads in Test cricket, they bowl outside off stump and, if he drives the ball with a closed face, he will nick it.
"It's something the English coaches have to look at."
Former Kent and England batsman and long-time champion of Crawley, Key, chose to look at the character of his innings over any technical failings.
"It's such a steep learning curve," said Key. "I can't tell you how far removed that is from county cricket, somewhere like Canterbury, where you've got 70, 80 mph bowlers, with the keeper up.
"I thought he stood up well to Rabada actually. That's not about technique, that is about courage - under so much pressure, a young man, 21 years of age, to be able to stand up and go toe-to-toe with him today.
"He wanted to be brave, go out there and have intent. He did than and got England off to a decent start. It was compelling cricket."
That decent start by Crawley and Sibley laid the foundations for England's dominance on day three of the second Test, closing on 218-4 with a lead of 264.
Having struggled for so long, the batting line-up seems finally to be taking shape, with the big scores hopefully set to follow starting with this second-innings effort at Newlands.
In the years following Sir Andrew Strauss' retirement in 2012, England struggled to find even one opener to make the grade at Test level. They needed two when Sir Alastair Cook then retired in 2018.
There's reason to believe they have now found not just one, not just two, but three who look capable of coping with the rigours of Test cricket. You could make that four, if you include the malleable Joe Denly, plus there's Joe Root and Ben Stokes set in stone in the middle order and the hugely-promising Pope at No 6.
There will (still) be batting collapses, it's not yet a lineup to worry the best of world cricket but, much like Crawley's innings, it's a start. Something worth investing in.
Watch day four of the second Test between South Africa and England from 8am, Monday on Sky Sports Cricket.
