England v South Africa: Bob Willis says declaration was too cautious

Bob Willis reflects on England’s ‘cautious’ declaration at The Oval, the Flintoff-esque Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow’s improvement…

England should still win the third Test but the lateness of their declaration has hampered them when it didn’t need to.

We say a lot in the commentary box now that declarations have become too conservative and this one certainly was: setting South Africa 492 to win was too much.

I don’t know how much Joe Root is influenced by the backroom staff but I thought we might have seen a little more adventure from him in that area.

The theme of this series, and indeed many modern ones, is that sides faced with a mountain-like total in the fourth innings really struggle to get their minds around the task in hand.

So while you may have backed Hashim Amla and possibly Faf du Plessis to hang around, England should have backed themselves to bowl out South Africa for way less than 490-odd.

Yes, overhead conditions are easier but this is a fourth-day pitch and will become a five-day pitch, so I believe 420 was the number, which would also have given England’s bowlers a burst before tea.

Richie Benaud used to say there was declaration, which gave the opposition a sniff of winning, and closure, which shuts out that chance completely. The latter appears to be the modern way.

Ben Stokes, meanwhile, has been a real game-changer for England in this match with bat and ball.

His century in the first innings was high-quality and gritty, while he was unselfish in the second, not caring about his average and happy to give his wicket away as he chased quick runs for his team.

Then, with the ball, his dismissals of Quinton de Kock and Du Plessis from successive balls on Sunday evening has probably ended any hopes South Africa had of salvaging something.

It was just a shame his hat-trick ball, to Temba Bavuma, came in his following over as I had high expectations of him getting three in three with the adrenaline pumping and the crowd fired up.

Stokes’ greatest trait is probably the same as Andrew Flintoff’s: seizing the moment. Flintoff’s bowling record in Test cricket was not fantastic but he was able to change matches with his spells and I think Ben is the same.

Three players got fifties in England’s second innings, with Root’s coming off 91 deliveries, a pretty sedate pace for him.

I think he just wanted to make sure that England were not shot out as things can escalate very quickly in Test cricket, as we have seen with wickets tumbling throughout this series.

Tom Westley notched his first fifty and looked pretty composed in doing so. The game at this level is more about temperament than technique and he does seem to have the character for the job.

The great art of batting is to forget the ball before, don’t look behind if you play and miss, and ignore the close fielders and with him, all those qualities were there. I don’t think he would be fazed by sledging either.

The quickest of England’s half-centuries was scored by Jonny Bairstow, at a run a ball.

As people may remember, I was pretty dismissive of him in the past in regards to both his keeping and batting – I once likened him to a performing seal on The Verdict after one performance behind the stumps!

His batting initially, against the South Africans a few years ago, left him looking completely out of his depth – he didn’t fancy the short ball at all and was stuck in the crease, much like his county colleague Gary Ballance.

However, he is a very hard-worker who has proved me wrong and I am delighted, as I played with his father and know his mother quite well.

Jonny didn’t mope about being dropped by England and just went back to county cricket and found out about scoring runs, improving his technique and, after hitting hundred after hundred, gaining the confidence to believe he could play at a higher level.

He has come back and proved he can. All England need to nail with him now is exactly where he bats as, for me, No 7 is too low.

Live coverage of the third Test between England and South Africa – in association with Sky Ocean Rescue – concludes on Sky Sports Cricket and across our digital platforms from 10.30am on Monday.

(c) Sky News 2017: England v South Africa: Bob Willis says declaration was too cautious