South Africa vs. England: Winners and Losers from 4th Test

South Africa broke their nine-match winless streak with an emphatic performance at Centurion, beating England by 280 runs. For the first time in months, the team seemed to click and played the way everyone expected them to. 

It might have been a dead rubber, but that hardly mattered for South Africa. They needed this win, not just to hush their critics for the time being, but also to help them continue the regeneration of the side. It’s been quite a Test for the home side and here are some winners and losers. Add yours in the comments.

A number of the players who are part of the Test side will now switch over to play in the one day and T20 series. Many of those will go on to play the World T20 in India in March and the confidence boost will do them the world of good.

Heading into a limited-overs series on the back of a whitewash is never good for the psyche of the team, so this win will go a long way in giving the side a much-needed positivity injection.

Before this series, England had gone through seven different opening batsmen since Andrew Strauss’ retirement.

Alex Hales made that tally eight, and it’s fair to say that things might change yet again when their next series comes around.

Hales has not looked convincing in the role, and although he did manage a half-century, he probably hasn’t done enough to secure his place.

Kagiso Rabada took 13 wickets in the match, equalling the record set by Makhaya Ntini, who took 13 against the West Indies in 2005.

Rabada bowled with pace, grace and accuracy, and while there are some concerns over his workload, at least he can put his feet up for a few days now.

The young quick’s emergence will create some questions for selectors once Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander are both fit, but that’s not such a bad thing.

Dane Piedt, too, was impressive even if he did not get much reward for his work. The promise these two have shown will go a long way to helping South Africa through this difficult rebuilding period.

Monday and Tuesday are working days in South Africa, so it was always expected that the last two days would be empty. It’s simply not practical for South Africans to take time off work and spend it at the cricket, but it’s still a great shame that not many were at Centurion to share in the joy and relief that this win has brought.

And, it’s a great shame that not many got to watch Kagiso Rabada work his magic. Luckily, there’ll be many more of those days still to come.

They say hindsight is always 20-20 and it was proven in this Test. Many fans will be wondering “what if.”

What if South Africa had selected Quinton de Kock for the first Test? What if Stephen Cook was selected to open after he had carried his bat in the warm-up match?

There will be many questions and none of them can be answered now. What is important is that South Africa use this experience and learn from it.