South Africa vs England: Stuart Broad says win is a 'special moment' for the team

The right-arm seamer dismantled the Proteas' top order

Stuart Broad took five wickets for just one run (Getty Images)

At lunch yesterday, Trevor Bayliss had some harsh words for England. Since the head coach is a man of few words, almost all of them usually spoken softly, he would have meant he said.

The gist of his imprecation was that England had an opportunity and they should go out and grab it. Stuart Broad must have listened to every word. He took 6 for 17 in 12.1 overs, completely dismantling South Africa’s top order.

It was precisely what Bayliss and the captain, Alastair Cook, demanded. The conditions – lively surface with a hint of cloud cover on a warm day – were ideal for Broad’s type of bowling, but you have to know what you are doing.

“It’s a very special moment for the team,” Broad said. “Winning in SA is certainly not an easy thing to come by. Me and Cooky haven’t won a Test series against SA before today.

“It’s something we’ve worked very hard for. I think we got a bit lucky with conditions today, the clouds came in and the lights came on. It was a really good time to bowl, but you’ve still got to take your catches and get the ball in the right area to create pressure.”

The victory was the sweeter for being so improbable. England came here having lost in the UAE (in admittedly rather different conditions) to play the world’s No 1 ranked Test side. They have outplayed them; this win followed one by 241 runs in the First Test.

Cook said: “It’s been a really good six weeks. We started the tour really well in the warm-ups. You can look at moments in the series where we fought really well, were tested and came through it. To win two Test matches out of three and dominate quite a lot of the other one is huge credit to the guys.”