Piedt: Proteas will fight

“We know as the Proteas, it’s the first plant to grow after a fire, so we are going to go out there fighting tomorrow,” were the gritty words from Dane Piedt on Tuesday evening.

“We know as the Proteas, it’s the first plant to grow after a fire, so we are going to go out there fighting tomorrow,” were the gritty words from Dane Piedt on Tuesday evening.

The Proteas are down in the first Test against England at Kingsmead, but not quite out. They’ve lost four second-innings wickets for 136 runs in chasing 416 for an unlikely victory in Durban.

They looked like they could have a reasonable chance of actually getting there despite a struggling batting unit as AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis weathered the storm after England took two wickets within three runs in the final session on day four.

But Du Plessis – who had fought hard for his nine runs off 66 balls in 103 minutes – received a devastating delivery from the lanky Steven Finn that hit the splice and shot into the hands of Alastair Cook at slip in the last over of the day.

Dale Steyn survived the three remaining balls from Finn, with De Villiers – who was gifted a life when Jonny Bairstow missed a stumping off Moeen Ali – not out on 37 off 83 deliveries (6x4).

There’s only a battling JP Duminy and Temba Bavuma left of the top seven, so few would back South Africa to get another 280 runs for victory. But they haven’t raised the white flag yet.

“It is tough. We know as the Proteas, it’s the first plant to grow after a fire, so we are going to go out there fighting tomorrow. It’s obviously a tough situation for us, but we’re really going to try and take it down to the wire,” Piedt said in a TV interview after the day’s play.

“Ja, it’s a pity that we lost him (Du Plessis) as he was playing beautifully. We would’ve definitely taken (being) three wickets down.

“(But) Batters who have come back have said that it is a beautiful batting wicket, so the talk in the change room is really positive.”

Piedt was one of the key men who restricted England to 326 in their second innings as he took his first five-wicket haul in Test cricket. The Cape Cobras off-spinner took four of the England top six batsmen, including captain Cook and the highly-rated youngster James Taylor to finish with 5/153 in 36 overs.

It was a fitting reward for Piedt after he missed nearly a year of cricket due to a major shoulder injury. “It means the world to me. It’s always been a dream of mine to take five wickets for my country, and I finally did that, in South Africa,” he said.

“I had a dislocated shoulder in the Champions League in 2014 after I made my Test debut against Zimbabwe, but it was all worth it at the end of the day. I wasn’t completely happy with my performance today, to be honest. I wasn’t landing it consistently where I wanted to. When I did, things went well.”

Finn generated good pace and bounce with the ball that was getting softer on an abrasive Kingsmead pitch, with his dismissal of Du Plessis a ripper that landed just outside off on a good length and jumped up nastily to find the edge.

He revealed that England adjusted their plans after Stiaan van Zyl (33 off 36 balls, 6x4) gave the Proteas a quick-fire start as they raced to their 50 in 9.4 overs.

“We built pressure really nicely through that last period of the day after tea. To come out and get those four wickets before the close of play was really satisfying. We knew that they would sort of go for it from the start as you had to in that situation, you had to show some positive intent,” Finn said.

“They played really well, and maybe we chased it slightly in those first overs before tea. But we managed to dry up the runs after tea and pulled it back well.

“Ideally we would’ve liked to see the back of him (De Villiers), but collectively we bowled pretty well to him. He hit some nice shots to get some boundaries, but we have created pressure there. We know he is a world-class player and he will be an important wicket for us tomorrow to try and unstick their glue, I suppose.”

* Follow @IndyCapeSport on Twitter for live updates throughout the day’s play, and visit www.iol.co.za/sport for the latest reports.

ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za

@IndyCapeSport