Crawley leads England to series win

England completed an emphatic, nine-wicket victory against South Africa on the fifth morning of the third test at The Oval to complete a come-from-behind 2-1 series victory and complete their sixth victory in seven tests this summer.

Resuming on 97 without loss in pursuit of a modest target of 130, England opener Alex Lees was given two lives inside the first 10 balls of the morning before being trapped lbw by Kagiso Rabada for 39 in the only blemish of the morning for the home side.

Lees, who was dropped by Jansen in the gully off the first ball of the innings on Sunday evening, was put down again by Kyle Verreynne and Keegan Petersen in the first two overs of the morning on 34 and 35 before departing.

Zak Crawley remained unbeaten on 69 from just 57 balls with a dozen boundaries to his name in a typically positive innings while Ollie Pope struck the winning runs to finish unbeaten on 11 from only 10 balls.

South Africa won the first test at Lord’s by an innings and 12 runs having made 326 in their only innings with 73 from opener Sarel Erwee. It was the only time they passed 200 in the series and it was their solitary half-century in the series.

England bounced back in even more emphatic fashion with victory by an innings and 85 runs in the second test at Old Trafford with centuries from captain Ben Stokes and Ben Foakes and continued the momentum to clinch the series at The Oval.

Neither of the first two tests went close to a fourth day and the final test only reached the fifth morning because there was no play on the first two days because of rain and the cancellation of the second day following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

In terms of overs bowled it was the shortest three-test series in which there were results in all three games since 1896 – and the third shortest ever.

Report Day 1
Report Day 2
Report Day 3
Report Day 4

ENGLAND: Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Ben Foakes, Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, James Anderson

SOUTH AFRICA: Dean Elgar (captain), Sarel Erwee, Keegan Petersen, Ryan Rickelton, Khaya Zondo, Kyle Verreynne, Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje