We need wickets! - Jansen

The only player to have massively enhanced their already burgeoning reputation as a test cricketer on South Africa’s tour to England is Marco Jansen.

Kagiso Rabada undoubtedly confirmed his greatness and Anrich Nortje reminded everybody that he is one of the fastest and most lethal in the game. But Jansen turned heads, culminating in his first five-wicket haul (5-35) at The Oval.

England require just 33 runs on the final morning with all 10 wickets in hand but Jansen was either unwilling to concede defeat publicly, or believes in cricketing miracles:

“Obviously we’re in a difficult situation but the plan was just to keep it as tight as possible and try to dry up the runs and create pressure, take wickets that way, but their guys came out with a positive intent and they played well. Hopefully tomorrow we can make something out of it,” said Jansen after the fourth day’s play which England finished on 97-0.

“Everyone in the team works hard, everyone’s on the same track, going towards the same goal. We call it climbing a ladder. Everyone’s working hard behind the scenes and if someone thinks they have to work on a certain area in their game, they do it. They take the responsibility, whether it’s batting, bowling or in the gym with their fitness,” Jansen said on Sunday.

Asked if he and the other bowlers felt ‘cheated’ by the failure of the batters, Jansen jumped quickly to their defence:

“Everyone can see the hard work that is going into it. Unfortunately things haven’t gone our way but definitely I wouldn’t say I feel cheated. I feel most of the time the guys are getting closer, because we can see everyone’s putting in the hard yards and that bond keeps getting better. It’s just unfortunate the way it’s playing out so far,” Jansen said.

Despite seemingly impossible odds of snatching victory, Jansen was not giving up: “Obviously we’re a bit on the back foot but the plan is to take wickets, we have to. We have to go out with an aggressive mindset but still with our game plans, go out and take wickets, whether it’s bowling a bit fuller, trying to tempt them to drive at the ball and nick them off, or whether it’s drying up the runs, we’ll chat about that and do it tomorrow. We have to take wickets,” Jansen said.