Stokes was trying to get under the skin of Bavuma knowing England’s last chance of forcing a result was to blow away the lower order after finally dismissing Hashim Amla and taking two wickets in four balls.
Hashim Amla made 201 runs
When Bavuma inside edged a four down to third man, Stokes lost his temper and it did not take a skilled lip reader to make out from the television pictures that he said to the South African batsman “you are absolutely ****.” Soon after the umpires called over Alastair Cook, the England captain, and no doubt told him Stokes had to cut down on the verbals.
• South Africa vs England, second Test scoreboard
Rarely is sledging witty or original and Stokes has a short fuse. But Stokes was one of the first England players to congratulate Bavuma on his century, a gesture the batsman appreciated.
“He is a tough competitor and he did come hard,” he said.”Everything in the spirit of the game and after I reached the milestone he was man enough to come and say congratulations and that is something you can respect in a man.
Temba Bavuma hits out on the way to his century
“Some of the things he said I could not really hear. But the more he spoke to me the more it fired me to knuckle down and stay focused on the task at hand.”
The harshest of judges would say England dropped eight catches and fielders failed to go for two further chances as they toiled out in the field for 211 overs, the longest they have fielded since Brian Lara made 400 in Antigua in 2004.
Steven Finn was one of the guilty droppers for England on day four
Perhaps the costliest catch was on the second evening when Joe Root dropped a relatively straightforward slip chance off Ab De Villiers when he was on five. That would have opened up South Africa’s vulnerable lower middle order but instead De Villiers and Amla dug in and by the time the breakthrough came the likes of Faf Du Plessis and Bavuma did not have to bat their team out of a dire situation.
“One or two were half chances and I would not count it as ten,” said Paul Farbrace, the England assistant coach. “Four or five others we should have been catching. It would be tough to take if the players were not working hard on fielding and catching. We would be very disappointed then. But Trevor Bayliss believes fielding is an attitude thing and he instills belief in fielding and will continue to work on that. We do not make excuses. We missed four to five opportunities to take catches and move things on in our favour.
James Anderson celebrates the wicket of Faf du Plessis
“We have done pretty well to be fair for the bowlers to create chances. Steven Finn was a doubt coming into the first Test but has been our stand out bowler and James Anderson, the longer game has gone on, has bowled very well indeed.”
This is the first occasion two teams have scored 600 in the first innings of a Test match in South Africa. Stokes double century and Bavuma’s hundred have made it a memorable match but one without the prospect of a thrilling result unless there is a remarkable collapse today.
“None of the bowlers figures are bad and they knew it was going to be a tough job,” said Farbrace. “ They stuck to their guns, worked hard and we are now hoping the batters can have decent bat tomorrow. You get on pitches like this occasionally. It won’t alway nip around and give you encouragement so they knew they needed to work hard.”
There was some good news for England with Dale Steyn looking set to miss the third Test at Wanderers next week as he continues to recover from a shoulder strain suffered in Durban last week.
England's 10 missed chances in Cape Town
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