MARTIN JOHNSON

In the course of the last three England-South Africa Test matches, what was once a growing suspicion has now acquired the status of an unarguable fact. Namely, that modern international batsmen have the attention span of a gnat.
Charged with batting for four sessions to save the game at the Oval, South Africa barely made it past two. Further evidence that the game-saving rearguard action is now such a rarity that the only link between this series and the WG Grace era is that Moeen Ali and Hashim Amla both have beards capable of providing a luxury nesting site for one of th...