England lose Crawley after winning toss and batting in 2nd Test

Team Udayavani, Jan 3, 2020, 5:43 PM IST

Cape Town: England suffered the early loss of replacement opener Zac Crawley after Joe Root won the toss and chose to bat first at Newlands on the opening day of the 2nd Test against South Africa on Friday.

Crawley was drafted into the side after regular opener Rory Burns injured an ankle while playing football in a training session and was subsequently ruled out of the tour.

The Kent opener made just four before edging Vernon Philander to Quinton de Kock in the third over.

Dom Sibley and Joe Denly took the score beyond 50 without further loss. England made three changes from the side that lost the opening Test at Centurion with fast bowler Joffra Archer also ruled out through an elbow injury.

His place went to Somerset off-spinner Dom Bess while fit-again Ollie Pope took over from Johnny Bairstow in the middle-order.

Bess was not originally a member of the touring party but was flown out on stand-by because Jack Leach, the first-choice spinner, was ill. Leach was not considered fit enough to be considered.

South Africa brought in Pieter Malan for his Test debut, taking over from the injured Aiden Markram.

South Africa lead the four-Test series 1-0.