England took just under half an hour to administer the coup de grace to South Africa on the final morning of the Test summer at the Oval, romping to a nine-wicket victory in the deciding match in front of a scattering of fans for whom the allure of free tickets and the guarantee of a home victory had proved strong enough to justify the journey to Kennington.
The greatest concern that England faced along the way was a concussion test for Ollie Pope after he attempted a reverse ramp off Marco Jansen and succeeded only in deflecting the ball off his wrist and into his chin. England had needed only a trivial 33 runs when the light dimmed and stumps were called on day four, with all 10 second-innings wickets in hand, and with the weather forecast dry, the outcome was never in the slightest doubt.
