England ‘frustrated’ to be held up by bad light, says Stuart Broad

Stuart Broad described the England dressing room as “disappointed and frustrated” after bad light halted the final Test against South Africa with the home side 33 runs from victory. England had all 10 second-innings wickets in hand and the batters were seeing the ball well enough to have hit five boundaries in the final three overs played, including one off the last ball of the day.

Set a target of 130 runs to win the Test and the series, Alex Lees and Zak Crawley took the home side to 97 before the umpires took the players off for bad light amid a chorus of boos from the crowd.

“We’re naturally disappointed and frustrated the game came to a close with 33 needed, particularly as the guys were going so well,” said Broad, who was padded up and ready if necessary to play the role of free-hitting “nighthawk” when play ended.

“The reason was it would be unfair on the South Africa team if we finished it tonight in the dark and it poured down all day tomorrow. I can see that side of it but as a changing room we’re frustrated we didn’t get to finish it in front of the crowd that had been with us all day.”

The umpires were left with no choice but to end play, irrespective of the match situation, having set a precedent at a similar time on Saturday. “I think communication was really clear from the umpires,” Broad said. “Of course we’re frustrated and the crowd would be frustrated, but I think if you’re a neutral in the middle making the decisions it was probably a fair call to come off.”

Earlier Broad had taken three wickets as South Africa were dismissed for 169 in their second innings, in the process passing Glenn McGrath’s mark of 564 – on the fourth anniversary of Jimmy Anderson doing the same – to move second behind his