England shuts down South Africa in second innings to win match & away series

I don't follow cricket a lot.  I do find the game fascinating, both for its scoring tedium (which really isn't that easy) and the bolts of wicket-taking that happen in all sorts of sudden and surprising ways.

Now, normally a Test innings score ranges from 200 to 400 runs.  200 isn't very good.  400 is pretty good.  Lower than 200 is verging on awful, and higher than 500 is outstanding (and usually leads to a win).

So what's a score of 83?   If you're the team that scores it, it's stunningly bad.  If you're on the side that inflicted it, it's phenomenally good (especially if one of your bowlers took six wickets, which is what Stuart Broad did, aided by a couple of amazing catches by James Taylor).

That's what happened.  Instead of a tight match (because both England and South Africa were in the 300's in their first innings), it turned into a laugher that was easy to win.  Because they won the first match, and drew the second, this win gives them the series played in South Africa, and it's never easy to win when you're the away team (or as cricket calls you, the tourists).

Here's the report from the Daily Mail on the strange and exciting last day.

England claim series victory in South Africa after Stuart Broad rips through the Proteas with 6-17 to set up seven-wicket victory