South Africa 277 for 9 (de Kock 95, Philander 28*, Curran 4-57) v England

Peaky bowlers and some blind resistance, Sam Curran defied both to capture four wickets and lead England into a comfortable position at the close of play on the opening day of the first Test against South Africa at Centurion, despite the clear discomfort of several of his team-mates on and off the pitch.

With Stuart Broad toiling gallantly, though still showing some signs of fatigue after being bedridden for days with the illness that has swept through the England camp, Jofra Archer well below his best having suffered from the same bug and Ben Stokes spending a large chunk of time off the field feeling unwell after tea, Curran took charge of the tourists' five-pronged pace attack after Joe Root had won the toss and sent the hosts in.

Curran's haul of 4 for 57 from 19 overs included the important wicket of Quinton de Kock, who appeared almost oblivious to his side's plight when he came in with South Africa floundering at 97 for 4 and raced to a 45-ball fifty. But, just as his century came into sight, de Kock was tempted by a Curran ball of impeccable length and with a hint of movement, edging to keeper Jos Buttler to be out for 95 off 128 deliveries.

Curran had also broken up an 87-run partnership for the sixth wicket between de Kock and debutant Dwaine Pretorius when he had the latter caught by Root at first slip for 33 off 45.

Earlier it looked like James Anderson - playing his 150th Test - might have slotted seamlessly back into his role as England spearhead after five months out with a calf injury when he had opener Dean Elgar out to a leg-side strangle on the first ball of this four-Test series. But a period of frustration followed as Anderson and Broad struggled to make further inroads.

Curran came on at first change, however, and after seeing his initial delivery pounded through the covers for four by Aiden Markram and an edge off the same batsman fall just short of slip two balls later, he had Markram out to an errant shot, chipping straight to Jonny Bairstow at midwicket.

More frustration followed for England's bowlers with Faf du Plessis and Zubayr Hamza posing a threat before a timely breakthrough from Broad sent Hamza on his way, caught at second slip by Stokes for 39. Hamza had looked comfortable and balanced, as exemplified by a gorgeous cover drive to the boundary off Broad upon which he held his pose like a statue and moved to 39. But then, on the very next ball, the 24-year-old Hamza - playing his third Test - prodded at a Broad delivery he could well have left outside off to Stokes, who held a the low catch with ease.

When Curran had South Africa's other debutant, Rassie van der Dussen for just 6 off 34 balls with a clever delivery angled across the right-hander and landing safely in the mits of Root at first slip via an edge, they could take some encouragement from producing a much-needed wicket in difficult circumstances.

England consolidated when Broad had du Plessis caught by Root for 29. It was Broad's 400th Test wicket this decade and put South Africa in trouble at 111 for 5. But that was the cue for de Kock and Pretorius to mount their resistance.

De Kock struck three boundaries in five balls off Curran from the first nine deliveries he faced. His 18th Test fifty included nine fours and meant he had made six 50+ scores in eight Test innings at home this year.

De Kock's innings was not without a nervous moment - or two, both off Root. He sent a Root delivery high into the air over the bowlers head, but it dropped just short of Anderson as he and Archer ran in from mid-off and mid-on when the batsman was not out 24. Then, on 35, de Kock edged Root to slip, where Stokes was unsure whether it had carried to him. With umpire Chris Gaffaney suggesting it hadn't, the soft signal of not out stood.

Once Curran had dismissed both, Archer chimed in with the wicket of Keshav Maharaj, a lean return on a tough day. England remained without the bowling services of Stokes, who returned to the field after spending time in the shade attempting to rehydrate. When Broad removed Kagiso Rabada in his second over with the second new ball, and on the last delivery of the day, he looked thrilled - and exhausted.

"That was very nice," Curran told Sky Sports of Broad's last wicket, which gave him 3 for 52 off 17.4 overs. "Rooty wanted that two or three overs with the new ball to try and strike. It was tough work but I thought we stuck at it pretty well."

On de Kock, Curran said: "You watch him in one-day cricket, he just plays his shots. In Tests he plays his natural game. Fair play to him, he played his way and he got to a good score."

Zubayr Hamza knows how to hold a pose.

He stood, in the final flourish of his drive, when he hit Jofra Archer through the covers.

He stood even longer when he timed Archer sweetly down the ground.

And he stood longest of all when he bisected extra cover and mid-off off Stuart Broad, feasting on the fullness and relishing the aftertaste.

Hamza will likely be ragged about that for many innings to come, but only because he was out to the next ball. He fished at a wide delivery that he could have left but that doesn't change the fact that he looked South Africa's most fluent batsmen, if not their most successful.

If anyone came back from India with their confidence intact, and maybe even slightly elevated, it was Hamza. From the ruins of Ranchi, with the series lost and South Africa dismissed for their lowest first-innings total on the tour, Hamza scored his first half-century, in his second Test. He held his own against the Indian pacemen who were more threatening than their spinners (yes, really) and came into his own against R Ashwin. Hamza showed himself to be technically sound, aesthetically pleasing and deserving of a decent run in a line-up searching for its new No.3.

This series is his chance to secure the most prized spot in the side, with his nearest rival Theunis de Bruyn not considered for the first two Tests, and he played with the confidence of a man who knows it.

Hamza would have been permitted a few nerves when he arrived at the crease for the second ball of the match, after seeing Dean Elgar, the most experienced member of the top three, fall victim to a leg-side strangle. Elgar was likely expecting to watch something on a length and outside off carry through to the wicketkeeper as England tested the bounce and carry. Instead, he received a leg-side half-tracker and shaped up to glance it to fine leg. Elgar misjudged, edged and was caught behind to put South Africa in a familiar position: early trouble.

It's not a place a team that is attempting to rebuild wants to be. It is not a place a relative newcomer may want to be. But it is a place from which reputations can be made and Hamza enhanced his with a commendable, if incomplete, repair job.

***

Aiden Markram is definitely not a poser, in the non-cricketing sense.

There's no pretence from the young opener, especially not when it comes to showing how much he cares about his game. Markram was so disappointed with his performances in India. 44 runs in four innings, which included a pair in the second Test - that he punched a wall and broke his wrist. That cost him a Mzansi Super League (MSL) deal and the chance to re-find form in familiar conditions, but it also showed how much it mattered to him. His next challenge is to find balance between the extremes of aggression and uncertainty because as far as ability goes, it's clear he has it.

Markram's timing, against Broad in the second over, and his instincts when he pounced on back-to-back James Anderson deliveries, were impeccable. The disdain with which he treated Sam Curran's loosener showed his appetite for taking the opposition on. But the way the rest of that Curran over played out illustrated where Markram needs to learn restraint. The second delivery was much better and beat the outside edge; this third found it, but fell short of the slips. The fourth was fired into the legs and Markram could not resist taking it on and chipping to midwicket. After cashing in and then surviving, Markram did not want to wait before cashing in again.

ALSO READ: Curran provides tonic on England's off-colour day

At 25, in only his 20th Test, he is still fairly young and will mature. The trouble is that South Africa needs his growth to happen now and his confidence to come quickly, especially because half of their top six is even more inexperienced. Rassie van der Dussen is the last of the green crop and his debut knock does not need to be overanalysed. It won't go unnoticed that he took 34 balls to score 6, a scoring rate for which the man he replaced, Temba Bavuma, was often criticised. Van der Dussen had reason to be circumspect - South Africa were 71 for 3 in the morning session when he was called upon - but he will know how the go-slow has haunted Bavuma, who may yet recover in time for the second Test.

***

And then there is Quinton de Kock, who doesn't care much for posing either.

De Kock rescued the innings from 111 for 5 through a combination of bloody-mindedness and luck and a selection of strokes that were both foolhardy and fantastic. He began with five boundaries, three off one Curran over and one-off Broad. De Kock's most assertive shot was his fifth, a slap to third man off the stand-in spin of Joe Root, which took him to 21. Root could have ended his innings two balls later, when de Kock top-edged but the ball landed safely between mid-off and mid-on.

Curran was dispatched for two more boundaries but then Root created another chance, when de Kock, on 35, edged but the ball was deemed not to have carried to Ben Stokes at slip. Another two edges off Anderson followed - the first flew over the cordon, the second scooted past gully before Root had a third bite. De Kock, on 45, top-edged a paddle sweep that once more eluded Stokes at slip.

Four balls later, de Kock brought up the only South African half-century of the day and it was cheered with the gusto a hundred would have received. Still, things did not exactly get easier for de Kock after that. He was on 59 when he almost dragged an Archer delivery onto his off stump.

It was only after the tea break, with the Centurion sun belting down, the opposition attack fighting dehydration and one wicket between de Kock and the tail, that he owned a period of the day. He lashed out - at Broad, at Anderson the tail, at anything that suggested there were runs to be had - until Curran nicked him off just as the heat was cooling and South Africa were starting to feel settled. De Kock was five short of what would have been a third century this year. He was applauded off but some of the gusto was gone.

South Africa's day did not have a final sting - quite the contrary as Kagiso Rabada was bowled off the final ball - but they will not be entirely unhappy with how they finished, even though the best batting conditions are still to come and England will be able to make use of them. But nor will South Africa be able to go so far as saying they have repaired their confidence just yet. For now, they're still posing.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Michael Pickens ran the table during Thursday’s Boxing Day Bash at Western Springs Speedway, taking both the midget and sprint car feature wins.

Pickens came out on top of a war of slide jobs with Peter Hunnibell, who led the first 10 laps of the 30-lapper for the United Truck Parts Int’l Midget Series, then roared away from the field down the stretch to take the win by 1.045 seconds over American Zach Daum.

The first 26 laps of the main event went caution-free, before a flip by Aaron Hodgson set up a four-lap dash to the finish, but Pickens never faltered following the restart.

Thursday’s midget win put to rest several near misses by the New Zealand ace in the United States of late, after he came out on the losing end of a pair of close battles with NASCAR Cup Series star Kyle Larson.

“We tried a couple of things on the car since we’ve been running (in) America lately, and I’ve got to take my hat of to Justin Insley (of King Chassis), my crew chief. He got it right on tonight,” Pickens said in victory lane. “We’re maybe lacking a little bit when there’s a big curb like that, but our car was faultless. It was faultless all night.

“This group is a whole bunch of people just going racing and having fun, and we definitely had some fun tonight.”

Pickens, an eight-time New Zealand midget champion, won in his home land on a night when neither Kyle Larson nor Christopher Bell took the green flag.

Larson was eliminated by a heavy flip during the teams heats for top nation honors, while Bell’s evening came to an end during the B-main.

Despite that misfortune for his competitors, Pickens was elated with his victory.

“It’s pretty special,” said Pickens of winning the Boxing Day Bash in his home country. “That international race was pretty unfortunate, because those two guys (Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell) were battling hard before their crashes, and there’s no one better in the world, period, than they are right now. To not have them in the feature … you want to beat them, but we’ll take the win anyhow.”

Daum’s runner-up result was the best by any American in the field, followed by Australians Kaidon Brown and Max Guildford.

“I don’t know if I could have caught him,” said Daum of Pickens. “I was way too tight to run the top like he could. A late-race restart, I might have been able to make him make a mistake, but congrats to him. Pickens ran a great race.”

Tyler Courtney was running fifth at the white flag when he crashed on the last lap and collected fellow Indiana native Zeb Wise, with both cars failing to make it to the finish line.

The sprint car feature saw Pickens lead from wire to wire in that 20-lap affair, beating out Jamie Larsen, Keaton Dahm, Daniel Eggleton and James Dahm.

The finishes:

Midgets (30 laps): 1. 1NZ-Michael Pickens; 2. 9USA-Zach Daum; 3. 3. 97AUS-Kaidon Brown; 4. 79A-Max Guildford; 5. 5A-Brock Maskovich; 6. 91A-Hayden Guptill; 7. 39A-Peter Hunnibell; 8. 7USA-Tyler Courtney; 9. 10USA-Logan Seavey; 10. 4USA-Zeb Wise; 11. 3NZ-Shayne Alach; 12. 10AUS-Travis Mills; 13. 98A-Ryan O’Connor; 14. 18A-Brett Morris Jr.; 15. 99A-Nathan Howard; 16. 57AUS-Robert Heard; 17. 33A-James Cossey; 18. 5USA-Chris Windom; 19. 27A-Hayden Williams; 20. 25A-Aaron Hodgson.

Sprint Cars (20 laps): 1. 3NZ-Michael Pickens; 2. 2NZ-Jamie Larsen; 3. 88M-Keaton Dahm; 4. 78A-Daniel Eggleton; 5. 6M-James Dahm; 6. 22A-Dean Brindle; 7. 12A-Dean Shadbolt; 8. 7USA-Craig Dollansky; 9. 21A-Kerry Brocas; 10. 62A-Dave Witton; 11. 23A-Adam Child; 12. 35A-Rob Vazey; 13. 24A-Tyler Radovan; 14. 78C-Matthew Leversedge; 15. 84P-Dean Cooper; 16. 7A-Dion Kendall (DNS); 17. 92A-Chris Kernohan (DNS); 18. 76A-Steve Smith (DNS); 19. 10A-Glen Torpey (DNS).

ACACIA RIDGE, Australia – He might not have won the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series championship, but Donny Schatz hasn’t forgotten the way to victory lane.

The 2019 Outlaws runner-up proved that full well on Thursday at Ausdeck Archerfield Speedway, piloting a No. 15 sprint car to the win in a 35-lap feature for the East Coast Logistics Sprint Car Series.

Schatz took the lead from first-half dominator Luke Oldfield on lap 18 and went from the crossed flags to the victory from there.

He pulled away to a 1.84-second margin over Oldfield, with Andrew Scheuerle, Callum Walker and Cody Maroske completing the top five.

“When we started the race, I didn’t really feel all that great, but when you put that much fuel on, it’s tough to try and get the car good all night,” Schatz noted. “These guys did a phenomenal job. We knew it was going to be a little tricky for the first 10 or 12 laps, and it was, but we got ourselves into lap traffic and were able to capitalize on a mistake by Luke to get a victory.

“The car felt good at the end of the race; that’s key. It felt stuck the way I needed it, but we still need to work a little bit on the beginning and we’ll be really happy then.”

Schatz was the only American in the 19-car starting field for Thursday’s Archerfield event.

The finish:

Donny Schatz, Luke Oldfield, Andrew Schuerele, Callum Walker, Cody Maroske, Kevin Titman, Brent Kratzmann, Tim Farrell, Bryan Mann, Kristy Bonsey, Dan Murray, Ryan McNamara, Mick Sauer, Andrew Baumber, Jai Stephenson, Mitchell Gee, Allan Woods, Mitch Gowland, Andrew Corbet.

GRANVILLE, Australia – Brad Sweet hasn’t slowed down since winning the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series title, picking up a victory on the opening night of Ultimate Sydney Speedweek at Valvoline Raceway on Thursday.

Sweet could not be stopped during the 35-lap Valvoline Australian Sprint Car Grand Prix, engaging in a torrid slider duel with Sam Walsh early before pulling away from Jamie Veal late in the race.

The Grass Valley, Calif., native ultimately crossed under the checkered flag 1.608 seconds clear of Veal, with Marcus Dumesny completing the podium.

American Carson Macedo was two seconds adrift of that trio, finishing fourth.

“American fans might not know names like Sam Walsh and Marcus Dumesny yet, but they will soon,” Sweet noted. “I have so much respect for the guys who race here week in and week out. I’m really looking forward to racing here for the next few nights of Speedweek.”

Ben Atkinson completed the top five finishers, followed by Walsh, whose car speed faded in the second half and left him with a sixth-place finish.

Jordyn Brazier, Michael Stewart, Robbie Farr and Ian Madsen completed the top 10.

Two-time All Stars Circuit of Champions titlist Aaron Reutzel was poised to play a starring role in the feature as well, but flipped on the opening lap of the main and finished last in the 24-car field.

The finish:

1. Brad Sweet; 2. Jamie Veal; 3. Marcus Dumesny; 4. Carson Macedo; 5. Ben Atkinson; 6. Sam Walsh; 7. Jordyn Brazier; 8. Michael Stewart; 9. Robbie Farr; 10. Ian Madsen; 11. Lynton Jeffrey; 12. Grant Tunks; 13. Jeremy Cross; 14. Daniel Cassidy; 15. Jessie Attard; 16. Warren Ferguson; 17. Michael Saller; 18. Daniel Sayre; 19. Ryan Jones; 20. Andrew Wright; 21. Troy Little; 22. Danny Reidy; 23. Alex Orr; 24. Aaron Reutzel.

STAFFORD SPRINGS, Conn. – After two seasons in the SK Light division, Hampden, Mass., native Mikey Flynn will move up to Stafford Speedway’s premier SK Modified division in next year.

Flynn is yet another graduate of the Monday night Wild Thing Kart Series that will be joining the SK Modified field and Flynn is set to live out one of his dreams by racing in the SK Modified division.

“I’m definitely excited,” said Flynn.  “It’s a big move for us and this is something that I’ve always wanted to do.  I’ve watched racing at Stafford since I was a little kid and the races you always watch are the SK’s.  I’m a little nervous because the competitors are the toughest around.  We ran the Fall Final and it wasn’t so much how fast the cars are but it was how fast the racing is and how quick you have to make moves.  The SK drivers are so good at that and they have a lot of experience at making those quick moves on the track.”

Flynn made his SK Modified debut in last season’s NAPA Fall Final, where after qualifying for the feature event through the consolation event, he finished on the lead lap in 18th place.  The experience that Flynn gained that weekend will be instrumental in helping him establish a baseline for his No. 24 Ballyheigue Farm machine when the NAPA Spring Sizzler rolls around.

“I think those 40 laps were the most I’ve ever learned in a racecar,” said Flynn.  “Just making that race was hard with the handicapping and we had to qualify through the last chance qualifiers race.  That experience should be a big help for me because I won’t be coming into the season blind.  It was big for us to make that race.  Some good drivers got sent home and didn’t make the race so for us to make it into the field with our stuff and the same car we ran in the SK Lights with just changing the motor was huge for us.”

Flynn will also enlist the assistance of Ken Barry from SPAFCO to help him with chassis setup.

“Ken Barry is going to help us out with the car with putting setups in the car and maintaining the car,” continued Flynn.  “I’m excited and happy to be working with Kenny this season.  I think I’ll definitely need his knowledge and if I want to get better I’ll need his help to get where I want to be as a driver.  I’m going to listen to anything he has to tell me.”

During his two full seasons of SK Light competition, Flynn finished 2nd 4 different times and had three other podium finishes, but went without a feature victory.  While Flynn would like nothing more than to put his No. 24 into NAPA Victory Lane, his focus for his rookie season will be on becoming a consistent car and taking home the Rookie of the Year trophy at the end of the season.

“I think we were probably the fastest SK Light car that didn’t win a race,” said Flynn.  “We went into turn three a couple of times on the final lap in the lead and weren’t able to get a win, so that was disappointing.  But we’re not really focusing on winning a race just yet.  Rookie of the Year would be our goal.  With how the rookie class is shaping up for this season, I think it’s going to be really competitive.  Once we’ve started to finish a couple races and we get into the handicapping, being able to stay up front and be competitive without falling to the back of the field will be another goal.”

With changing from the SK Light to SK Modified division, Flynn will now be racing 40-lap events rather than 20-lap events and he says that getting to grips with the increased lap count as well as managing his tires for the season will be one of his biggest adjustments to make.

“I think keeping organized with things like our tire inventory and learning how to race with the competition for 40 laps is going to be the biggest change for us from the SK Lights,” said Flynn.  “I remember at the Fall Final last year once we hit 20 laps and then when it was lap-30 I was asking ‘Are we close to done yet?’  It’s a little more wear and tear on the cars but I’m sure we’ll get used to it.  The first couple weeks are going to be very important for us.  We’d like to be able to finish races and keep the car in one piece to load back into the trailer at the end of the night.  If we can do that, we can start to make adjustments and see what we like in the car and what we don’t like.”

With the NAPA Spring Sizzler still four months away, Flynn can’t wait to get back out on track and get down to business kicking off his rookie season.

“I’m counting down the days,” said Flynn.  “I was itching to get right back out there on the track after the Fall Final.  I’m excited for what we have with Kenny and excited for all the new stuff we’re putting in the car.  I think it’s going to be an exciting year.”

Not so long ago, had an England team produced a performance like this at a moment like this, it might well have been blamed on the over-indulgences of Christmas. Indeed, a couple of decades ago, some members of an England team credited a memorable victory in Sydney, in January 2003, precisely to the manner in which they had celebrated over the previous days.

There's no question of that here. Yes, England's bowlers struggled with their lines and lengths. And yes, they struggled to generate the pace we might have expected on the Highveld. Having won the toss and inserted, a total approaching 280 is probably a fair few more than they anticipated.

The simple truth is that, through little fault of their own, England have gone into this game underprepared. Jofra Archer and Stuart Broad, who actually bowled quite nicely after his first spell, have not been able to bowl a competitive delivery on tour ahead of this match due to illness while James Anderson is, for all his class and experience, playing his first first-class game since August. There were times here when it showed.

To make matters worse, in the afternoon session Ben Stokes reported symptoms of the illness that has ravished this squad in the early stages of this tour. As a result, he spent a considerable part of the day in the dressing room with the medical team trying to rehydrate him.

It's not just that they hadn't enjoyed much match practice, either. It's that they looked, unusually among modern England sides, a little short of the peak levels of fitness to which we have become accustomed. And that, again, is not a criticism. The fact is, three of the five-man seam attack have been ill in recent days and have, as a consequence, struggled to put in either the training sessions they might have liked or take on the fluids and food required. In this heat, at this altitude, such issues are mercilessly exploited.

So while there is no way we can class this as a good bowling performance, we do have to be mindful of the mitigating factors. Perhaps, in retrospect, the long training session England were put through on Christmas Eve was self-defeating, but it was an understandable attempt to make up for lost time. Really, England have been quite unlucky on this tour to date and it would be churlish not to acknowledge it.

They also took a couple of questionable gambles, though. The first was inserting South Africa on a surface which is famous for its deterioration; the second in opting for that all-seam attack.

There was some logic in both decisions. There was, as Joe Root pointed out at the toss, a little live grass on the surface he hoped his bowlers "could exploit" in the opening session. And while the surface was likely to ease after the first couple of hours, England could be forgiven for concluding they might have the opportunity to bat on the pitch at its best on day two. There was certainly assistance available for the bowlers in that first session; they simply didn't put the ball in the right areas often enough to take advantage of it.

It was a risk, though. Not only did it expose England's under-the-weather bowlers to an early outing - might they have recovered further given another 24 hours? - but it also sentenced England to the likelihood of batting last on a pitch which tends to offer an increasing amount of variable bounce. Some knowledgeable locals feel that, in this heat - mid-30s - the cracks will open as early as the second afternoon.

The absence of a spinner was perhaps more understandable. Jack Leach is unavailable through illness and Matt Parkinson, for all his white-ball promise, has not been bowling especially well in training. Indeed, suggestions are that Dom Bess, who hasn't played a match since been added to the squad, has risen above him in the pecking order. Root looked the best of the spinners in the warm-up matches here.

But the absence of that spinner was shown up most of all in the period ahead of the second new ball. With the ball softer and the swing having all but vanished, England were left - not for the first time - to tread water in the period when a good spinner might have proved invaluable. Not for the first time it occurred that, had Moeen Ali been managed a little more sensitively, he might be here and playing his part: he averages 21.14 with the ball in overs 61-80 over the last couple of years. Anderson, by comparison, averages 101 and Broad 47.50.

ALSO READ: Curran takes four, de Kock 95, on see-saw day

Equally, England's slow over-rate - there were 15 overs still to be bowled at the scheduled close at 5pm and, in the end, seven overs were lost from the day - may come back to haunt England. In this day and age, they can be penalised World Test Championship points for such tardiness. A spinner would have helped.

We probably shouldn't be surprised that Sam Curran was the pick of the bowlers. Unlike Archer and Broad, he has not spent much of the last week curled up on his bathroom floor and unlike Anderson, he enjoyed some competitive cricket in the last few months. By getting through 19 overs on the first day - he has only bowled more overs once in a Test innings - despite suffering from cramp, he at least helped mask the holes elsewhere in the attack.

There was more than that, though. In these circumstances, with the ball offering just a little lateral movement, his skills and his left-arm angle offer England a valuable point of difference. If the delivery to dismiss Quinton de Kock, a peach of an outswinger that came at a time when the other bowlers were struggling to find any movement, was the highlight, the dismissals of Rassie van der Dussen and Dwaine Pretorius - both anxiously playing for inswing that never came - were also testament to his skills.

There were still moments, such as when his short ball sat up a little too invitingly, when you wondered how Curran would fare in less helpful conditions. But the encouraging thing is that, at 21, he is improving all the time with plenty of scope for further progress. These were not only his best Test figures but by far his best with the Kookaburra ball. This was a desperately tough day for a sickly England side but Curran, at least, offered hope for the future - both immediate and long-term.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Eli Manning always drank beer on the team bus. It was a Broadway Joe kind of thing to do, and a fact that might run counter to an image Manning spent absolutely no time crafting. But win, lose or draw, Manning would find someone on the road to buy him a six-pack or 12-pack that he would carry to the back of the bus, on ice, and share with some veterans as they discussed the game on the ride to the airport.

Even then, Manning's consistency stunned his New York Giants teammates. "It was unbelievable," said Lawrence Tynes, the kicker who won two championships with the quarterback. "He had a guy in every f---ing stadium in the league to get him that beer."

Manning will miss those bus rides as much as he will miss anything else after he dresses Sunday for the final time as a Giant, and likely for the final time as an NFL player. He will not miss the constant dissection of his public personality, or lack thereof, and the fascination with what has been a near-perfect marriage between the world's loudest marketplace and a quiet child of the South who spent his career projecting that oblivious vibe he wore as clearly as his jersey No. 10.

By design, it seemed, Manning carried himself like a tourist hopelessly lost in the middle of Times Square. On his first couple of trips into Manhattan with his Long Island-born-and-bred friend, Greg Leder, "Eli looked at me like, 'I'm not sure I'll ever figure out how to get around this place,'" Leder said. "I said, 'It's pretty easy, Eli. There's an East Side and a West Side and some numbers in between. If you can count, you'll figure it out.'"

Of course, Manning figured out New York better than any championship athlete of his generation not named Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera. He was a lot smarter and tougher than he ever wanted to look, and he quickly understood that making it big in the big city meant following the Jeter/Rivera model of winning multiple titles, staying clear of controversy and showing up every day to work.

Maybe the Ole Miss star knew something before the 2004 draft that few others did. Peyton's kid brother did not want the San Diego Chargers to take him with the first overall pick even though his laid-back disposition appeared to match up with that laid-back town. Manning never adequately explained what he had against San Diego, but his agent, Tom Condon, had serious intel on the franchise (he represented Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer, quarterback Drew Brees and running back LaDainian Tomlinson), and his father, Archie, grew up a Giants fan in Mississippi because his own dad loved former Ole Miss quarterback Charlie Conerly, who won a title with the Giants in 1956.

Ernie Accorsi, the Giants' general manager in 2004, fell hard for Manning as a prospect and pushed his San Diego counterpart A.J. Smith to trade the No. 1 pick for the fourth pick and some extras, not including Smith's desired pass-rushing target, Osi Umenyiora. A couple of nights before the draft, Manning went out with Leder, who had attended college with Ellen, the wife of Eli's oldest brother, Cooper. Leder had been assigned by Cooper and Ellen to shepherd Eli around town, and after eating at Smith & Wollensky, the pair ended up at a bar where some talking heads on TV were discussing Manning's desire to play in New York. A bouncer turned to Leder -- thinking he was Eli's agent -- and said, "You've got to get this done somehow, someway."

"We're working on it, buddy," Leder responded.

Smith drafted Manning, Accorsi drafted Philip Rivers, and then the Giants shipped Rivers and three picks west for their guy. Eli was blitzed by media and fans early in his career for his dazed, sleepy-eyed expressions and hangdog-ish body language, for not showing Peyton-like fire when things went awry. Tiki Barber questioned his leadership style. Even the offensive coordinator, Kevin Gilbride, ripped Manning in a practice for allegedly not caring enough that the defense was dominating his unit. (Eli shot Gilbride an intense look that most definitely said otherwise.)

For a while there Archie Manning, who had his prime wasted by the hapless New Orleans Saints, wondered whether Eli or the coach, Tom Coughlin, would get run out of town first. Accorsi would occasionally eat dinner with his son in Manning's adopted town, Hoboken, New Jersey, and stare at the building that housed Eli's 3,555-square-foot condo and think, "That poor guy, he probably can't even go out. And I'm the one that put him here."

Everybody was worried about Eli. Everybody except Eli. "I never doubted myself," he would say. "I never lost confidence. I love being in New York. ... I knew it was the right place. It just takes time."

Manning made his first real stand after he injured his throwing shoulder in the 2007 opener, and after it was reported he might miss a month while recovering. He promised friends he would play through the pain, and sure enough, he buckled up his chin strap and started the following Sunday. Ten weeks later, Manning somehow threw three pick-sixes and four interceptions in all against Minnesota in an effort that compelled the retired Accorsi to flee the building in the middle of the game. Before the man who had acquired Eli could get to his car, a fan shouted at him, "Hey, thanks for leaving us with this mess."

Eli recovered to nearly beat the 15-0 Patriots at the end of the regular season, and then to finish off the 18-0 Patriots at the end of the postseason. To celebrate his Super Bowl XLII triumph later that week, Manning joined a small handful of teammates and friends and their wives at one of the city's most iconic restaurants, Rao's, in East Harlem. Eli's chair happened to be wedged up against one occupied by Yogi Berra.

"Mr. Berra," Manning said, "when you win a championship in New York, they really know how to take care of you."

The old catcher congratulated the young quarterback on his first title, and then said, "Just so you know, you have nine more to go." Manning was floored by the fact that Berra had won 10 World Series rings with the Yankees. "Five in a row, too," Berra told him. At the end of the night Manning, Berra, Giants center Shaun O'Hara and restaurant owner Frank Pellegrino were locked arm in arm while singing "New York, New York" before a rollicking packed house.

Leder was taking it all in from his table, watching Eli and thinking about that innocent child of a Southern sheriff played by Ron Howard on "The Andy Griffith Show" in the 1960s.

"That's when I knew Opie from Mayberry was going to do just fine in NYC," Leder said.

Manning became a two-time Super Bowl MVP four years later, again at New England's expense, yet it was the grit he showed in his two overtime conference championship games that some close to him remember most. In sub-Arctic conditions in Green Bay, Giants trainer Ronnie Barnes told Manning he was risking the use of his right hand, beyond that January 2008 game, if he didn't wear a glove; Eli still refused to wear one and handled the same conditions that freezer-burned Coughlin's face better than Brett Favre did. In January 2012, Manning threw for 316 yards and two touchdowns at San Francisco while absorbing a vicious pounding that inspired the wife of offensive line coach Pat Flaherty to call her spouse and ask why he tried to get his quarterback killed.

Eli made 210 consecutive regular-season starts for a reason. His trainer at Ole Miss, Tim Mullins, said that Manning was one of the toughest players the Rebels ever suited up, and that he had played through a knee injury the school kept quiet. When it appeared in 2009 that Manning might go to the Giants' bench with plantar fasciitis, Mullins told him to wear cowboy boots to stabilize his foot and reduce pain whenever he could. "If something isn't broken," the trainer said, "Eli's mentality is that he's going to be out there."

His durability was matched by his relentlessly consistent approach. Eli cried when Coughlin was forced out in 2015, and again when Ben McAdoo benched him in 2017, and he had stunned himself, his teammates and about 20,000 fans at a Giants Stadium pep rally after Super Bowl XLII when he dramatically waved his arms to the sky in demand of more crowd noise. "I don't know what came over me," Manning said as he left the ceremony. But over 16 seasons on the job, he rarely showed emotion in good times or in bad.

His father knew Eli truly didn't read daily stories about his team, unlike the hyperaware Peyton, and so he would call his youngest son when a crisis was brewing. "There were a couple of things that Odell [Beckham Jr.] had to say, and I had to say, 'Eli, Odell said this,' and he didn't know," Archie said. "I just didn't want him to be embarrassed when he was asked about it. Once I had to call him and say, 'Eli, you need to know that Tiki [Barber] just blew up Coach Coughlin.' He just said, 'OK.'"

Archie said he never heard Eli utter a bad word -- even in their most private conversations -- about a teammate, a coach or a media member, a claim supported by a wide circle of Eli loyalists. Manning was all but forced to publicly fire back on Barber in 2007, but outside of that, O'Hara said, "Eli might need a bottle a wine to vent a bit about a receiver running the wrong route. It was very rare."

Giants coaches and officials universally admired the franchise quarterback's ability to build trust with his teammates. Behind closed locker-room doors, Eli was a master prankster, changing teammates' phone settings to Mandarin, dipping his offensive linemen's dress shoes in purple paint and applying Icy Hot to Brandon Jacobs' deodorant stick. One of his regular victims, Zak DeOssie, the last fellow member of the 2007 title team before his career likely ended last month on injured reserve, said Manning used his grace and humility more than his sense of humor to bond with younger Giants.

"There is an age gap in the locker room," DeOssie said, "and it's not easy for a 38-year-old to connect with a 22-year-old. Eli always took the time to talk with players at any position, no matter their age. It was amazing to see how friendly he was with everyone."

Like Jeter, who called Manning to offer support during his rookie struggles in 2004, Eli remained available and professional with the media while saying nothing of substance. He wouldn't even confirm for his own father whether he named his fourth child and only son, Charlie, after Conerly. "Typical Eli," Archie said. Also typical of Eli was his policy of talking to reporters on Mondays after losses, so he could shoulder the blame, but not on Mondays after victories, so his teammates could enjoy their fair share of credit.

Around his home in Summit, New Jersey, or around his mansion in the Hamptons, or around his favorite Manhattan haunts, Manning was almost always willing to sign autographs for fans, even the most intrusive ones who interrupted his dinner. He sometimes declined requests for pictures when he was out, according to one friend, because he tired of his photos contributing to the social media wave of goofy Eli faces.

Manning burned to be a champion, not a celebrity. Cooper Manning recalled meeting Eli in Midtown in 2008 -- maybe it was at the corner of 54th and Madison -- and finding him dressed in jeans and a collared shirt, standing alone and unbothered, and thinking about how much his brother loved just blending in.

One night Cooper was eating dinner at Campagnola on the East Side when James Caan pushed through the door. "He walked right to the middle of the dining room, made sure everyone saw him, and then just walked out," Cooper said. "I thought, 'Eli would never do that in his wildest dreams.'"

Manning's regular-guy act played well in the market. Family and friends sometimes teased Eli, from New Orleans, and his wife, Abby, from Nashville, about how perfectly they have fit into the city's culture and New Jersey suburbia, about how they never return to Oxford, Mississippi, anymore. Archie called his son a "Jersey boy," and others called him a "city slicker." Cooper joked with his brother that he'll soon have a Jersey accent and that his children will all end up at Rutgers.

Eli responded to it all with his trademark aw-shucks shrug. His no-trade clause meant the world to him. He cherished the only job he has ever wanted until he lost it to the rookie, Daniel Jones, an Eli clone with upgraded athleticism. Manning thought he would get eight games this season to prove he could still win, but his third and final Giants coach, Pat Shurmur, made the switch at 0-2. As much as he hated his role with the second string, Manning still mentored Jones, still did all the things that made him one of the league's most respected figures.

Eli still remained heavily invested in his Tackle Kids Cancer program, and still handed out $2,000 checks to Giants staffers for the holidays, and still honored the power of his reach as a decorated athlete. Leder, a 50-year-old executive in the financial industry described as Eli's third big brother and first consigliere, has an 11-year-old relative with cerebral palsy who recently faced surgery, a Manning fan named Owen with an affection for people who assure him they have his back. Eli didn't just make Owen a video of support last month, during his time on the bench. He made sure to close his message by saying, "I just want you to know one thing: I've got your back."

These are the reasons everyone desperately wanted Eli to have that one last winning moment he got in MetLife Stadium two Sundays ago, courtesy of Jones' ankle injury. Manning earned his standing ovations and his final victory with his parents, family and friends in attendance. Shurmur pulled him in the closing minutes, and soon enough Eli was near tears as he waved and nodded and thumbs-upped the cheering, chanting crowd. Accorsi said the look of relief and joy on the quarterback's face matched Manning's expression when he stopped by the GM's Giants Stadium office in the immediate wake of his first career victory, over Dallas, to close the 2004 season.

On his way off the MetLife field, Manning stopped in the tunnel to greet his wife and children and to pose for pictures that will serve as future proof to 10-month-old Charlie of what his old man meant to the game. "Hall of Fame, baby," one fan yelled as Eli held Charlie in his arms, the cameras flashing around them. "First ballot, baby."

In the locker room, Manning executed his last prank as a starter, taking Shurmur's game ball and punctuating his team-centric speech by saying, "I'll see you all Wednesday," forcing his coach to give his players an unplanned day off. The NFL might have had the last laugh, however, as a note posted at Manning's locker informed Eli that he'd been randomly selected to report to the bathroom to provide a urine sample for a doping test. Seriously.

After Manning left his postgame news conference and headed for the exit, his daughters ran up to him for hugs, and onlookers clapped for him and patted him on the back. It was a sharp departure from the Monday night scene after the loss to Dallas in November, when Manning was completely ignored in the hallways while making the purposeful walk from the locker room (no news conference for him) to his car with his head down, all but trying to fade to black.

Someone sent Manning's father a highlight video of his final first-string day as a Giant, and Archie grew emotional when he watched it in his office. He said Eli is perfectly healthy, and capable of playing for another team next year. This isn't quite like Peyton's farewell at Super Bowl 50, where the boys' mother, Olivia, told two reporters on the field that she absolutely wanted Peyton to retire.

Could Eli land with another franchise, such as, say, Peyton's old Indianapolis Colts? Will he choose to retire after failing to win a postseason game over the past eight seasons? Will he end up in Canton either way?

Time will answer all of the above. Meanwhile, Manning has clearly decided to enjoy his possible endgame, and to worry less about concealing the playful side of his personality from public view. He celebrated Jones' five-touchdown performance against Washington on Sunday by going out to dance, throw napkins in the air (yep, napkins) and play drinking games with his replacement at a bar in Hoboken, the very town where the GM who had drafted him feared a struggling young Eli would hide in his condo.

Now Eli will dress as a Giant for the last time Sunday against Philadelphia, and then leave all of New York's burdens for Jones, Sam Darnold and Gerrit Cole to carry forward. They would all be wise to follow the Manning model.

"He's the most consistent human being I've ever played with," Lawrence Tynes said. "If you can build a player to handle playing quarterback in New York, you would build an Eli."

Said another former teammate, Shaun O'Hara: "I never heard him say, 'Man, I was slinging it today.' Or, 'Did you see that throw to [David] Tyree or to [Mario] Manningham?' He never once bragged about any throw, any play or any game."

The night after his victory over the Dolphins, Eli dined with friends at Campagnola -- the same place where his brother Cooper saw James Caan act the part of a big movie star. An elderly customer spotted Manning, and then turned to a nearby stranger, Leder, who was about to dine with the quarterback.

"That right there is the classiest, most dependable sports figure to ever play in the tri-state area," the elderly man said.

In the end, Elisha Nelson Manning might ask, who needs a third Super Bowl title when you can put that trophy in your case?