Key events
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WICKET! Cummins c Breetzke b Mulder 7, Australia all out 99
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WICKET! Starc c Rickelton b Rabada 1, Australia 97-9
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WICKET! Smith b Mulder 28, Australia 96-8
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WICKET! Webster c b Jansen 12, Australia 84-7
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Lunch – South Africa are all over it, with Australia 69 for 6
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WICKET! Carey c Rickelton b Jansen 0, Australia 65-6
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WICKET! Renshaw c Harmer b Jansen 12, Australia 65-5
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Nortje goes off injured
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WICKET! Labuschagne c Harmer b Nortje 14, Australia 45-4
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WICKET! Head lbw Jansen 14, Australia 22-3
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WICKET! Boland c Rickelton b Jansen 2, Australia 11-2
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Preamble
WICKET! Cummins c Breetzke b Mulder 7, Australia all out 99
He only had one route in mind, the Australian captain, which was to try to hit some sixes to improve the balance sheet. I’m really not sure that would have done any good, as opposed to taking more overs out of the game. Big swipe into the leg side, and Breetzke at deep midwicket holds it.
42nd over: Australia 98-9 (Cummins 7, Hazlewood 1) Just one wicket to go for South Africa. Hazlewood wafts, then again, and gets a run at his second attempt. Cummins is looking to score anything while he still can, and shapes to clean out Rabada over long on, but the length is nowhere near full enough, and it’s a fresh-air shot.
WICKET! Starc c Rickelton b Rabada 1, Australia 97-9
One step closer! Another poor stroke. Rabada comes back on, Starc plays and misses at the first ball, then punches at the second even though it’s ribcage height and going over the middle stump. Backs away to leg slightly but still fiddles as the ball follows him. Edges, simple catch.
41st over: Australia 97-8 (Cummins 7, Starc 1) Mulder joins the wicket party.
WICKET! Smith b Mulder 28, Australia 96-8
What a working over. The pitch seems to have developed some little ridges that are helping the ball to move a touch, and it’s hard work even at Mulder’s more modest pace. Smith has getting more physio attention for this stiff neck. It’s bothering him, and he’s not moving freely. So the second ball of the over jumps, beating Smith and the keeper for four byes. The third ball cuts in, hitting Smith in the stomach. And the fourth, he’s nowhere near it. Distracted perhaps by the jagging around. He’s jumping to play it, he’s bringing his bat across the line of it, but that ball isn’t short enough to need to jump. It jags in again, stump height, and takes the top of off.
That’s the last big fish in the lake. Now to scoop up the minnows.
40th over: Australia 92-7 (Smith 28, Cummins 7) Jansen to Smith, who nudges a single into the off side, and that is 11,000 runs in Test cricket for him.
Joins the former XI of Border, Jayawardene, Chanderpaul, Lara, Sangakkara, Cook, Dravid, Kallis, Ponting, Root, Tendulkar, making them a dozen.
Cummins is doing more of the scoring, though, pushing a brace and then clipping four square of the wicket.
39th over: Australia 84-7 (Smith 27, Cummins 1) Australia need Cummins out there. He’s responsible for four balls of Mulder’s over, but prods at one and has a wild drive at another. Can’t be offering more slip catches…
38th over: Australia 84-7 (Smith 27, Cummins 1) I was asked yesterday whether Jansen was among the world’s top ten bowlers, and prevaricated. Might need to revisit that assessment, he’s seized this game by the scruff. Cummins squeezes out a single behind square.
WICKET! Webster c b Jansen 12, Australia 84-7
Three slips and a gully for Jansen, and Webster feeds them for Jansen’s fifth. Brainless shot again from an Australian player, a big forcing drive with no footwork, movement going nowhere, weight leaning back, thus a very low chance of connecting convincingly. Instead he edges, and Markram at second slip dives to his left in front of first slip to hold the catch. This is bordering on an epochal collapse.
37th over: Australia 84-6 (Smith 27, Webster 12) DRS reprieves Webster! Given out caught behind off Mulder, the South Africans think that they are right amongst the pigeons in their feline forms, but the moment is retracted. The ball beats the outside edge and just beats the off stump, Webster saying that he thinks it clipped the bail. But DRS shows no spike from bat or stump, and the decision is overturned. Webster celebrates by blazing four through the covers, off a no-ball as well.
36th over: Australia 78-6 (Smith 27, Webster 8) Jansen to Webster, and Beau is one player who isn’t mismatched due to Jansen’s height. He clouts the short ball, because it’s harder to get one up to his head height. Two runs there. They turn over a few singles to follow. Nobody looks comfortable against Jansen though.
35th over: Australia 73-6 (Smith 26, Webster 4) Nortje is out of the game. He’s wearing the full training kit on the balcony. They’re saying it’s a groin strain. Jansen had one of those yesterday when he had his fruitbowl turned into a smoothie.
Mulder joins Jansen as the post-lunch bowler. Presumably now Bavuma wants to go Jansen, then Rabada, rather than using them both up in tandem. Mulder is less of a threat in these conditions, more an honest operator, and he tries to stay on Smith’s off stump. Given some of Smith’s wild shots though, it might not be the worst idea to feed that wider line.
34th over: Australia 73-6 (Smith 26, Webster 4) We’re back after lunch, with Jansen unsurprisingly opening up after his burst before the break. Webster is batting all the way down at No8 thanks to the nightwatch scenario, but he still has a specialist bat’s job to do today. Simply must stay with Smith for a while. He’s beaten early in the over, but whacks his first boundary through cover late in the piece.
Gervase Greene writes in. “Not judging anything on one innings, or even one series, but isn’t it about time we had a sensible discussion about whether Head remains as opener As I recall, originally the main argument for his opening was to balance Uzzie Khawaja’s important but increasingly stolid presence. Some miracle innings notwithstanding, fact is I would love to see Trav coming in tonight at 5 or 6. But he’s already gone, as he so often has been in the past two years. The issue is not so much the perennial Australian debate about ‘can he fill the opener spot?’ but whether we are really getting the best out of Trav while he’s with us. He is a one-in-a-generation talent, a rare diamond in the rough, and I fear we are chucking a lot of his remaining time in the big league away.”
That was exactly my concern after the wild hundred at Perth. It was so much fun that of course everyone wanted to let him keep doing it, and it did work through the rest of that series, but it never felt like a long term solution, especially against better bowling in foreign conditions. Head further down the order was someone whose style had a better chance to work; opening you’ll always have a greater attrition rate. The classic taking from a strength to look after a weakness.
Lunch – South Africa are all over it, with Australia 69 for 6
High octane session, starting intensely and ending intensely. The South Africans have taken five wickets and given away only 66 runs, adding to their late wicket last night. Rabada has been unbelievable, and mostly what’s hard to believe is that he only has one of the wickets. Jansen has four, and has bowled just as well. In the meantime, Nortje is off injured having bowled 3.3 overs.
The Australians are in all sorts. Bad shot last night from Maddinson, who you can’t expect much from. Basic error from Head, bad technique from Labuschagne plus a stunning catch. Boland as expected from a night guard. Renshaw got a beauty, Carey played a shocker. Smith has looked terrible, but is somehow still there. His team desperately need him to carry on. Still 156 from the follow-on.
33rd over: Australia 69-6 (Smith 26, Webster 0) Rabada is the last act before the tray of sausage rolls. Smith leaves a couple, then walks across and shovels a leg glance, unorthodox way of playing it, to fine leg where he gets a couple of runs thanks to a tangled attempt to save. Was that the draw shot? Did Smith glance that between his legs? He gets back on strike, and sees out the over.
32nd over: Australia 67-6 (Smith 24, Webster 0) Not that Smith is having an easier time than anyone else. Where was this sense of threat from the Australian bowlers yesterday with an older ball? Jansen has Smith jumping to defend, then jumping out of the way. Next, a swish outside off stump, then a loud appeal for a ball that cuts in and thuds into pad. It’s just going over the bails on the projection, and Bavuma correctly guessed that, gesturing height to his teammates. Smith pushes a run to cover fifth ball. One over to go before the break.
31st over: Australia 66-6 (Smith 23, Webster 0) Interesting byplay here. Not that you’d need to shield Webster from strike, but I wonder whether a cricket strategist would want the set Smith to take a single first ball of Rabada’s over, five minutes from lunch. It very nearly brings about Webster’s wicket, the ball a beauty that seams away slightly, similar to the way that Cummins does it, and so nearly takes the edge of Webster’s bat.
30th over: Australia 65-6 (Smith 22) Two wickets in three balls, ten minutes before lunch. Jansen has ripped the game open anew. Follow-on back in the projections.
WICKET! Carey c Rickelton b Jansen 0, Australia 65-6
Now they’re in real trouble. Carey the firefighter, so often in the past, can’t douse a lit match today. The move to six, was that really necessary? Again this wicket is about Jansen’s bounce from his prodigious height. His first ball to Carey beats the outside edge, his second takes the top edge of an angled bat, but did Carey need to be attempting to fiddle that down to backward point or deep third with his blade in that position? He’s made a few dreadful choices with the bat lately.
WICKET! Renshaw c Harmer b Jansen 12, Australia 65-5
There’s the big one! In the context of this series as it is, bigger than Smith. And that’s a brilliant piece of bowling from Jansen. Has Renshaw leaving, leaving, blocking, then suddenly pulls the length back, same line, Jansen using all of his height in getting the ball to jump at the batter, and while Renshaw is also tall, he can’t ride that bounce. Gets his hands up to try, but the ball takes the shoulder of the bat and flies low into the gully where Harmer takes another very good one, low down.
29th over: Australia 65-4 (Smith 22, Renshaw 12) Smith is playing with fire against Rabada. Can’t help himself reaching for width outside the off stump, not once but repeatedly. Rabada keeps bowling there. The first shot is the safest, relatively close to him and a bit back of a length as he punches square. But then he aims a huge drive at a very wide ball that swings away, missing it completely and astounding Rabada. Another drive at width, inside half goes to the leg side. He doesn’t need to be playing these balls. It’s a weird innings from Smith today.
28th over: Australia 63-4 (Smith 20, Renshaw 12) Jansen will have a crack as well, with lunch not far away. Beats Renshaw first up with a good ball, moving away, but Renshaw settles into his work again immediately, leaving what he can leave until the bowler comes straight and he can pick off a run.
27th over: Australia 61-4 (Smith 19, Renshaw 11) Time for anothher Rabada burst. Good pace, Smith waits and watches the first few, then looks to drive the fifth, connects well but finds the field. Wants a scoring shot. Last ball of the over, edges to slip, but on the bounce! Rabada looks absolutely furious with… physics, on this occasion. The ball travels low and flat towards the cordon, and bounces a few inches short of Markram’s fingers. Smith didn’t need the big drive there. He’s also thrown his neck out while playing that shot, and has to call the physio. Maiden over.
26th over: Australia 61-4 (Smith 19, Renshaw 11) Finally, Smith finds a run. He’s not perturbed, just knocks one away to leg. Harmer almost gets Renshaw after that! Cut shot, bottom edge, chopped into his shoe rather than the base of the stumps. Lucky…
25th over: Australia 58-4 (Smith 17, Renshaw 10) More strike for Renshaw, drives a couple from Mulder and gets back to the business end. He faces the lot. Nine overs since Smith scored.
24th over: Australia 56-4 (Smith 17, Renshaw 8) Smith has been sitting on 17 for a long time, while Renshaw takes one single per over. That’s eight overs now with Smith on that score. Harmer, single.
23rd over: Australia 55-4 (Smith 17, Renshaw 7) The cameras have picked up Nortje sitting in the dressing room wearing his gym shorts, getting an ice pack on his thigh. His expression is blank.
Rowan Sweeney emails to ask whether openers are being picked on the wrong metrics. “With the wobble-ball being maximally effective with the new ball, is it time to look at bringing back the old school obdurate openers? In short, don’t say, ‘Who’s making runs in Shield Cricket?’; maybe say, ‘Who’s surviving til Lunch in Shield Cricket?’”
That might be a play. The counter is that if someone like Travis Head is aggressive, he can throw those opening bowlers off their length, and deny them the chance to take bulk early wickets. None of the wickets in this innings have come from wobble seam, I don’t think: Maddinson was a bad drive, Boland reached for one, Head got conventional nip, and Labuschagne played the wrong line. Correct me if some NASA cameras got a super slow-mo.
22nd over: Australia 54-4 (Smith 17, Renshaw 6) Harmer burrs through an over. He might be locked in at one end for a long time today.
21st over: Australia 53-4 (Smith 17, Renshaw 5) Mulder to Renshaw, around the wicket, and a pretty bit of bowling, seaming away from the edge. Renshaw is on the walk at that delivery and still doesn’t get close enough to nick it, so the length needs to be fuller. Keeps strike off the last ball. The follow-on mark is 225, by the way, to avert the risk of being asked to bat twice in a row. It would be much harder for South Africa to make that work though now that they’re a bowler down.
Nortje goes off injured
20th over: Australia 52-4 (Smith 17, Renshaw 4) Potentially a huge moment for South Africa, even if it was understated in its arrival. Nortje up and bowls the third ball of the over, with seemingly no ill effect, then stops and stretches out his ankle and calf. Looking unhappy, he walks straight off the field, and Harmer has to finish the over.
19th over: Australia 50-4 (Smith 17, Renshaw 3) Mulder to Renshaw, who tries to leave as much as he can, but gets a couple of runs from an awkwardly skewed edge. A lot of expectation on Renshaw now, which is a bit unfair, he produces that Durban marvel and is suddenly expected to be the best player in the team.
18th over: Australia 48-4 (Smith 17, Renshaw 1) Strange seeing the forensics of Labuschagne’s dismissal. He was very early on that drive, losing balance slightly to the off side and thus bringing his bat across the line of the ball slightly. I don’t think it did move away from him, Nortje doesn’t get much movement, but the batter created the effect of seam away by not having his balance right.
Renshaw has had hardly any strike, but finally gets his first run by knocking Nortje to midwicket.
17th over: Australia 47-4 (Smith 17, Renshaw 0) It’s time for Mulder. He got the new ball in Durban, when they had two spinners, and was mighty effective with it. But no new ball for him now that Rabada is back. Short, skiddy operator. Bowls a tidy first over to Smith, nothing from it.
16th over: Australia 47-4 (Smith 17, Renshaw 0) Nortje is going at Smith hard. It’s a cloudy morning, murky light, and Nortje is bowling rapidly and short. In at the body a couple of times, Smith rides the bounce at one point, gets out of the way stepping to the off side at another. Forward late in the over to block a run through cover.
15th over: Australia 46-4 (Smith 16, Renshaw 0) Goodness me. South Africa were 40 for 4 at one stage, now Australia much the same, albeit only three of them specialist bats. Now it’s down to Renshaw to save the day again. The drumbeating will renew for Labuschagne, though he has another innings in this match.
WICKET! Labuschagne c Harmer b Nortje 14, Australia 45-4
14th over: Australia 45-4 (Smith 15) Nortje on for Jansen, to use sheer speed and hope to unsettle this pair. Cries of anguish as a full ball spears in at the stumps with Smith moving across to the off side. It looks on target to smash his pads in front, but as so often over the years, Smith cruels that hope with a late-arriving bat that redirects the ball to fine leg. Two runs. Then the pull shot, short ball, in the air but on the bounce to Rabada, staying busy fielding at fine leg.
One ball left in the over for Labuschagne to survive… and he doesn’t! Screamer at slip! Drives at a ball that perhaps didn’t require it, a line straight at the stumps, a Boland length that’s quite full but gives itself enough time to move a touch, and this one does. At Nortje’s pace it carries to the cordon, but carries low, and Harmer has to dive across to his left to snare it one-handed.
13th over: Australia 42-3 (Labuschagne 14, Smith 12) Shot from Smith! Straight drive, back past the bowler through a straight mid off, and he really gives that some toe, too. Hard swing of the bat. Then clips a single. Rabada has one ball at Labuschagne and bowls him a beauty! Tiny bit of swing in, tiny bit of seam away, and past the edge.
12th over: Australia 37-3 (Labuschagne 14, Smith 7) Oooff! Punch and counter punch. Labuschagne drives down the ground for four early in the over. Jansen around the wicket beats the edge of Labuschagne’s bat with a ball that holds its line, has the batter jumping and trying to draw the bat inside the line of that ball. “Good nut,” mutters Labs, half to himself, while looking back at the bowler. Two balls later though, he could say “Good shot” to himself. Steps forward into a fuller length ball and drives with complete economy of effort away to the cover boundary. No follow through, just places the bat in the right spot at the right time.
11th over: Australia 29-3 (Labuschagne 7, Smith 5) As his been his wont in this later stage of his career, Smith goes for the cover drive rather than the shuffle to leg. Smashes Rabada for four with that shot, then later goes off his pads for two. This is Smith Version Whatever It Is. He’s not the run glutton of years past. He scores more quickly, while lasting for shorter periods of time. Australia need a long innings today.
10th over: Australia 23-3 (Labuschagne 6, Smith 1) Australian turn back to Smithbuschagne to dig them out of a jam. Smith has a poor record in the later part of Test matches, although he’s played so little in the first three days that perhaps this feels like day two?
WICKET! Head lbw Jansen 14, Australia 22-3
There’s the danger man! Head has been coming up blanks as opener since the Ashes, and that trend carries on. Pretty straightforward from Jansen, left-arm to left-hand, over the wicket and angling slightly in, then seaming further. Head misses his flick to leg and is hit in front of off stump. Stand-in umpire Arno Jacobs thinks he might have nicked that into pad, and gives it not out. A lot of the South Africans agree, there isn’t much of an appeal. But eventually Bavuma reviews, and whoever made that call, they were dead right. Like ordering oneself more wine when the bar’s about to close: three reds.
9th over: Australia 22-2 (Head 14, Labuschagne 6) This is some spell from Rabada. Operating at serious pace, even if there’s a little sauce on those readings. Making Head hop around by bowling at the pads, where Head has had a lot of trouble recently, getting out to leading edges a number of times, when he’s not dragging balls onto the stumps. Eventually he’s able to jump up and stab down a ball to leg, to get off strike. Labuschagne gets about a quarter of his bat on another quick delivery to edge it through square leg for two.
8th over: Australia 19-2 (Head 13, Labuschagne 4) Positive for Labuschagne, but risky, hurling the bat at Jansen’s angle across him and lifting a ball over backward point. There to hit, as they say.
7th over: Australia 15-2 (Head 13, Labuschagne 0) Pop goes the hammer! Split goes the field. Travis Head cover drives Rabada for four, in that rather rustic way of his, more whack than finesse. Full enough to play that shot. Rabada responds with one that whistles past off stump. Full and close to the stumps, and Head lets it go, and that ball might have come back a bit. The speed gun claims that’s almost 155 kilometres an hour. I don’t trust the radar in this series, it’s been clocking all the fast bowlers at speeds that seem unlikely. Within the bounds of possibility for each of them, at their peaks, but I’m not sure that they’re all bowling at the fastest rates of their careers, given the advanced years of the Aussies and Rabada just coming back from injury.
6th over: Australia 11-2 (Head 9, Labuschagne 0) One of the big stories of the day, then, will be Labuschagne, and whether he can build something of substance. He’s been good at times when the team has needed him to bat out time to protect a draw – think Lord’s 2019 and Old Trafford 2023. But the latter of those was also his most recent Test hundred, over three years ago. Has to get those performances out of the scrapbooks and onto the turf in front of him. He begins by leaving everything he can from Jansen.
WICKET! Boland c Rickelton b Jansen 2, Australia 11-2
That’s the first job of the day done for South Africa. Boland has done his initial job, which was to survive until this morning to protect the specialist bats, but he would have dreamed about staying on for a while, absorbing some new-ball overs and annoying the opposition. Instead, as a right hander, he gets a left-arm ball angled across him from Jansen, and reaches for it to try fiddling it through the off side. Nick behind.
5th over: Australia 11-1 (Head 9, Boland 2) We have begun. Travis Head facing Rabada, who took the wicket in the first over last night, then had to be replaced by spin given the light was so bad. This morning Head begins with a boundary, driving him through cover point. He’s not been in great nick, has Head, and needs a score to help his team out here. A second boundary follows, though not much say over it for the batter, who prods forward and gets a thick outside edge through the cordon.
“There’s so much to adore about Temba, for so many reasons, but from a cricketing standpoint, his record as captain is so impressive,” emails Guy Hornsby. “Sure, the difference may reflect his modest returns without the armband, but he’s into Warwick Armstrong territory, and who wouldn’t want to emulate the Big Ship?”
It would take about 13 Tembas to fill the space of one Warwick.
The forecast is decent for today: cool temperatures around 20 degrees, some cloud cover with plenty of scattered sunshine. Hopefully no more rain, though we may not get all of the extended overs in due to the light. We’ll start 15 minutes early and hope to go later than the scheduled stumps, to make up for rain earlier in the match.
In seriousness, that Bavuma innings was one for the ages. Scarcely have we seen such a deviation from the mean, from a player who struggled to convert fifties to one who dominated from such a difficult situation across three, however abbreviated, days of play. Plenty of help from his lower order, but he was the core.
Here’s our match report from yesterday.
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
Alright, friends, we’re set for a big one. Day three in Gqeberha saw the biggest turnaround in a Test match since … well, the previous one in this series in Durban. Is Temba Bavuma the Matt Renshaw of South Africa? Many are saying it. That was quite an astonishing day’s cricket, and it leaves the hosts more than 400 runs in the lead, while the visitors have already lost Nic Maddinson for his second duck in three hits, and Scott Boland is going to resume this morning having been the nightwatch in the late gloom.
For Australia today, the task is simply to bat and bat and bat. Try to eat up as many overs as possible, while keeping the runs going in order to whittle down that deficit from the imposing proportions that it has now. Do they have the technique and temperament to go long? If they can wipe out day four, then day five won’t pose as much threat, and a draw will mean the visitors at least have the series trophy locked up. But if South Africa’s bowlers can sustain some damage in the way Australia’s couldn’t, trouble looms.
This should be a good one, with plenty riding on every wicket. Shall we?
