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BRISBANE. — Australia beat South Africa by six wickets in their first Test cricket after less than six sessions of play on a controversially spicy Gabba pitch in Brisbane yesterday.
It is the first two-day Test in Australia for 91 years.
On a day when 19 wickets fell in two and a half sessions — to go with the 15 that fell on Saturday — Australia completed their first innings, scoring 218, before dismissing South Africa for 99 in their second innings, leaving themselves a victory target of 34.
The home team may have expected a facile win, but instead, they faced some ferocious fast bowling from Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, with Rabada once again picking up the wicket of beleaguered opener David Warner, superbly caught by a diving Sarel Erwee at third slip.
South Africa’s premier fast bowler, who didn’t always perform with the greatest intensity in the match, nevertheless is a great wicket-taker and he took all four wickets to fall with Usman Khawaja (caught in the gully), Steve Smith and Travis Head (both caught behind) all falling victim to his bombs. He finished with the extravagant figures of 4-13 in four overs.
Ironically, the top scorer in the innings was extras (19), including three five-wides deliveries that flew over the batsman and the wicketkeeper to the boundary.
If anything, the pitch was quicker, bouncier and more volatile on the second day than it had been on the first, with even typically one-eyed Australian pundits saying the surface had been overcooked.
Batsmen needed a great deal of luck to survive, particularly against the hard new ball. If South Africa had managed to get even 100 runs ahead, the result could conceivably have been different.
Indeed, before the match had even begun, veteran Australia captain and TV commentator Allan Border said it was the “greenest test pitch I’ve ever seen at the Gabba”.
Earlier, Australia resumed on their overnight total of 145 for five in their first innings, but South Africa started slackly with Rabada failing to set the right tone with a notable lack of aggression and a series of half-volleys that Cameron Green crashed down the ground.
Green and Travis Head progressed at a rate of a run a ball with Green striking four boundaries in his first 18 runs while Head reached 2000 runs in tests.
After a surge of early runs, Elgar then removed Rabada from the attack and Marco Jansen, for the second time in the innings, struck in the opening over of his spell. On this occasion, he doubled up with two scalps to get his team right back in the match. First, he induced Green to drive at a half-volley slanting across him: Keshav Maharaj at third slip could only knock the ball up in the air but Sarel Erwee next to him was able to complete the catch.
Jansen’s next victim was the valuable one of Head who gloved a ball down the leg side for wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne to complete the catch after a slight fumble.
The left-hander played superbly for his 92 in 96 balls, featuring in a key century partnership with Smith on Saturday.
In all, he struck 13 fours and a six in his innings.
The remaining wickets fell quickly with Lungi Ngidi doing well to take a low caught and bowled chance to remove Starc while Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon fell for ducks to a rejuvenated Rabada in his second mini-spell leaving wicketkeeper Alex Carey unbeaten on 22.
Rabada, although expensive, finished with 4-76, while Jansen took 3-32 and Nortje – full of honest endeavour — claimed 2/52.
The excitement certainly didn’t stop there, with batsmen’s blood continuing to flow as the Australian pacemen tightened up on their discipline and intensity after some uneven bowling in the South African first innings. — AFP.
Online Reporter