Source : the age
Australia are very much in survival mode. They’ve scored two runs since lunch. They’re just trying to shut up shop, dig in and deny the Proteas victory. Can they? Good luck. They’ve only got 50 overs to survive. But as Ryan Rickelton (102) and Wiaan Mulder (115) showed on day four, batting isn’t as bad as the scoreboard currently suggests. There’s no uneven bounce despite the sharp turn on offer for the spinners.
So you can forget about the runs. It’s all about whether the Proteas can take three more wickets. The home side have six men around the bat to Simon Harmer. Faf du Plessis once denied Australia victory in Adelaide in 2012. The former South African captain was on debut, in fact. Can Australia turn the screws on the Proteas and do a Faf on them?
This session: 10 overs, two runs, zero wickets.
Australia 7-62.
The second session is about to start. It will have been a quiet dressing shed for the Australians. What will the approach be? Three wickets left, captain Pat Cummins is set to join Cam Green (27) at the crease after Mitch Starc was caught on the stroke of lunch.
It’s been a dramatic few hours at Newlands. Could another twist be around the corner?
Stay tuned for the second session. Rabada, who took 3-14 from five overs, will start after lunch. You’d imagine Simon Harmer, who has 3-5, will resume from the other end.
Both Green and Cummins have survived close shouts in the overs after lunch. The Proteas have also burned a second review. It’s tough going out there.
Australia are 7-62, requiring 228 to win. The Proteas need three wickets to win the third Test and claim the series 2-1
With Australia staring down the barrel of a series defeat in South Africa, it seems like a massive review is coming.
The selectors and Pat Cummins will have to face their critics. It wasn’t long ago that Cummins said “we don’t believe in batting orders”. Well, their top seven has been found wanting again. The dire chase came after Cummins won the toss and elected to bowl first. It was always going to spin hard on day five – and it is. Australia are buckling under the pressure.
Kerry O’Keeffe: “The top seven doesn’t bounce up at you. There’s something clinically wrong with that top seven. People are batting out of order. Marnus’ career is over, question marks around Connolly remain, the running between wickets under pressure; it was so disjointed.”
Mark Waugh on Fox Cricket says, “It’s been papered over by the bowlers for the last 12-15 months. They’ve got out of jail a lot, and through individual batting whether it’s Travis Head, Steve Smith or Alex Carey, but as a batting unit, we haven’t batted well for, I’d say, two years.”
The Fox Cricket boys are calling a spade a shovel. They are absolutely ripping the Australians to shreds.
Mark Waugh: “That was a terrible two hours of batting. That was immature.”
Kerry O’Keeffe: “It was mindless. The tactics. The shot selection. The turning down of singles. Mitchell Starc had a 25-ball duck.”
David Warner: “I’m just upset. It’s terrible. It’s un-Australian. There’s no fight whatsoever. The batters have let the bowlers down the whole series. Yes, Matt Renshaw showed fight in that first Test, but I think the batters have been disgraceful.”
Starc goes on the stroke of lunch. He’s out for a 25-ball duck. He edges the ball onto his pad and it spits up and he’s caught at bat-pad. Harmer has his third and is doing the damage. He’s got 3-5.
It’s been a disastrous first session.
Simon Katich says it’s a “sorry scorecard”. That’s an understatement.
Green is 25 not out.
Australia are 7-60, requiring 228 to win.
Dropped! Mitch Starc put down. It was a tough one. Starc comes forward and defends Harmer and the ball just flicks the outside of Rickelton’s gloves and is put down at first slip.
So fortune, at last, for Australia.
Starc now beaten by Harmer and the ball spins past Rickelton too. It’s four byes.
The Aussies, meanwhile, are turning down runs. It’s probably too early for that, you’d think?
You’ve got to say, Australia’s shot selection and aptitude has been horrendous. Compare it to Rickelton and Mulder on day four, where the two South African batters dug in, were disciplined with their shot selection and ultimately carved out centuries.
Two wickets in three balls! Australia looks all but down and out.
Alex Carey (2) was the first to go in the over. It was a poor shot as he attempted a reverse sweep off Harmer but was caught by Jansen.
Now, Cooper Connolly goes for a second ball duck. He tried to drive the off-spinner but edged behind to Rickelton, who is enjoying some Test.
Mitch Starc joins Cam Green (16).
Australia 6-42, requiring 246 to win
Dear oh dear. Josh Inglis is out. Cam Green has run out his partner badly. Calamity.
As Mark Howard says, “It’s gone from bad to worse.” Inglis is out for 4.
Dan Brettig at Newlands adds: Harmer creates a run out. Neither Green nor Inglis have looked comfortable against him and in their haste to get off strike a wicket comes. Green squeezes one off bat and pad into a half-gap but it’s too tight for a run, and Inglis is out comfortably even though the throw from Ackerman is not a direct hit.
Green is 16, Alex Carey 0
Australia are 4-40, requiring another 244.
Simon Harmer – the off-spinner – has been injected into the attack after just 11 overs. His first ball turns sharply too, striking Cam Green on the pad but it just hits him outside the line of off-stump.
Green (9) and Josh Inglis (2) – the two West Australians in the side – have looked sharp since coming to the crease early, but Harmer looks threatening early.
It’s drinks after the first hour.
The Fox Cricket boys are taking at drinks.
On Labuschagne, Mark Waugh says, “That’s just not watching the ball. Unfortunately for Marnus, it’s a bad way to finish his career, I think.”
Gone! Another. This time it’s Travis Head.
Rabada pitches it up and Travis Head doesn’t move his feet, he simply plays with his hands and edges to the safe hands of Jansen at gully. It’s Rabada’s 350th Test wicket too. He’s taken them at 22.04, striking at 39 – that’s simply remarkable. Only Dale Steyn beat him to that, it took the great right-arm quick 134 innings compared to Rabada’s 137.
Josh Inglis, who scored a century in the first innings, joins Cam Green.
Green is 2, Inglis 0
Australia are 3-22
