Key events
87th over: Australia 312-4 (Inglis 73, Carey 45) Coetzee replaces Jansen, which is another win for the Aussies. Carey caresses an easy single to deep point before Inglis flicks with authority and sends a leg stump half volley to the midwicket rope. Then he’s back and across – right out the textbook – and collects a drop and run single. In full control. They only trail by 17.
86th over: Australia 306-4 (Inglis 68, Carey 44) Carey bunts Rabada off the back foot for one, after Inglis did the same, to bring up the 300. Rabada has missed his lengths. He’s neither been full nor short. That back of a length just hasn’t worked. The Australians bagged loads of wickets with bumpers and toe crushers. The hosts didn’t take any lessons from them it seems. Rabada does dig one in and Inglis pulls. There are shouts of “caaaaatch” but it carries all the way of goes for six over backward square leg. No fielder in place for it.
85th over: Australia 298-4 (Inglis 61, Carey 43) Carey cuts for one after defending resolutely for two balls. Inglis is loose outside the off stump, a rare lapse from him. But there’s no edge. There’s a half hearted appeal for a catch behind the stumps on the leg side off Carey, but no South African seemed genuinely convinced.
84th over: Australia 296-4 (Inglis 60, Carey 42) Rabada is full and straight at Inglis who is so at ease defending. That’s 100 balls without a wicket for Rabada in this innings. Only the second time that’s happened in five years. He responds with a great nip-backer off a good length that beats the inside edge of Inglis and thwacks his thigh pad, but crucially he remains.
83rd over: Australia 294-4 (Inglis 58, Carey 42) Jansen offers width and Inglis take the bait, flashing hard at it. It’s not off the middle, but he gets enough wood on it to take it over gully for four. Then he steers off the back foot for one down to the sweeper. Only the merest suggestion of swing, and that’s more to the left-handed Carey. One does lift off a trickt length and smacks Carey in the torso, but it’s not exactly a viper nest. Australia now trail by only 35. They could be level or better by the close.
82nd over: Australia 289-4 (Inglis 53, Carey 42) Rabada keeps it full, but there’s no swing at all. Ominous for SA. Both batters press forward and look comfortable on defence.
They review Rabada’s first ball. Didn’t look out to me. Thought it was high to Inglis but let’s have a look. Original decision not out. Nah, going well over the top of leg. That is desperate from the home side as they torch a review.
81st over: Australia 288-4 (Inglis 53, Carey 42) Jansen’s first ball with the new nut is short and wide and Carey cuts him for two. But then the bowler finds his radar and targets the stumps, extracting a bit of away swing. There are two slips and a guly, and a massive gap on the off side. Bavuma has a great record as captain but I feel he doesn’t exert pressure on the batters enough. They still have a lead and only wickets will keep it. Oh, this partnership is now up to 103. A reminder that they both started on 0 together after Jansen’s double strike to remove Renshaw and Green.
80th over: Australia 286-4 (Inglis 53, Carey 40) Harmer gets through his over which means the new ball is available. Totally different conditions from last night when Starc bagged four for spit to wrap up the innings. Jansen and Rabada have to match his heroics or South Africa will be chasing this game.
79th over: Australia 282-4 (Inglis 50, Carey 39) South Africa have been going through the motions for about half an hour now. Meanwhile, these two Australian keepers have been brilliant. A drag down from Markram is clattered off the back foot by Inglis well in front of square on the off side as he moves to 49. He gets to his milestone with a tuck off his hips for one. No Steve Smith, no problem, it seems.
78th over: Australia 275-4 (Inglis 44, Carey 38) The Aussies are purring now! Inglis starts this Harmer over by nailing a reverse sweep for four. He’s suddenly up into the 40s. There’s a chance, well, half a chance, of a return catch as Carey’s prod catches a leading edge. But its short of Harmer. The partnership up to 90 and the deficit down to 54.
77th over: Australia 270-4 (Inglis 39, Carey 38) Inglis won’t let Markram just bowl at him until the new ball arrives. He gets low and plays a lovely sweep that is drilled to the boundary. Then a really poor ball down the leg side is left alone and evades Rickelton and dribbles away for four more byes. South Africa have lost the plot here. Remarkable how this match has swung this way and that. Now firmly with the Aussies, though they still trail by 59.
76th over: Australia 260-4 (Inglis 34, Carey 37) Inglis comes down the track to Harmer and heaves the ball over cow corner for six. That is all timing as he plays this with an almost straight bat. What a shot! Harmer responds well and gets one to grip and turn through the gate of Inglis, beating the inside edge, the stumps and Rickelton’s gloves as it trickles away for four byes. All Australia at the minute as this partnership reaches 75.
75th over: Australia 250-4 (Inglis 28, Carey 37) Markram is tossed the ball. Bavuma wants this new rock as soon as possible. Carey tries to reverse sweep, as he loves to do, but doesn’t catch this one. Just one off the over.
74th over: Australia 249-4 (Inglis 27, Carey 37) Hamer gets us going again after drinks. Inglis tries to reverse sweep, misses, and there’s a half appeal. He then leans back and plays a lovely back foot punch for two past cover. A little tickle off his pads means he’ll keep the strike with a single in front of the fielder at 45.
I’m calling it. Australia are in the ascendency now. This partnership has more than steadied the ship. It’s put them on top.
Today’s play has had a run-rate of 3.37, but this session is 2.89.
Shows how both sides are almost staring at each other, waiting for the other to blink. Just seven overs til the new ball become available.
73rd over: Australia 246-4 (Inglis 24, Carey 37) Inglis swishes at Rabada away from his body bit there’s no nick. Two singles brings Inglis back on strike and he steers four through the gap in the cordon before pulling a single down to deep square. Rabada has had no bite this innings and that has felt crucial. The gap between the sides is down to 83 as the drinks cart comes out.
72nd over: Australia 239-4 (Inglis 18, Carey 36) Harmer back in action. Carey reverse sweeps and nails it past a diving Rabada at backward point, but Jansen swoops round on the rope to keep it to two. Pretty uneventful elsewhere across the set. Eight overs to the second new ball, but the clouds that swept in to aid Starc are absent here. I’m not sure the South Africans will find the same venom.
71st over: Australia 237-4 (Inglis 18, Carey 34) Finally, finally, Rabada finds a bit of juice off the surface, getting one to jag back off a tricky length and cut Inglis in half. But it doesn’t catch the inside edge, nor does it clip the top of off. That means, after a cut single off Carey’s bat, the partnership climbs to 52 and the deficit is cut to 92. Australia taking control of this but a wicket or two will change things once again.
70th over: Australia 236-4 (Inglis 18, Carey 33) Mulder finds the edge of Carey’s late cut, but it flies between first slip and the man at gully. Mulder holds his head in his hands as he watches it scamper away for four. It’s like the Test itself is holding its breath before the plunge.
69th over: Australia 230-4 (Inglis 18, Carey 27) Rabada almost burgles a wicket with a short and wide one to Inglis. The right-hander leans back and cracks a firm cut shot in the air and just beyond Ackermann, who for some reason is very tight in at point. It goes for just a single as Rabada throws his head back, frustrated that it wasn’t a metre closer to the fielder. The Aussie pair keep things ticking with two other singles across the set. They now trail by 98.
68th over: Australia 228-4 (Inglis 17, Carey 26) Mulder to Inglis. Back of a length. Fourth stump line. Keeper up. Ring field. Six dot balls.
67th over: Australia 228-4 (Inglis 17, Carey 26) Rabada returns. He’s lacked a bit of zip today. He doesn’t have much here. Carey and Inglis are able to lean on his back of a length and steer a single apiece.
66th over: Australia 226-4 (Inglis 16, Carey 25) Wicket to wicket from Mulder with the keeper up. Feels like SA are simply waiting for something to happen while keeping things as quiet as possible. Which is a tactic, I suppose. I’d like to see them be more innovative, as Cummins and co were yesterday.
65th over: Australia 226-4 (Inglis 16, Carey 25) Four runs off this Harmer over takes the partnership up to 41 from 82 balls. They came together with the pair of them on 0. So this has been a great rebuild.
64th over: Australia 222-4 (Inglis 13, Carey 24) Mulder into the attack. Bavuma will want him to keep things nice and tight until KG and Jansen are ready to let rip again. He gets one to jag back into Inglis and there’s a small chance of it sneaking through. Three singles off the first five balls come before Carey slashes at some width. It flies well behind square past point. Jansen chases after it and chooses to stick a big boot out just in front of the boundary. He gets there and keeps it down to three. The Aussies looking set again.
63rd over: Australia 216-4 (Inglis 11, Carey 20) Carey was watchful before but he’s showing some class now, skipping down the track to half drive, half flick Harmer for four down through mid-on. Lovely shot. Harmer then goes flatter and keeps Carey on strike for the rest of the over.
62nd over: Australia 212-4 (INglis 11, Carey 16) Coetzee offers Carey some width and the Aussie keeper throws his hands at it and gets four backward of square past point. He’ll keep the strike with a mistimed drive that trickles away to the sweeper at cover. Delicately poised. It’s just so delicately poised!
61st over: Australia 207-4 (Inglis 11, Carey 11) Carey, who has been incredibly watchful and unusually patient, gets a reverse sweep away against Harmer, splitting cover and point to collect two. He think pushes a single past mid-on. Off the last ball Inglis gives himself room and plays for the spin as he tries to steer it towards the off side, but it doesn’t turn and he almost loses his off peg.
60th over: Australia 204-4 (Inglis 11, Carey 8) Coetzee manages to land a ripsnorter of a bouncer to Inglis. It catches the splice of the bat and loops up to where a short leg would have been. But no one is there so it lands safely. Three singles across the over keep things ticking along. The Aussies have done well to keep the left hand, right hand combo at the crease. That always makes it hard for the bowlers to settle on a line.
59th over: Australia 201-4 (Inglis 10, Carey 6) Harmer continues to twirl away as Jansen, back on the field, gets the crowd going on the boundary. He’s got them in the palm of his massive hands down there. Harmer, meanwhile, bowls five dot balls in a row to Carey who looks titchy, as if he wants to make a play. They bring mid-on up to cut off that single and have a man catching in the covers. Carey gets one off the inside half of his bat from a forward press and gets a streaky single past the forward short leg.
58th over: Australia 200-4 (Inglis 10, Carey 5) A clip off the pads from Inglis, well in front of square, brings him two and the team’s 200. Two busy cricketers at the crease are getting to work. If I was Bavuma I’d try and keep the singles down to a minimum for the two new men. But I’m not a Test captain, am I? Game is in the balance. Interesting chat on the SuperSport comms on which camp you’d rather be. I think South Africa’s, but only just. Another good partnership here could swing it. And I can’t see the South Africans skittling the Aussie tail like Starc did last night. So maybe Australia’s camp? I just don’t know!
57th over: Australia 196-4 (Inglis 7, Carey 4) Two singles off this Harmer over, both off the back foot. Then Carey stoops low and unfurls his favourite reverse sweep. If he stood still it would have been a full toss outside off. Instead he got in a proper tangle and missed out.
A correction to my earlier assumption.
Shaun Clapperton is NOT from Yorkshire! As he says, “Just saw that both players were from the same place.”
That, boys and girls, is why you don’t make assumptions!
56th over: Australia 194-4 (Inglis 6, Carey 3) Carey cuts Coetzee to bring Inglis on strike. Inglis rides the bounce, steers into the on side and calls a loud “YES” and then a loud “NO”. Carey is halfway down when Ackerman at midwicket fields, turns and throws at the non-striker’s end. Carey had given up and would have been out had it hit. It didn’t, not by much, but it didn’t, so he survives.
55th over: Australia 193-4 (Inglis 6, Carey 2) Two singles off this Harmer over to get the final session of the day underway. Harmer then goes straighter, but he’s too straight and it goes past Inglis’ leg stump on two occasions.
Also no Jansen on the park – who is the fifth fastest to 100 Test wickets in terms of balls bowled in the history of the game. So Coetzee will open up the other end.
The players are back on the field, all of them except Kagiso Rabada.
Word is he has an upset stomach. Is that why he’s looked short of his best today?
Shaun Clapperton (I’m assuming from Yorkshire) writes in:
double quotation markIt’s a shame Renshaw got out before Green. We’d have had an all-Yorkshire partnership for Australia otherwise.
Incidentally, it’s amazing how little play the “cosmopolitan” background of the Australian set up is, considering how vocal they were about Pietersen in particular.
In the past couple of years, they’ve had multiple players born outside Aus to non-Aus parents (Khawaja, Neser and the two Yorkshiremen mentioned earlier to name but a few). Kim Garth from the women’s team as well. I never saw an article written about KP that didn’t mention SA, yet his mother is English.
Perhaps we’ve moved on from such jingoism?
ShareSpin column
I’ve written something on Marco Jansen, the allure of the all-rounder, and why genuine hybrids are so hard to find.
For your tea time reading pleasure:
ShareTea: Australia 191-4, trail by 138 runs in the first innings
54th over: Australia 191-4 (Inglis 5, Carey 1) A few overs ago, it was without doubt Australia’s session. Now it might be South Africa’s. Or at least it’s even. Or maybe it’s still Australia’s. Honestly, it’s so hard to say. It’s been that sort of Test. Marco Jansen’s double strike, along with this maiden, his third on the bounce, has swung the contest.
Inglis and Carey will resume after the break.
There really is no other sport quite like Test cricket, is there?
53rd over: Australia 191-4 (Inglis 5, Carey 1) Harmer is tidy until the last ball as he drags it down and Inglis climbs into a crisp cut shot that finds the rope at backward point. Australia will be desperate for these two to bed in until tea. Naturally, South Africa will hope for just the opposite.
52nd over: Australia 185-4 (Inglis 0, Carey 0) A wicket maiden for Jansen who has removed both set batters in the space of two overs. Great hands from Harmer in the slips as it hurried to him, and great back of a length bowling, but Green will be annoyed he had a little dangle at it. Carey, the new man, is beaten twice past his outside edge before he ducks under a bumper. This Test, this series, continues to see-saw.
ShareWICKET! Green c Harmer b Jansen 65 (Australia 185-4)
JANSEN IS TURNING THIS TEST! Oh my word, what a cricketer! Back of a length from round the wicket into Green, he hits the deck hard and Green hangs the bat outside the off stump away from his body. It takes a thick edge towards Harmer at second slip who snaffles a low catch and doesn’t celebrate – a nod to the earlier catch that was given not out. Jansen has gone BANG, BANG! The old ‘one brings two’ cliche strikes again!
51st over: Australia 185-3 (Green 65, Inglis 0) Green gets a single, driven to Jansen’s left at mid-off. Harmer then gets four balls to Inglis who is playing off the back foot. There are a few ooohs from the South Africans, but Inglis looks in control.
50th over: Australia 184-3 (Green 64, Inglis 0) A wicket maiden opens the game up for the Saffas. Renshaw’s watch ends after 139 balls and it’s Marco Jansen, the world’s number ranked Test bowler and number one ranked Test all-rounder who ends it. The short ball bags another wicket in this match.
ShareWICKET! Renshaw c Rickelton b Jansen 74 (Australia 184-3)
Marco has done it and that’s his 100th Test wicket! Wow, totally against the run of play! After five dot balls he digs another bumper in and Renshaw has a little nibble as he tries to steer this over the slip cordon. But it gets big on him and was perhaps too close to do so and it catches the merest of nicks. The original decision is not-out but the review shows a spike on the snickometer. South Africa have an opening.
A word for Renshaw, though. That is a heck of a knock at the top of the order.
49th over: Australia 184-2 (Renshaw 74, Green 64) Just a single from this Harmer set. Not sure what the plan is from South Africa here. I guess it’s just good old fashioned Test cricket. Who will blink first? Green uses his feet and is beaten in the flight, but his long legs and levers means he’s still able to smother the ball into the off side.
48th over: Australia 183-2 (Renshaw 73, Green 64) With the pitch offering very little, Jansen has to manifacture something on his own. A well directed yorker has Renshaw digging with a shovel, and he does well to keep it out and take a single through the leg side. Then Jansen bounces Green who looks uncomfortable, but he’s still there, unmoved and playing well. Two singles off that over.
47th over: Australia 181-2 (Renshaw 72, Green 63) Harmer changes ends but it remains pretty easy for the Aussies who rotate the strike without leaving second gear, taking six runs around the park; down the ground, down to deep point, off the pads. South Africa don’t look like taking a wicket. Then again, they didn’t earlier and went bang, bang, so they’ll want to hang tough.
46th over: Australia 175-2 (Renshaw 68, Green 61) Jansen lands a wicked bouncer from round the wicket to Green, making him leap and thwacking him on the body. There’s another bumper that follows but this time Green can duck inside the line. No leg slip or short leg though. South Africa haven’t quite for their fields right in my opinion, giving away simple singles and not quite attacking with enough intent. Green, though, is pretty tidy for the rest of the over, riding high and playing with soft hands.
Renshaw just looks a banker at the top of the order. But that doesn’t solve all of of Australia’s troubles, as least according to reader Patrick O’Brien:
double quotation markHow about this option: first innings Australia open with T B Determined and Renshaw, with Head at 5; second innings they open with T B Determined and Head, with Renshaw at 5.
I like the aggressive Head mixed with the watchful Renshaw, actually. I think they’ll do well to stick with that and allow others to come into the side in the middle order.
Bavuma must be keeping an eye on this blog because here comes Jansen.
45th over: Australia 174-2 (Renshaw 67, Green 61) Interesting to note that Jansen, the number one Test bowler in the world (although that Starc’s six-for might rejig that after the Test is done) has only bowled six overs. Wonder why. Anyway, Mulder continues. Round the wicket to Renshaw and gets one to hold on the surface and it pops up off the bat, but soft hands means it’s safe. A lovely on drive is well stopped by Rabada, keeping it to two. Those are the only runs until the last ball which sees Renshaw walk out his crease and across his stumps to flick a single down to long leg.
Rob Knapp writes in:
double quotation markTwenty-four hours ago I wrote to you about this being a historic toss moment, thinking along Nasser/Brisbane lines. And Starc had been looking out of sorts, surely Boland would be better, etc. Well, today I have no opinions, no predictions, nothing. I’m just going to enjoy this, the best format of the game, the best two teams and one of the best locations. We should lap it all up while we can.
Amen.
44th over: Australia 171-2 (Renshaw 64, GReen 61) Another Harmer maiden, this time to Green. He’s doing his bit and controlling things from one end.