{"id":915089,"date":"2026-10-03T21:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T21:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915089\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T21:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T21:20:11","slug":"forgotten-sa-skipper-stuns-as-aussie-tour-game-call-confirms-major-injury-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915089\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgotten SA skipper stuns as Aussie tour game call confirms major injury scare"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forgotten ex-South African captain Neil Brand was the star of the day as Australia were made to toil to begin their pre-series tour match in Potchefstroom.<\/p>\n

Facing a Cricket South Africa Invitational XI, Brand, who in 2024 captained a vastly undermanned Proteas team that toured New Zealand with the majority of its stars unavailable due to SA20 commitments, struck a rapid 152 as the tourists carefully managed their bowling stocks throughout the afternoon.<\/p>\n

On a docile surface, the 30-year old crunched 16 fours and five sixes in the 174-ball knock to score the lion\u2019s share of the team\u2019s tally of 7\/318 at stumps, with Australia bowling first by mutual agreement.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Watch Australia\u2019s Tour of South Africa Live & Exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

48 of his runs came in just 17 balls in the final overs, as he smashed Beau Webster around the ground to leave Australia with every fielder on the boundary in a comical end to the day.<\/p>\n

His innings would finally be ended by a stunning Travis Head catch at the deep square leg boundary, who flicked the ball back in off the rope and celebrated wildly, to offer Webster some respite after his five-over spell was bludgeoned for 41 runs.<\/p>\n

11 different Australians had bowled throughout the day, with seven individual wicket-takers as captain Pat Cummins rotated through his options ahead of the first Test against South Africa, which begins on Friday evening (AEDT) and will be broadcast live and exclusively on Fox Cricket.<\/p>\n

Nathan Lyon (14 overs, 1\/31) and Matt Kuhnemann (12 overs, 1\/46) were the most-used members of the bowling attack, with the Aussies weighing up whether to pick both spinners in the same team due to the heavy influence slow bowling is expected to have on the series.<\/p>\n

The Aussies\u2019 relaxed attitude to the contest was summed up by Mitchell Starc opting for his ODI cap in the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good hit out,\u201c Kuhnemann told ESPNcricinfo. <\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Nathan (Lyon) had a good session yesterday as well \u2026 probably 30 overs under our belts in the last couple of days, so it was really nice.\u201c<\/p>\n

Cummins bowled himself for just eight overs (1\/31) across two spells to keep himself fresh for the Tests.<\/p>\n

Starc (9 overs, 0\/18) and Josh Hazlewood (9 overs, 1\/17) were used similarly sparingly after having opener Lesego Senokwane caught by Marnus Labuschange at first slip in the day\u2019s tenth over.<\/p>\n

With local cricketers used throughout the innings as sub fielders to allow for ample rest for the tourists, two notable absentees were Matt Renshaw and Cameron Green, who are under a fitness cloud<\/a> going into the first Test after suffering blows in Australia\u2019s third ODI win over the Proteas last week.<\/p>\n

While Renshaw, who took throwdowns in the nets while watching on, is expected to be fine to open the batting in Durban after suffering a wrist injury, Green is in doubt with an abdominal injury.<\/p>\n

Speaking to ESPNcricinfo at stumps, Brand said it was \u201cawesome\u201d to face \u2013 and dispatch \u2013 an Australian line-up full of Test stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of heroes in that team for me, so nice to play against them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, someone like Nathan Lyon talking to you about batting is awesome, he\u2019s someone I\u2019ve always admired as a cricket player.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are a world-class bowling unit and got the best batter in the world in Steve Smith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brand also revealed an amusing exchange in which Lyon questioned the amount of revolutions he was putting on the ball during a spell.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was asking if he was getting shape on the ball \u2026 I was like, \u2018you\u2019re the best spinner ever, don\u2019t know why you asking me\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Along with Brand, emerging 19-year old talent Jorich Van Schalkwyk showed his class with 33 in a 74-run stand in the afternoon session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forgotten ex-South African captain Neil Brand was the star of the day as Australia were made to toil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-915089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}