{"id":933659,"date":"2026-10-19T11:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T11:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/933659\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T11:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T11:04:20","slug":"live-updates-south-africa-vs-australia-second-test-day-two-from-st-georges-park-in-gqeberha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/933659\/","title":{"rendered":"Live updates: South Africa vs Australia, second Test, day two from St George’s Park in Gqeberha"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 10:00pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 10:00pm<\/p>\n

A scorecard in the meantime\"Dean<\/p>\n

Can’t you provide a scorecard without having to make us wade through a confusing babble?<\/p>\n

– Michael Gionfriddo<\/p>\n

Yes, yes I can. Scorecard is available here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Next inspection is still 15 minutes away so a bit more confusing babble to come I’m afraid.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 9:52pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 9:52pm<\/p>\n

Spending some time down memory lane\"Dean<\/p>\n

The Bichel and Bevo game at the 2003 World Cup. Reckon Brett Lee sent one down above 100mph in that game too, in the middle of what was an arms race between the world’s fastest bowlers during that tournament.<\/p>\n

So many vivid memories from that tournament. We’ll be back in South Africa this time next year for the 2027 World Cup, the first there for the men since that 2003 edition.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 9:36pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 9:36pm<\/p>\n

Not a particularly encouraging update from Gqeberha\"Dean<\/p>\n

Neil Manthorp here with a slightly less optimistic take on things.<\/p>\n

I’ve got to say, that patch of mud on the boundary is rather significant and it is hard to see it drying overly quickly without some proper sun and wind.<\/p>\n

We’ve still got plenty of time in the day and I’m not sure it will rain again, which gives us a chance. But the animated discussions between ground staff and umpires suggest not everything is rosy out there at the minute.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 9:28pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 9:28pm<\/p>\n

An intense conversation between umpires and groundsman\"Simon<\/p>\n

Interesting, the umpires were having a conversation with the groundsman, who is gesticulating and pointing at and area.<\/p>\n

He has a coffee cup that he is swinging liberally about, which makes one assume that it is devoid of its contents.<\/p>\n

The groundsman is now having a conversation with the Australian coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 9:22pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 9:22pm<\/p>\n

There is a patch on the rope that is very muddy\"Simon<\/p>\n

We’ve just been shown an area of the ground right on the rope by one of the grandstands that is very wet and muddy. As in, school cross country in the middle of winter style muddy.<\/p>\n

That could be an issue.<\/p>\n

But the rest of the ground looks pretty good.<\/p>\n

So can they mop that area up? Dump an industrial quantity of sawdust on it? Sacrifice their mum’s best towels they reserve for guests?<\/p>\n

We’ll wait and see.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 9:17pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 9:17pm<\/p>\n

The umpires are out there inspecting\"Simon<\/p>\n

The covers are off.<\/p>\n

The sun is almost coming out.<\/p>\n

But the umpires are gingerly treading about in the outfield, an area that has been earmarked as a problem.<\/p>\n

We’ll hear what they have to say soon.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 9:13pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 9:13pm<\/p>\n

This is the earliest Test ever played in South Africa\"Simon<\/p>\n

We had issues with light in the first test, now rain. Is this not the usual time for cricket in South Africa?<\/p>\n

– Adrian<\/p>\n

This is not the usual Test time for South Africa.<\/p>\n

In fact, there has never been a Test match played this early in the season in South African cricket history.<\/p>\n

A part of the reason for that is the\u00a0SA20, which has a monopoly on the height of the summer.<\/p>\n

That has caused issues, not least an early start to the Test match summer in less than ideal climactic conditions.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Cricket South Africa stopped its elite Test players from touring New Zealand in February 2024, so they could stay in the franchise competition.<\/p>\n

This is a scene that has been replicated in England, where there was no Test cricket played in August, the peak of the season, so the best players can play in The Hundred.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:46pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:46pm<\/p>\n

How Shaun Pollock saw Aiden Markram’s dismissal\"Simon<\/p>\n

Local boy Shaun Pollock knows a thing or two about dismissing batters in Test cricket – he claimed 421 dismissals in his stellar career.<\/p>\n

He knows how to hold a bat too, with over 7,000 first class runs to his name and two Test tons to boot.<\/p>\n

So this is an interesting analysis of how\u00a0Aiden Markram was so deceived by Scott Boland yesterday.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:40pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:40pm<\/p>\n

You and us both\"Simon<\/p>\n

Hope there is some cricket to watch today rather than continously refreshing the weather forecast yesterday to see if there were going to be some overs after tea<\/p>\n

– JP Morgan<\/p>\n

I’m a big fan of Test cricket.<\/p>\n

I am less of a big fan of rain.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:31pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:31pm<\/p>\n

Sheffield Shield: Run-fest in the West\"Simon\"\"(Getty Images)<\/p>\n

New South Wales’s batters have made hay out in Perth today, winning the toss and scoring plenty of runs against WA at the WACA.<\/p>\n

Openers Oliver Davies (52 off 58) and Sam Konstas (71 off\u00a0142) both nabbed half centuries, while Kurtis Patterson has already scored a century.<\/p>\n

Play is actually ongoing at the WACA, with NSW approaching 300 for the loss of just three wickets.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:25pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:25pm<\/p>\n

Sheffield Shield: Queensland roll defending champs at Adelaide Oval\"Simon\"\"(Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Cameron Gannon took 5-42 as Queensland bowled South Australia out for just 203 on day one at Adelaide Oval.<\/p>\n

Nathan McSweeney (remember him?) scored\u00a054 in a 150-ball innings, with\u00a0Jake Lehmann chipping in with 62.<\/p>\n

Queensland didn’t do all that much better with bat in hand, losing both openers to fall to\u00a02-26 in reply.<\/p>\n

However, Hugo Burdon (39*) and\u00a0Jack Clayton (7*) steadied the ship to leave the Bulls 2-63 at stumps.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:18pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:18pm<\/p>\n

Sheffield Shield: McDermott and Doran rescue Tasmania\"Simon<\/p>\n

Let’s have a quick chat about the Sheffield Shield action today, shall we?<\/p>\n

\"\"(Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A record 8th-wicket partnership of 166 between Ben McDermott and Jake Doran rescued Tasmania from\u00a07-45 in Hobart.<\/p>\n

McDermott hit 128 and Doran 73 – the only two batters who reached at least double figures – as the Tigers were bowled out 241 runs just in time for the close.<\/p>\n

Harry Hoekstra was the pick of the bowlers, taking 5-46.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:06pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:06pm<\/p>\n

No hessian\"Simon<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the covers situation? We talking bit of hessian? Tarps? <\/p>\n

– Chris<\/p>\n

\"\"(AP Photo)<\/p>\n

The covers are just tarps in South Africa which is, it is fair to say,\u00a0 a tad unusual.<\/p>\n

The covers are just placed directly on the pitch which does result in the pitch sweating a bit.<\/p>\n

Hessian covers under the tarps do allow for some of that moisture to be picked up.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:00pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 8:00pm<\/p>\n

Get running, folks\"Simon<\/p>\n

Fair play to Makhaya Ntini, that’s a decent amount of running to do in the middle of a Test match.<\/p>\n

Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:56pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:56pm<\/p>\n

I, for one, would love this\"Simon<\/p>\n

Would the Aussies flip the batting order to protect the top order if we bowl out SA quickly? Like Aussie tours in uncovered English pitches<\/p>\n

– Mac from Macclesfield<\/p>\n

It was actually at the MCG where captain Don Bradman did this with the Australian team in 1937.<\/p>\n

Australia made 9-200 before declaring as rain made the wicket almost unplayable.<\/p>\n

England were then reduced to 76 before declaring 9 wickets down shortly before the close at the end of day two.<\/p>\n

Then, Bradman sent out number 11 batter Chuck Fleetwood-Smith, who didn’t bat in the first innings, and number 9 Bill O’Reilly to open.<\/p>\n

Both men made ducks but, crucially, Australia were only 1-3 at the close of day two, with number 10 batter\u00a0Frank Ward in at first drop.<\/p>\n

The following day was, being a Sunday, a rest day, where good weather rendered the pitch far better to bat on.<\/p>\n

Keith Rigg came in at his customary number four, followed by the openers Bill Brown and Jack Fingelton, with Bradman coming in at number seven. He made 270, Australia were all out for 564, and England could only manage 323 to lose by a whopping 365 runs.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:47pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:47pm<\/p>\n

Covers are back on\"Simon<\/p>\n

CricInfo are reporting that the pitch is, once again, covered up.<\/p>\n

Let’s not get too downbeat though, there is still an inspection due at 8:15pm AEDT.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:45pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:45pm<\/p>\n

Meet Matthew Breetzke\"Simon\"\"(Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Matthew Breetzke has only played two Tests in his short career thus far, scoring a far from imposing total of 14 runs at an average of 4.66 as well.<\/p>\n

Hardly much to strike fear into the Australian bowlers.<\/p>\n

His first class average is just 37.03, but in ODI cricket he has excelled, averaging 58.73 and scoring two centuries, including one in the first ODI against the Aussies last month.<\/p>\n

The Aussie bowlers do know all about him.<\/p>\n

And if we get on any time soon, you’d expect them to want to re-introduce themselves as soon as they can.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:28pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:28pm<\/p>\n

Don’t count out a result\"Dean<\/p>\n

Not expecting anything apart from a draw from this test but it would be nice to see a little cricket \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n

– Doc<\/p>\n

I am no expert in Gqeberha weather, but I am optimistic we’ll get some cricket today and in the days ahead. The pitch being what it is, I would also imagine this game could be one that moves relatively quickly when it all gets going.<\/p>\n

I still reckon we’ll get a winner by the end of day five.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:20pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:20pm<\/p>\n

South African batters have a tall task on their hands, and a crucial one\"Simon\"\"(Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Temba Bavuma\u00a0knows he has a really tough task ahead of him tonight.<\/p>\n

“It’s probably going to be tough here in the morning,” he said at the toss yesterday.<\/p>\n

“Overhead conditions, looks quite moist, the wicket, so we’ll have to fight it out in the first session and set it up for the guys to come in later.”<\/p>\n

Given the conditions it looked like a bad toss to lose yesterday morning, although to be honest, Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood clearly struggled to get much of anything out of the spongy surface.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it wasn’t such a bad toss to lose?<\/p>\n

In fact, if the pitch is soft enough for the ball to leave some indents on it in these opening two damp days, then perhaps it will become much harder to bat on later in the week?<\/p>\n

It makes this partnership very important.<\/p>\n

Bavuma resumes on 4 from 13 balls, with debutant opener\u00a0Marques Ackerman sitting on 5 from 31.<\/p>\n

\"\"(AP Photo)<\/p>\n

I thought Ackerman played pretty well yesterday. He’s not an opener by trade, this is the first time he’s ever opened in any form of senior first class cricket, but he was circumspect and held onto his attacking instincts to play a very solid innings thus far.<\/p>\n

He come in with good pedigree, the 30-year-old.<\/p>\n

He averages 48.66 from 85 first class matches, having scored just shy of 6,000 runs and has a high score of 256.<\/p>\n

He also captains Dolphins (KwaZulu-Natal) in the unimaginatively named CSA 4-Day Domestic Series.<\/p>\n

He actually scored 107 runs at better than a run a ball for Dolphins against Western Province at Newlands in his last first class match in September, adding 60 in his second innings as the Dolphins fell 44 runs short in a thriller.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:10pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:10pm<\/p>\n

Will a tricky pitch get trickier?\"Dean<\/p>\n

What will this rain do to the pitch conditions? I know the cover is on but lack of play, moisture etc<\/p>\n

– Leo<\/p>\n

Yesterday was interesting on this front. When play initially got underway the pitch actually played fairly true, with very little seam movement to speak of. When it resumed later after another break in play however the ball started talking. How much that was down to the skill of Scott Boland and how much was down to some added moisture in the wicket is hard to know.<\/p>\n

The covers have been in place for many, many hours now so it should be pretty sweaty under there. If and when play does resume you’d have to imagine the conditions will be very good for bowling.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:05pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 7:05pm<\/p>\n

Smith ‘anxious’ after head knock in first Test\"Simon<\/p>\n

Steve Smith said he was anxious after being hit on the head and facing the prospect of another concussion after a blow playing against South Africa in the first Test last week.<\/p>\n

Smith has previously suffered multiple concussions in his career, and he had to go through concussion protocols after a bouncer from Anrich Nortje hit him on the helmet last Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little bit anxious after the hit, to be honest,\u201d Smith said on Sunday in a TV interview during the first of many rain delays in Gqeberha.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a decent knock, and the rest of that day, I wasn’t travelling too well, and I think it was more to do with anxiety, of hoping not to feel what I felt in the past, waking up the next morning and things like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yeah, fortunately, I woke up well. I passed all the tests, and things recovered pretty quickly.”<\/p>\n

Read more here.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 6:52pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 6:52pm<\/p>\n

Some rainy hours to fill\"Dean<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s hoping Dean. Cricketers have various ways of amusing themselves when it\u2019s raining. Do you and Simon have any special time fillers ?<\/p>\n

– Phillip<\/p>\n

Depends where we are, Phillip. If we’re at the grounds, it pretty much just becomes a food-scrounging exercise. In the office, you’re looking at either classic catches on the wheely chairs or, if it’s the middle of the night and the joint is empty, perhaps a sneaky game of hallway cricket. Don’t tell the boss.<\/p>\n

Simon loves a rain delay though, because it gives him a chance to talk nonsense with our dear readers. Nothing gives him more pleasure than a good tangent.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 6:45pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 6:45pm<\/p>\n

Scott Boland’s brilliance and a touching family moment in the rain\"Simon<\/p>\n

If you prefer your summaries to be even shorter than the full debrief, then check out the things you might have missed in our quick hits from day one.<\/p>\n

Yes, there were only four, but frankly I think\u00a0Henry Hanson went gangbusters to even find that many.<\/p>\n

Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 6:26pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 6:26pm<\/p>\n

What happened on day one\"Simon\"\"(Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Not a whole lot, if we’re honest.<\/p>\n

In fact, just 12.2 overs were possible on a soggy day one in Gqeberha.<\/p>\n

That was enough time for South Africa to score 20 runs.<\/p>\n

But Scott Boland needed just two balls to dismiss Aiden Markram (11) and David Bedingham (0) in successive deliveries.<\/p>\n

I mean, that pretty much sums it up, but if you did want some more detail, here’s the full run down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mon 19 Oct 2026 at 10:00pmMon 19 Oct 2026 at 10:00pm A scorecard in the meantime Can’t you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,740,4125,6462,87875,339876,24299,17600,1183,85,231,125237],"class_list":["post-933659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-live","tag-live-updates","tag-proteas","tag-score-updates","tag-scorecard","tag-scores","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-test","tag-test-match"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933659","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=933659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}