{"id":935425,"date":"2026-10-20T22:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T22:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935425\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T22:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T22:24:11","slug":"australia-v-south-africa-second-test-news-temba-bavuma-ton-puts-proteas-on-top-as-david-warner-rips-nathan-lyon-snub-crowds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935425\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia v South Africa second Test news, Temba Bavuma ton puts Proteas on top as David Warner rips Nathan Lyon snub, crowds"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Warner<\/a> has delivered a subtle jab at selectors and even fiercer criticism towards South African crowds during day three of Australia\u2019s second Test against the Proteas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

His comments came as South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma played a career knock to reach 179 off 334 deliveries, allowing the hosts to declare at 9-425 late in the day to send the Aussies in.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s captain Temba Bavuma celebrates after hitting a century.\u00a0AP Photo\/Themba Hadebe<\/p>\n

It resulted in the early wicket of Nic Maddinson, who was out for a four-ball duck before five-wicket hero Scott Boland came to the crease as a night watchman.<\/p>\n

Australia is 1-3 heading into day four and suddenly on the back foot, after Boland\u2019s heroics on rain-impacted days one and two had the Proteas 4-40 at one stage.<\/p>\n

Bavuma was aided by bowlers Marco Jansen (85 off 100) and Simon Harmer (82 off 157) as the tail wagged and Australia\u2019s bowlers struggled.<\/p>\n

Fast bowler Josh Hazlewood sat out most of the innings after being struck down by illness, but returned to bowl a few overs late in the day.<\/p>\n

Hazlewood bowled six overs in the second session but was ineffective against the patient Bavuma. <\/p>\n

\u201cHazlewood just hasn\u2019t quite had that same amount of zip, you just wonder whether the effects of that food poisoning has impacted his pace off the surface,\u201d Simon Katich said on Super Sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough he should\u2019ve nicked Simon Harmer off earlier on 17, they had the extra cover in and no third slip, and it went straight through the vacant slip region. Australia will regret that decision of not having the attacking slip in and trying to stem the flow of runs. It\u2019s cost them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hazlewood\u2019s inability to bowl also meant Matt Renshaw featured with his off-spinners, bringing about a pointed David Warner post on X regarding Nathan Lyon<\/a> not being selected. <\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t believe Matt Renshaw is now bowling, where is Nathan Lyon?? All the kids around the world want to see a spinner,\u201d the former Test opener wrote.<\/p>\n

Lyon\u2019s dropping meant Boland came into the team<\/a> and subsequently took a five-wicket haul. He now averages an astonishing 18.44 from 20 and a half Test matches.<\/p>\n

On commentary, Katich wasn\u2019t sure what impact Lyon would have played, particularly due to Hazlewood\u2019s illness. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to know the impact of that because of Hazlewood. But if you look at Boland, he\u2019s been the main threat,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Despite being below his best, Hazlewood almost had a wicket before tea when an edge from Bavuma just went under the hand of Steve Smith. <\/p>\n

Smith immediately looked at his finger in pain and then had to leave the field before turning 10 minutes later. <\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s departure came in front of a small crowd at St George\u2019s Park which has been a feature of the two Tests with barely any presence in Durban. <\/p>\n

Fans did show up for the first two days but barely saw any cricket due to rain.<\/p>\n

The weather didn\u2019t stop Warner from having a dig at the crowd numbers as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep hearing how important Test cricket is, but where are the fans in South Africa? Empty stands, no atmosphere, and we\u2019re supposed to believe the format is thriving?\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t keep calling Test cricket the pinnacle of the game if no one turns up to watch it. Harsh reality, but someone has to say it. Pathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Warner has delivered a subtle jab at selectors and even fiercer criticism towards South African crowds during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85],"class_list":["post-935425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935425","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=935425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}