{"id":936722,"date":"2026-10-22T09:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T09:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936722\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T09:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T09:12:11","slug":"australia-vs-south-africa-2026-live-cricket-scores-second-test-day-5-highlights-results-latest-updates-aussie-coach-lifts-lid-on-steve-smiths-availability-after-neck-injury-experts-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936722\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia vs South Africa 2026 LIVE cricket scores: Second Test, Day 5 highlights, results, latest updates; Aussie coach lifts lid on Steve Smith\u2019s availability after neck injury; Experts warn Nic Maddinson \u2018shouldn\u2019t play\u2019 next Test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Marnus Labuschagne&#8217;s spot in the side remains in significant doubt, as his struggle to make runs continues into a third home summer.<\/p>\n<p>If he is to be dropped, Usman Khawaja actually believes Steve Smith is the one who should bat at three, with Green, Inglis and potentially Head in the middle order, if a Sam Konstas is picked to open, following his impressive ton in the Sheffield Shield.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSmudge (Smith) loves batting three. He loves it. He loves getting out there sooner rather than later. He would have no issue getting out there at three if Travis Head had to bat at four,\u201d Khawaja told Fox Cricket.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think Head has a really good record batting at four, especially for South Australia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s options there. He can bat at four. Leave Cam Green at five.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Great insight from Uzzie at the desk so far. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/d06fe3ca136f97360d42df638c25ca00e1bdf32b.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">Australia\u2019s Steve Smith plays a shot on day four.\u00a0AP Photo\/Themba Hadebe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marnus Labuschagne&#8217;s spot in the side remains in significant doubt, as his struggle to make runs continues into&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-936722","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\/936722","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=936722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}