{"id":936774,"date":"2026-10-22T10:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T10:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936774\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T10:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T10:20:13","slug":"australia-vs-south-africa-live-head-aussies-back-at-the-crease-after-first-session-washed-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936774\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia vs South Africa LIVE: Head, Aussies back at the crease after first session washed out"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is plenty of discussion around who should be in Australia\u2019s side for the third Test in Cape Town and that is before we even have a finale for the second Test which remains delayed by rain on day five.<\/p>\n

But former Australian star Usman Khawaja has offered his view on the decision to open with Nic Maddinson<\/a> in the first two matches of the series.<\/p>\n

\"NicNic Maddinson scored four runs across two innings in the second Test against South Africa in Gqeberha.AP Photo\/Themba Hadebe<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s just go back to the start, everyone was shocked, I expected him to bat five. I thought 100 per cent that Renshaw was going to open, and when he didn\u2019t I couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d Khawaja said on Kayo Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have an opener with Matt Renshaw, who\u2019s done it for the last couple of years at Queensland. Obviously, I\u2019ve been there, and I know he got 190 that game, but there\u2019s nothing to say that if he opened he wouldn\u2019t get more runs. And then Maddinson might get runs in the middle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think when you\u2019ve got a really good opener and opening is such a hard spot, get the opener in there. They had a plan; it didn\u2019t work. I\u2019m sure they\u2019re going to think about this in the next after this game\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khawaja added that plans could also change if Cameron Green is fit to return to the side for the third Test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is plenty of discussion around who should be in Australia\u2019s side for the third Test in Cape…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85],"class_list":["post-936774","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\/936774","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=936774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}