{"id":938080,"date":"2026-10-23T11:56:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T11:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/938080\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T11:56:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T11:56:21","slug":"beaten-by-the-breeze-marnus-is-now-up-against-the-winds-of-change-in-aussie-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/938080\/","title":{"rendered":"Beaten by the breeze, Marnus is now up against the winds of change in Aussie team"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

October 23, 2026 \u2014 6:16pm<\/p>\n

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Gqeberha: A narrow gap between two grandstands at St George\u2019s Park is the margin by which Marnus Labuschagne finds himself on the edge of losing his Test place as South Africa eye the series victory that would emboss their status as world champions.<\/p>\n

Proteas captain Temba Bavuma has flagged the importance of his team embracing the title of world No.1, something he felt they did far more effectively in Gqeberha. Labuschagne, meanwhile, is fighting for Test cricket survival this week as the Australian selectors ponder their options with the series locked at 1-1 and the final Test starting in Cape Town on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

As a strong wind whipped across the ground on the fourth afternoon of the second Test, Labuschagne had established a partnership with Travis Head and just evaded the tightest of lbw decisions on review. The sunny uplands of a long awaited-big score beckoned.<\/p>\n

But the spin bowler Labuschagne was contending with was Simon Harmer, an Eastern Province local with deep knowledge of the coastal breezes that occasionally stir into something more like the gales that battered the ground that afternoon.<\/p>\n

The western stand, which recently had a roof upgrade ahead of next year\u2019s ODI World Cup, provided some shelter from the wind. So too did the instantly recognisable Duck Pond End terrace, which adorns the St George\u2019s Park logo.<\/p>\n

Having played here many times before, Harmer recognised the gap between those two stands as a source of pushback for airborne shots. With Marco Jansen posted at a deepish mid-on, he tossed the ball higher and dared Labuschagne to hit up. What followed was the moment that put Australia, and Labuschagne, in considerable trouble.<\/p>\n

\"MarnusMarnus Labuschagne immediately regretted his shot selection after being dismissed in Australia\u2019s second innings of the second Test against South Africa in Gqebera.Kayo<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the nuances of playing here in St George\u2019s,\u201d Bavuma said. \u201cYou can see a shortish boundary \u2026 you can underestimate the fact that the wind plays a factor. He didn\u2019t get all of that ball, Marnus, and the wind did what it did.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt held it, and you probably had the guy with the safest hands in the team; Marco Jansen, to catch it. Those are the small things [about] playing here at St George\u2019s. If you haven\u2019t played, they can get you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bavuma, who gave his team a chance with a sublime 179 after the hosts had slipped to 6-110 early on day three, spoke with empathy about Labuschagne\u2019s lengthy run of handy but insubstantial scores.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m probably the last person to speak in terms of getting starts and not going big, but I guess he\u2019s within that phase, right?\u201d Bavuma said. \u201cAs a cricketer, that\u2019s probably the frustrating thing as a batter when you are getting to 30 and 40, and you\u2019re not able to go and get the big scores. I mean, he\u2019s doing all the hard work.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe narrow gap between the two grandstands at St George\u2019s Park, Gqeberha, South Africa.Daniel Brettig<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I\u2019ve learned, it\u2019s more a mental thing, and I think only he will know what\u2019s happening in his head when he gets into those moments. He\u2019s definitely going to be thinking about it when he gets to 30 and 40.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the moment he sees himself getting past those moments, that\u2019s when he\u2019ll kind of get his confidence and belief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bavuma acknowledged that his men had been chirpier and more aggressive in Gqeberha.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were just probably just looking at things a lot more internally in terms of what has allowed us to play well, and I think part of it is being aggressive in situations, not necessarily having to have a word with our opposition, or look for fights, but be aggressive in how we approach it.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook for opportunities to make the play for the team, and be ruthless in doing so. There\u2019s obviously certain individuals within the team who enjoy a little argy bargy, and I mean, you allow those guys to go about doing that within the rules. Yeah, there was a little bit more verbal chatter about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Partly, this was because the South Africans spoke after the Durban Test loss of being more comfortable with the pressure that comes from winning last year\u2019s WTC final at Lord\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think sometimes, as a team, we forget that the target is on our back, and everyone wants to have a go at us. Everyone wants us to show our mettle as the current world champions, and everything that we do is under the microscope.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think our performance, the game up in Durban was a realisation of that, but also a realisation of what it means coming up against super-strong opposition.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a pride point of view, from a belief point of view, we\u2019ve definitely strengthened that by being able to perform like that from a pressure point of view and expectation point of view, that\u2019s probably going to keep increasing individually, but within a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I guess the case for us is just to keep embracing that, keep going towards that pressure, rather than kind of allowing it to hit us in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bavuma added that there had been plenty of introspection to get to 1-1, a feeling Labuschagne will know well this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou definitely have many conversations,\u201d he said. \u201cI think when you front up to the media, you try to keep a steely face. But when you\u2019re there alone in your room, you can\u2019t kind of lie to yourself. So, I mean, you do the whole thing. You analyse you batting innings, and you look at it from a technical point of view.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"South<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think from a mental point of view, you kind of tune yourself to making sure that you\u2019re ready for battle. You\u2019re out to compete, and if the opportunity is there, you wanna make the play for the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it was a lot of that from a mental point of view. Spent the time in the nets as well to kind of try find something, some sort of rhythm or feeling that I was confident I could go into the game with.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Close\"DanielDaniel Brettig<\/a> is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via X<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 23, 2026 \u2014 6:16pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-938080","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\/938080","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=938080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}