{"id":947525,"date":"2026-10-31T11:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T11:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947525\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T11:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T11:30:11","slug":"australia-v-south-africa-live-aussies-stare-down-a-humiliating-defeat-after-another-batting-collapse-in-cape-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947525\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia v South Africa LIVE: Aussies stare down a humiliating defeat after another batting collapse in Cape Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Australia staring down the barrel of a series defeat in South Africa, it seems like a massive review is coming. <\/p>\n

The selectors and Pat Cummins will have to face their critics. It wasn\u2019t long ago that Cummins said \u201cwe don\u2019t believe in batting orders\u201d. Well, their top seven has been found wanting again. The dire chase came after Cummins won the toss and elected to bowl first. It was always going to spin hard on day five – and it is. Australia are buckling under the pressure.<\/p>\n

Kerry O\u2019Keeffe: \u201cThe top seven doesn\u2019t bounce up at you. There\u2019s something clinically wrong with that top seven. People are batting out of order. Marnus\u2019 career is over, question marks around Connolly remain, the running between wickets under pressure; it was so disjointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Australia\u2019sAustralia\u2019s head selector George Bailey is coming under increasing pressure.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Mark Waugh on Fox Cricket says, \u201cIt\u2019s been papered over by the bowlers for the last 12-15 months. They\u2019ve got out of jail a lot, and through individual batting whether it\u2019s Travis Head, Steve Smith or Alex Carey, but as a batting unit, we haven\u2019t batted well for, I\u2019d say, two years.\u201d <\/p>\n

David Warner and Mark Waugh are adamant that Steve Smith should bat at No.3 in the Australian summer. Warner says Smith will do the \u201cteam thing\u201d and bat at first-drop. The Fox Cricket panel also believe wicket-keeper Alex Carey has to drop to No.7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Australia staring down the barrel of a series defeat in South Africa, it seems like a massive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-947525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947525","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=947525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}