Published: Nov 05, 2016, 06:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Nov 05, 2016, 03:32 PM (IST)
Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s coverage of third day’s play of the first Test between Australia and South Africa at Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA), Perth on Friday. The second day has already seen a rollercoaster of a ride as Australia who started off in an attacking fashion were bowled out for 244. David Warner started off the Day Two with the overnight score of 72 and was definitely looking all poised to get to his century while Shaun Marsh, on the other hand, was looking very solid in his innings of 29. LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD: Australia vs South Africa, 1st Test at Perth
But the visitors bowling came in extremely hard against the strong looking Australian opening pair. First, they dismissed Warner for 97 from 100 deliveries against the run of play. Later it was Usman Khawaja who had just scored 4 runs and before the hosts could stabilise their falling innings, their skipper Steven Smith was removed by South African debutant Keshav Maharaj. This was also the maiden wicket for Maharaj and this initiated the downfall of the Australian innings out of nowhere. Shaun Marsh had got to his half-century at the other end of the pitch while he had lost three partners in succession. But he too perished against Vernon Philander ending his innings for the score of 63 from 148 balls.
Adam Voges tried to provide some stability as he played a handful knock of 27 from 60 deliveries along with Peter Nevill who scored 23 runs off 53 balls. It was this partnership and Peter Siddle’s 18 runs from 25 balls that took Australia to the total of 242 giving them a lead of puny 2 runs over South Africa’s 242.
It was a remarkable comeback from South Africa as Vernon Philander became the pick of the bowler for them as he finished with the figures of 4 for 56. He was well supported by debutant Maharaj who finished with 3 for 56. Kagiso Rabada and Steyn finished with 2 and 1 wicket respectively. Carrying the same momentum in the second innings, South Africa have reached a score of 104 for the 2 as their opener Dean Elgar is unbeaten on 46 from 117 deliveries and has JP Duminy who will resume tomorrow from the score of 34.
The Proteas opener Stephen Cook continued his run of poor form from the first innings as he was dismissed by Siddle for just 12 runs from 55 deliveries. Hashim Amla too disappointed as he was removed by Josh Hazlewood for just one run. Both Elgar and Duminy had made 59 runs stand for the third wicket and they both have looked well-settled in their batting.
The Day Two has given us a cracker of cricketing action and the same can be expected form Day Three as the visitors have come out on top against their run of play. The hosts will be expecting a turnaround of things on Day Three as they seemed to have lost the strong grip of the game which they had by the end of Day One.
The visitors will be completely in a different zone as off now as they have pulled the game back in their court against the run of play. With two days still to be played and the second innings have already started, this Test match is definitely going to yield a result. But given the way this match has gone by, it will extremely difficult to predict a winner at this moment. As off now as that can be said is that a cracker of action awaits us as we get underway with Day Three.
Squads:
Australia: Steven Smith(c), David Warner, George Bailey, Scott Boland, Aaron Finch, John Hastings, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Marsh, Joe Mennie, Chris Tremain, Matthew Wade, Daniel Worrall, Adam Zampa, James Faulkner, Shaun Marsh.
South Africa: Faf du Plessis(c), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, Jean-Paul Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dale Steyn.
