Published: Aug 20, 2015, 07:28 PM (IST)
Edited: Aug 20, 2015, 07:28 PM (IST)
If you thought that 60 all out against England in the fourth Ashes 2015 Test was a one-off blip for Australia, you would be wrong. The team under Michael Clarke is familiar to batting collapses, and the one that they had against South Africa in Cape Town in 2011 was one of their most disgusting moment. It was not the case of the Australians being asked to bat first — in the first innings they had scored a gritty 284 with Clarke scoring a resolute 151 to lead his side. Things looked all right for the hosts as well, as their opening pair of Jacques Rudolph and Graeme Smith had added 24 runs on the board and had faced more than six overs.
Te dismissal of Rudolph in the seventh over was just not a breakthrough for Australia — it opened the floodgates. Australian all-rounder Shane Watson claimed three wickets in the middle-order and then the Australian bowlers did the rest. South Africa had collapsed to 96 all out.
When Australia came out to bat with a huge lead of 188 runs, they could add only 47 more runs. Vernon Philander returned with the figures of 7-3-15-5 while Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel shared the remaining five wickets between them. It was a horrendous performance from Australia who stuttered to badly that there was no way they could have recovered. South Africa won the Test by 8 wickets.
