CricketAustralia Demolished South Africa In The Second Test To Register 189 Runs & An Innings Victory
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Australia Demolished South Africa In The Second Test To Register 189 Runs & An Innings Victory

Cricket
29 Dec 2022
Sarvesh

Australia Too Strong For South Africa

The formidable opponent that challenged Australia in last times has laid down its arms. Australia has defeated South Africa in a most humiliating manner with proper hammering with the bat. South Africa fell 182 runs short in saving the match from giving Australia something to chase.

Just before the lunch break, Steve Smith bowled Lungi Ngidi with a loopy leg spin delivery to wrap up the South African innings. There were still four sessions left in the match to be played. It was satisfying for cricket fans that this match took four days after the first one in Brisbane was completed within two days.

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David Warner of Australia holds the Mullagh Medal after being awarded player of the match (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

David Warner was named player of the match in his 100th test match. His double ton despite all the discomfort and challenges was really breathtaking. Steve Smith scored a fine 85 runs and this was also special for Alex Carey who scored his first ton of the test career at the iconic MCG stadium.

Now, Australia is ready for ICC World Test Championship playoff. Even if they lose 4-0 to India, still they will be in the playoffs. South Africa came into this series holding second place in World Test Championship points table but now they have pushed down to the fourth place below Sri Lanka.

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Despite having a dominating pace attack, South Africa failed to make any competitive remark. Their bowling was fine knowing it recieved now support whatsoever from the batting unit. Only if South Africa has scored over 350 in the first innings, the scoreboard pressure would have embraced the bowling fire power of the team.

The Proteas haven’t been so thoroughly outplayed on this side of the Indian Ocean since the summer of 2001-2002, when Australia completed a 3-0 whitewash by margins of nine wickets, 10 wickets, and 246 runs.

In fact, the one-sided campaign and the one in Australia that followed four years later served as a trigger for South Africa’s resurgence against their southern hemisphere rivals, which led to them winning three straight series here in 2008-09, 2012-13, and 2016-17.

South Africa kept repeating the same mistakes while batting. In the second innings, they were 65 for 4 and a 63 partnership was established between Kyle Verreynne and Temba Bavuma. But as soon as Boland made the breakthrough, South Africa moved towards its demise. A couple of run outs and and some ugly scenes concluded the second test match for South Africa in an undesirable manner.

Temba Bavuma Unfit For Big Innings As The SCG Test Approaches

With his lone century among 20 half-hundreds, Bavuma currently owns the regrettable distinction for having the poorest conversion rate of 50-plus scores to centuries among all Test hitters who have scored at least 100 runs.

The 32-year-only old’s three-figure score came against England in Cape Town in 2016, during his ninth Test innings, but he hasn’t been able to duplicate it in 83 trips to the wicket since then.

This is a massive victory for Australian as they move ahead for the next test match at the SCG. Yesterday, Sydney Sixers and Melbourne Renegades played at the SCG.  And it looked another challenging pitch for the batters. There was something for both pace and spin bowlers. Hitting good length was specially rewarding as we saw Ben Dwarshuis taking four fer and bowling 19 dot balls in his four overs quota.