The new pair of Dean Elgar and Sarel Erwee came to bat pretty much undecided on how the pitch might behave. Elgar nicking to Carey after scoring just 3 runs, leaving South Africa in trouble without the presence of an outright experienced batsman.
For half an hour, Erwee and the new batsman Van der Dussen tried to anticipate to the bounce and pace of Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland. But sooner their defence rattled and Boland removed both of the batsmen in a single over like he did against the West Indies. There he got three in an over, surely, he has a golden arm which always produces moments of havoc for the batters.
Thankfully, Kyle Verreynne and Temba Bavuma established a solid 98 runs partnership which brought back them in the game for a while but as soon as one Temba was bowled by Starc, other batsmen followed the same course. Call it anything, whether the pitch was bowling friendly or the Proteas’ approch to batting was a bit struggling in its own nature.
If we talk about Marco Jansen’s wicket, it was a loose shot and totally outplayed by the brilliance of Nathon Lyon as Ricky Ponting in commentry box explained how they will catch him as it exactly happened the next ball. Lower order couldn’t do much against high quality bowling attack of Australia.
Zondo pulls it in! 😱
Rabada removes Warner off the first ball of the innings! #PlayOfTheDay #AUSvSA | @nrmainsurance pic.twitter.com/7nwJkAqD0X
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 17, 2022
Well, South Africa must have thought Australia are well ahead in intractable position but their spirit and soul were revived in the first over. KG Rabada dismissed out of form David Warner for a duck. Then, Marnus Labuschagne couldn’t spend much time on crease and was sent back to pavillion by Marco Jansen. Within three overs, Usman Khawaja was annihilated by Anrich Nortje with a brute of a delivery.
There, Australia made a better choice, instead of going back in defending shell, they chose to attach and this certainly made South Africa think if they should go for wickets or to save runs because they didn’t have much in their bank.
The batting duo of Steve Smith and Travis Head shared 117 runs partnership at at steady pace which has given Australia a fair bit of advantage in the game. But key wickets at the end of the day by Nortje and Rabada have pulled back things for South Africa. Dangerous looking Steve Smith is gone but Travis Head is still there and Alex Carey is yet to bat. So, it will be a good contest tomorrow between bat and ball. South Africa will hope to wrap up the Aussie innings in 20 overs while Australia will hope to bat at least 45 to 50 overs.
SCORECARD:
AUSTRALIA 5/145 Over 33.1 (RR 4.37)
STUMPS
SOUTH AFRICA 152
1st Test, Day 1, Session 3, Gabba, Brisbane
AUSTRALIA TRAIL BY 7 RUNS