The first two days of the World Test Championship Final between South Africa and Australia has ebbed and flowed from one team to another. 28 wickets have fallen in six sessions and much like the Test match the South African bowling has been topsy-turvy to say the least.
For most parts, it has done well and kept them in the contest, but in the important moments they have sometimes made errors and that has benefitted the Australians. They need to up their game if they want to win this one-off contest. It is due to the bowlers though that South Africa are in the contest.
South Africa’s Overreliance on Kagiso Rabada; letting the lower order wag
After conceding a first innings lead of 74 runs following a dismal batting display, it was important that South Africa starts well with the ball. But they bowled poor lines and lengths to the two Aussie openers Marnus Labuschagne in particular. Marnus was allowed to settle in and get some valuable runs for his side. They were bowling on the pads and both sides of the wicket. Usman Khawaja once again failed but the openers did put up 28 runs in 10.2 overs with Marnus scoring a handy 22 runs.
But it was Kagiso Rabada the go-to man for South Africa who provided the breakthrough and got rid of Khawaja and Cameron Green in an over before Tea to open the door for them. Thereafter, the other bowlers stepped up with Marco Jansen accounting for Marnus while Lungi Ngidi came to the party by picking up three wickets including that of Steven Smith for 13 LBW on DRS. Wiaan Mulder bowled well and picked up a wicket of Travis Head. Australia went from 28/0 to 73/7 in no time and at this stage South Africa were in control of proceedings.
But just like the first innings, South Africa let Australia off the hook in the second innings. At 73/7 with a lead close to 150, here was the golden chance for South Africa to keep the target to 200 and below. What followed was great from Australia’s point of view, but not so good from the South African bowlers.
The bowlers failed to clean up the tail as the pair of Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc added 61 runs off 85 balls for the 8th wicket. The two southpaws played their way in and scored runs against some bad bowling as well at times. Plus, the ploy not to use Rabada after the fall of the 7th wicket really came back to haunt the Proteas. Alex Carey eventually fell for an impressive 43 off 50 balls and the score went to 134 when the 8th wicket fell. Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon played it till the end of the day.
Temba Bavuma’s defensive captaincy and loads of no balls add to South Africa’s woesÂ
Temba Bavuma has led the side well in this WTC cycle and the lead-up to the final. But he made some errors throughout the Test match that might come back to haunt his side later on. He made some crucial DRS blunders like not taking a review against Beau Webster in the first innings when he was in single digits. He was plumb in front, but DRS was not taken and he added 70 odd crucial runs after that.
Apart from DRS calls, Bavuma made some errors in the field positions like he went into defensive mode against Alex Carey having deep backward point and deep fine leg. Plus, he made an error yesterday by not calling back Rabada earlier when the score was 73/7. He continued with Mulder and Ngidi for a long time.
At the end of the day, when the pacers could have carried on, Bavuma introduced left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj into the attack. A move possibly to improve his over rate which was slow but at what cost. The mace is up for grabs and that should be the ultimate goal in the end. These calls could come back to haunt the Proteas.
What did not help South Africa is the number of No Balls that they have bowled in the Test match. In this second innings, they have bowled nine no balls while in the Test match they have bowled 19 no balls so far which could be costly in a low scoring game.
Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen have been the main culprits bowling the bulk of the no balls that they have given away. Later on in the day, in the final over Mitchell Starc was dropped by Marco Jansen in the slip cordon off the bowling of Wiaan Mulder when he was batting on 14. He has added two more runs and is batting on 16* right now. How costly will this dropped chance be? Only time will tell. Many balls fell short of Markram in the slip cordon as well.
What Lies Ahead
The Test Match is nicely poised after the first two days and it could be wrapped up on the third day itself. Australia have runs on the board with a lead of 218 runs with 2 wickets in hand. Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon are at the crease with Josh Hazlewood still to come.
Australia will want to add a few more runs and take the target even beyond South Africa. South Africa’s aim will be to take the remaining two wickets as quickly as possible and then get into chasing a substantial score on the fourth innings.
Australia are favourites and should win from here, but an improbable South African win cannot be ruled out at all. They have done it in the past against the Aussies if one looks at history. But South Africa’s first innings batting performance does not inspire much confidence. Let’s see how things pan out in the third day of the Ultimate Test.