AUS v SA, 2nd Test, Day 3 Review: South Africa on top despite Khawaja’s efforts

In spite of the continual intervention of rain, the visiting South Africa team remained on top especially following the ton by Quinton de Kock. However, in spite of this, there was a stern fightback staged by the hosts as Usman Khawaja and David Warner smashed their way to an important 79-run partnership. The ball was seaming and swinging at will as the pacers Abbott and Vernon Philander picked up where they left off in the first innings.

The day began with the pretext of rain in the offing. Of course, the rain had made an intervention on the previous day as well when the umpires had unanimously decided to call off play prematurely when the conditions failed to improve. In that capacity, Temba Bavuma and Quinton de Kock took the overcast conditions by the throat to make things happen for them.

The overcast conditions were evidence that the wicket was to remain the same. Of course, there was a substantial amount of wear and tear on the surface, but the fact of the matter was that credit had to be given to the two South Africa batsmen on the day. They battled against the swing of Josh Hazelwood and the vicious pace of Mitchell Starc, something that was simply unrelenting, to say the least.

Finally, Temba Bavuma began to play a few shots off the front foot as he drove the ball at will to the fence. However, this was also Bavuma’s baptism of how well he could play the patient game; because, on one hand, there was Quinton de Kock who was smashing the ball to different parts of the Bellerive Oval.

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Quinton de Kock was playing his natural game. The off-side was proving to be a very profitable side as far as the southpaw was concerned. Anything on the off-side was mercilessly dispatched to the square-leg fence. The conditions seemingly did not matter as the 23-year old wicketkeeper-batsman managed 104 runs, a knock that included 17 boundaries.

However, his partner in crime Bavuma was playing second fiddle. His knock of 74 ensured that he smashed just the 8 boundaries and churned out 204 deliveries to churn out. It was Josh Hazelwood who broke through for the Aussies when he breached the defenses of the uncanny de Kock. However, the resistance continued with Bavuma happy to play his natural defensive game.

Vernon Philander was quite literally a like for like change as far as the Proteas were concerned as he began to take the attack to the opposition. He needed just 28 deliveries and 6 boundaries to complete 32 runs and help the South Africans move ahead and enter the zone of safety. Moreover, this zone of safety was underlined by the fact that the Proteas went over the 300-run mark.

It took a herculean effort from Josh Hazelwood who was given an extended spell by his skipper. He was made to bowl 31 overs in the morning as he picked all the wickets on the morning barring the wicket of Temba Bavuma which was picked up by Joe Mennie. Hazelwood concluded with figures of 6/89 in his 31 overs, something that will linger for a long time in his mind.

The Australian innings was off to an atrocious start when Joe Burns was dismissed for a duck in the fourth delivery of the second innings by Kyle Abbott. However, in spite of the setback, it was the brilliance of southpaw Usman Khawaja and David Warner who impressed with some impressive batsmanship on the day.

Warner, in particular, was playing rather uncharacteristic innings as the hosts went on a crusade of securing a lead in the Test match. The duo stitched an impressive 79-run partnership before Warner was cleaned up by Kyle Abbott. The nature of his dismissal was also something that was an interesting one to analyze as it struck his elbow and then his stumps.

Usman Khawaja then went ahead and slammed a brisk and gritty 56, something that gave the hosts a glimmer of hope in the second innings as the day was concluded by bad light at Hobart.

Brief Scores:

Australia, 1st innings: 85 all out

South Africa, 1st innings: 326 all out (Q de Kock 104; J Hazelwood 6/89)

Australia, 2nd innings: 121/2 (U Khawaja 56*; K Abbott 2/55)

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