Australia v South Africa, 1st Test Day 2 Review: Gritty South Africa leads the fightback

While Day 1 saw the visitors South Africa on the receiving end of the yardstick, Day 2 was the exact opposite. Moreover, the fact of the matter was that not many had expected this to happen as well, especially given the fact that David Warner and the Aussies were on the ascendancy. However, in spite of all this, some terrific bowling from Vernon Philander saw the Proteas take an important lead in the first innings at the close of the first day’s play.

The day began with David Warner and Shaun Marsh continuing to put the South African pacers to the sword. Warner, in particular, was back to his ruthless best as he slammed the ball to different parts of the WACA, Perth in the morning session’s play. Things got from bad to worse for skipper Faf du Plessis lost his bowler Dale Steyn to injury early on in the day.

The 33-year old once again was revisited by a troubled shoulder that had kept him out for the most part in the previous cricketing season. However, Steyn gave a parting gift to his skipper when he dismissed the flashy David Warner who was dismissed courtesy of a flashing shot and picked up in the slips by Hashim Amla. This quite effectively began the countdown towards Australia’s demise in the first innings.

As Steyn hobbled off, it was Vernon Philander who was licking his lips to make a point to the Australian batsmen on the tour. Shaun Marsh was trapped leg-before by Philander and this sparked 86 nerve-wracking runs and the loss of 10 exciting wickets for the visitors.

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Usman Khawaja’s plight with the bat continued as he was dismissed a straight delivery from Kagiso Rabada. Just prior to the start of the series, Matthew Hayden had set aside what needed to be done, but, the fact of the matter saw the southpaw unable to ‘shut up and get runs’. Keshav Maharaj had an impressive debut with the ball as his maiden Test scalp was that of skipper Steve Smith.

Smith was out to a rather bizarre dismissal when he advanced down the wicket and was trapped on the pads. Aleem Dar, the man who had been embroiled in a controversy in recent times, gave the skipper out. Interestingly, evidence from the DRS system also ruled Smith out. As Steve Smith strolled away to the haven of the pavilion, the Proteas were plotting the demise of the Aussies.

Unfortunately, only Adam Voges (27), Peter Nevill (23), and Peter Siddle (18*) were the only ones to cross over and net double digits while there were three ducks in the innings. Vernon Philander and Keshav Maharaj were the ones who caused havoc for the Aussie batsmen as four of them walked away with naught runs against their names.

The innings fittingly came to an end when Dean Elgar completed the catch at third slip to dismiss Nathan Lyon a few moments after the hosts had taken a slender and narrow lead of one solitary run. This also meant that South Africa would get to bat 40 overs until the close of play having taken tea early to commemorate the completion of the Australian innings.

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Mitchell Starc made a plight rediscover the spell he had bowled on the first day. In spite of hitting the high notes, the Proteas had seemingly done their homework on Starc. Stephen Cook and Dean Elgar, the openers for the Proteas took body blows at will whilst Starc awaited his much-awaited breakthrough.

However, it was Peter Siddle who provided the hosts with the breakthrough they desperately needed when Mitchell Marsh completed yet another acrobatic effort to complete the catch at mid-wicket. Hashim Amla’s woes with the bat continued as he chopped onto his stumps a blinder of a delivery from Josh Hazelwood. At 2/45, it seemed as though the Proteas would not keep the fire burning so to speak.

However, some patient and responsible batting from Dean Elgar and JP Duminy finally ensured that the visitors were in somewhat of a safety zone, to say the least, to complete the day’s play at 104/2.

Brief Scores:

South Africa, 1st innings: 242 all out 242 all out

Australia, 1st innings: 244 all out (D Warner 97; V Philander 4/56)

South Africa, 2nd innings: 104/2 (D Elgar 46*; P Siddle 1/12)

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