South Africa v Australia, 2018: 2nd Test, Day 1 – Statistical Highlights

South Africa made strong efforts to restrict Australia below 250 who were cruising at 98/0 in the first session on a seam-friendly track. Kagiso Rabada’s spell before and after the Tea break included a 5-wicket haul reduced the Aussies from 161/3 to 182/8. Tim Paine added another 61 runs for the last two wickets with the tail-enders as the visitors ended up with 243 on the board. The home team made 39 in the 12 overs play before the stumps on day one for the loss of Aiden Markram’s wicket.

All the stats and numbers that were created during the first day’s play at the St. George’s Park:

3 – Number of fifty-plus scores for David Warner in the Test matches in Port Elizabeth. He is the first visiting player and 9th player over to score three fifty-plus Test scores at this venue. Warner scored fifties in both the innings of the Port Elizabeth Test in 2014.

4 – David Warner became the 4th player with three consecutive fifty-plus scores in Tests in Port Elizabeth. The Australian scored 70, 66 and 63 in this game at this venue. Graeme Pollock, Jonty Rhodes and AB de Villiers (4 in a row) are the other three players with fifty-plus scores in three consecutive Test innings in Port Elizabeth.

4.57 – The economy rate of Kagiso Rabada during his 5/96 in Australia’s first innings. This is the expensive 5-wicket haul for a South African in Test cricket since Morne Morkel’s 5/146 against Australia in the 2012 Adelaide Test where he conceded at an economy of 4.86.

7 – Kagiso Rabada took four wickets in space of seven deliveries by dismissing Steven Smith, Marsh brothers and Pat Cummins around the Tea interval. He completed his 5-wicket haul in space of 18 deliveries after claiming Mitchell Starc’s wicket.

8 – Number of 5-wicket hauls for Kagiso Rabada in Test cricket so far. These are the most for a South African player before turning 23. Only Peter Pollock (four 5-fers) took more than two Test 5-wicket hauls for South Africa before turning 23.

18 – Runs Australia scored in the first 13 overs of the opening session of the game. In the next 13 overs, the Aussie openers scored 80 runs.

98 – The 98-run opening stand between David Warner and Cameron Bancroft is the highest for a visiting team in South Africa in the last four years. No visiting pair put on more than 90 since the century partnerships between Warner and Chris Rogers in 2014.

This 98-run stand is also the 2nd highest opening stand in the 1st innings of a Test against South Africa in South Africa in the last ten years. Simon Katich and Phil Hughes put on 184 in the 2009 Durban Test.