- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
In the second one day international between Australia and South Africa, the home team won the toss via a high-quality coin flip from George Bailey.
They elected to bat first. Things went rapidly downhill from there.
Australia’s top order
Grade: D
George Bailey’s coin toss may have won plaudits from the Cricket Australia twitter feed, but nobody in the Australian top order was able to capitalise on the skipper’s world-class tosswork.
Good height on the coin toss from George #AUSvSA pic.twitter.com/yvEhZcziSY
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) November 16, 2014
First, David Warner was caught behind, becoming perhaps the only batsman ever to walk as soon as the original not out decision was reviewed. Aaron Finch soon followed, after an unsuccessful attempt to hit the ball over Morne Morkel.
Steve Smith and Shane Watson had a brief partnership, most notable for some lightning running between the wickets from the pair. Lumbering, oafish lightning in Watson’s case, to be sure, but lightning, nevertheless. However, neither lasted long, with Watson predictably out; handled the ball for 11. (No, he was out LBW, of course. Just making sure you were paying attention.)
Smith was out soon after for 10, skying one while attempting to pull a short ball. It was disappointing for Smith, who would have hoped to have matched the quality of his 12th man performance in the previous game.
This left Australia at 4/34 in the 12th over.
Still, at this stage, there was no need for panic from the Australians. They merely had to see off Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morkel and Imran Tahir, scramble their way to 220, then dismiss Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villers cheaply and it would be game on.
Matthew Wade
Grade: B-
A handy partnership between Bailey and Mitchell Marsh ended with the score on 92 when Bailey was unluckily not dropped even once by the South African fielders. With almost 25 overs remaining in the innings, it was deemed too early for Glenn Maxwell to appear and so Australia opted to send in Wade as their Glennwatchman, just as they had done in the first game.
For a time, Wade proved to be reliable, gritty and difficult to remove. Much like a Karl Stefanovic suit. But eventually, he was given out on review by chatterbox third umpire Nigel Llong, who took into consideration such factors as slow motion replays, hotspot, real time snicko, the precedent of Usman Khawaja’s 2013 Ashes dismissal and a powerful desire to see Maxwell batting.
It was a controversial decision, made even more so when Maxwell immediately chopped on second ball, presumably as some form of protest.
Morne Morkel
Grade: A+
Dale Steyn (3/35 off 7.4 overs) and Vernon Philander (1/16 off 9 overs) both bowled well. They were ably supported by Imran Tahir and Farhaan Behardien.
But the standout South African bowler was Morne Morkel, who took five wickets for 21 runs to go with his catch of Finch.
I’ve long admired Morkel. Admittedly, that’s mostly because he makes me want to open a fake seafood restaurant where I could invite him to dine, so I could ask the question, “More mock-eel mornay, Morne Morkel?” But also partially because of his ability to bowl spells such as this.
With Morkel inspiring havoc both on the field via the ball and in this article via terrible, terrible puns, Australia’s best plan seemed to be to play the long game, batting out the innings, subtly slowing the game in an attempt to get captain AB de Villiers suspended from the next ODI for a poor over rate.
Alas, they couldn’t even do that, with Marsh, who provided the backbone for the innings, eventually being caught for 67 as he hit out with one wicket remaining.
The Australians were all out for 154 in the 42nd over. A good thing we’re no longer playing on those slow UAE pitches, right?
Meg Lanning
Grade: A-
While the men’s team collapsed at the WACA, across the country, Meg Lanning became the first woman to score a century at Bradman Oval, as she led the Southern Stars to a successful run chase against the West Indies. She kept pace with the entire men’s team for much of the innings, in the end falling only 19 runs short on 135 not out, thanks to the opposition selfishly not giving her more runs to chase.
With Michael Clarke still no certainty to play in the first Test against India, the selectors could do worse than pick Lanning to replace him as captain. If nothing else, it might ensure that her fellow Channel Nine commentators actually let her get a few words in.
Hope
Grade: F
Earlier this week, the European Space Agency managed to pilot the Philae comet lander onto comet 67/P, 310 million miles from Earth. In an even more amazing aeronautical feat, Shane Watson momentarily left Earth in the second over of the South African run chase to take a catch that removed de Kock. When Amla followed de Kock to the pavilion, de Villiers chose to hold himself back, fully aware that nothing is as destructive as hope.
Fortunately, sensible Australian supporters weren’t taken in, bravely never doubting the futility of the cause, even when Josh Hazlewood took five wickets and was on a hat trick twice. This left AB de Villiers with little choice but to shamefacedly cruise South Africa to the brink of an inevitable victory.
Embarrassing for the South African captain to have his plans dismantled so easily, really. Australia now well on top going into the third game, with the series level at 1-1.