Australia vs South Africa: day two wrap from Centurion

Australia are within striking distance of recording a huge first innings lead after a dominant bowling performance on day two of the first Test against South Africa.

The Aussies collapsed in the morning, losing 6-66 after appearing set to post more than 450.

But their total of 397 now looks extremely imposing after the Proteas turned in a feeble display with the blade to finish the day on 6-140, still 57 short of the follow on.

Should Australia bowl South Africa out for less than 197 would Clarke ask them to bat again? What do you think Roarers?

Here is my round up of the day’s play:

Turning point
For the first time since just after lunch on day one, South Africa had the momentum.

Having snared Australia’s last six wickets cheaply they had avoided being batted out of the game and had reason to enter their innings with optimism.

However, in just the second over, South Africa were ambushed.

Graeme Smith is a puff-out-your-chests-and-follow-me-lads kind of captain. He is not the most astute tactician, more of a lead-by-example type.

Smith prides himself on staring down the world’s fastest bowlers as they wield the new ball.

So for the Proteas to see their macho captain eviscerated by a rampant Mitchell Johnson would have sent a tsunami of anxiety through their changing rooms.

The spiteful, rearing Johnson delivery which Smith gloved to slip was truly terrifying.

As a result, Alviro Petersen seemed desperate to get off strike against Johnson – I don’t blame him – and launched a fatal swipe at a rare loose delivery from the Aussie to donate his wicket.

By the time South Africa’s new ‘Ice Man’ Faf du Plessis had departed to yet another snorting Johnson short ball, the series had been turned on its head.

That Smith dismissal will live long in the memory. The South Africans will be doing their best to forget it.

Point of contention
Morne Morkel’s swift return to the bowling crease after an extended stay on the sidelines nursing a shoulder injury prompted much confusion.

South Africa’s beanpole quick did not take to the field at the start of the day’s play after getting scans on his shoulder which had been tweaked while diving in the outfield late on day one.

Morkel was absent from the field for more than an hour, yet left the South African television commentators flummoxed when he took the ball shortly after entering back into the match.

Former West Indian paceman Michael Holding echoed the sentiments of his fellow broadcasters by questioning the decision.

The law stated, he claimed, that a player who spent time off the field must then wait that same length of time after they return before they could bowl again.

Except, that is, if they had left the field as a result of suffering an “external blow”.

None of the commentators could fathom how diving in the field constituted an “external blow” while Holding went so far as to claim that, if that was so, it could potentially be exploited by unscrupulous cricketers.

With the DRS yet to cause any controversy, this somewhat pedantic issue was the most hotly contested incident of yesterday’s play.

Debate of the day
If you were starting a Test team from scratch and could select any player first, who would it be?

Six months ago, in my team that player would have been South African spearhead Dale Steyn.

Mitchell Johnson, having averaged 40 with the ball in his previous 13 Tests, would not have been among the top 30 players I considered.

Yet, right now, there is no choice – any right-minded individual would pick Johnson.

He is the most destructive bowler in the game and is also batting with the bravado and fluidity that helped him win the ICC Player of the Year award in 2009.

Aside from England, whose batsmen must still be suffering horrific flashbacks, no side is more intimately aware of the danger posed by Johnson than South Africa.

Several of his most astonishing spells and both of his greatest innings in Test cricket were delivered in competition against the Proteas.

Now they have run into Johnson in arguably his most complete form.

The South Africans must be cursing their luck.