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A poor effort on the field from South Africa and a less-than-fully-fit spearhead allowed Australia to pile on the agony on the third day at Centurion and they look overwhelming favourites to win this Test match now. Follow the action live from 7.30 pm AEDT.
South Africa fell behind by 191 runs on the first innings after losing their last four wickets for only 66 runs on the third day but what most would have expected from them was some fight when they bowled the second time around.
After all, Dale Steyn seemed to have recovered from his gastro illness, and the pair of Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander would have watched the areas in which the Australians bowled and got their wickets.
Steyn began well for them too, picking up the wicket of Christ Rogers off the very first ball he bowled but that was about the success the South Africans had for a long time in the day. By the time they rejoiced at the fall of a wicket again, the game seemed to have escaped their clutches.
South Africa had gone into the third innings of the game in a much better situation than what India had found themselves in a recently-concluded Test against New Zealand. There, India conceded a 301-run lead in the first innings but came back with a much improved showing with the ball in the second to bowl the Kiwis out for 105.
India lost out by 44 while chasing 407 but it was a game that could have still gone either way.
The reason I bring this analogy is that India’s pace bowling stocks aren’t the best in the world and yet, it did seem like they had learnt about the lengths which needed to be exploited in that second innings.
In case of South Africa, the likes of Morkel, Philander and Ryan McLaren bowled so short that only six percent of the total deliveries bowled by them would have hit the stumps in the second innings. Essentially South Africa had cut out the lbw and bowled as a mode of dismissing their opponents.
What added to the South African woes was their fielding.
Warner was given let-offs on three separate occasions before he got to his century. An easy catch was dropped at fine-leg by the substitute Dead Elgar, while two tough ones were spilled in the slips.
He punished the South Africans with a 151-ball 115.
At the other end, Doolan batted with utmost circumspection to kick-start his innings – his first 53 balls yielded him only 12 runs – but once he had got his eye in, the runs came in a flow. The debutant deserved a century but will be glad to have had 89 to his name.
By the time the day had ended, Shaun Marsh and Michael Clarke had pushed Australia closer to 500, and a declaration looks imminent in the first session of play on day four.
South Africa will have a mountain to climb. The good news for them is that they have done it twice, that is to bat out time in the final innings to draw games.
The most recent occurrence came against India in Johannesburg when South Africa played out 136 overs in the fourth innings in their chase of 458 and even came close to winning that Test.
However, with the weather expected to remain clear, South Africa may need to steel themselves into batting for way longer – around 160-165 overs – this time around. Whether they can do it against the pace of Mitchell Johnson, swing of Ryan Harris and the nagging accuracy of Peter Siddle is a question that could get answered over the next couple of days.
Meanwhile AB de Villiers, who scored 91 in the first innings and handled Johnson better than most have in recent times, had a piece of advice for his teammates.
He said: “You can’t show weakness. You’ve got to be prepared to get hurt. Once you don’t have that fear of getting hurt, you can play him. Most of the time you get yourself out. He doesn’t really bowl you a peach of a delivery, you get yourself out.”
Are they listening?
Join me for this fourth day of the first Test on Friday and you can follow the live score of this game from 7.30 pm AEDT and post your comments below.
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