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How three days can turn a series on its head? Even after the first day, Australia were still in a reasonable position to battle out this Test, but a commanding performance from South Africa with bat and ball sees them well in control.
South Africa hold an overnight lead of 369 runs, with six batsman still in the dugout waiting for their turn on this St George’s Oval pitch, which is just showing signs of misbehaving.
The Proteas will also be pleased that their most consistent batsman of the past five years (aside from Jacques Kallis), Hashim Amla, has runs on the board. Amla scratched around early in his innings, as he often does, but once his trigger movement had those feet moving more positively, he really developed into his innings.
At 4/192, and with Amla striking at a high rate for a usually reserved player, they will look to build on an imperious lead and bat the suddenly under pressure Aussies out of the game.
One South African player who will not be happy is the skipper, Graeme Smith. No doubt he will be pleased with the work of the batsmen around him, and very happy with Amla’s return to the runs. But surrendering his wicket to Mitchell Johnson again will no doubt have the tough skipper furious and hungry for runs in the third Test.
The Australian batting, for once, was not rescued by the lower middle order yesterday, with Steve Smith (49), as well as cameos Mitchell Johnson (27) and Ryan Harris (26), the extent of the resistance.
The men from down under now find themselves in a very uncomfortable position, with rain or very stubborn batting their only hope of salvaging pride from this game.
But as the pitch gets lower and less consistent, you would think South Africa have this one sewn up.
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