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Australia took the lead in their four-match series against South Africa after annihilating them by 118 runs. But the match will be remembered a lot for an off-field incident involving David Warner and Quinton De Kock.
It will also be remembered for Warner’s wild celebration after running out AB Devillers and Aiden Markram’s classy 143. – but not for the Australian win.
Reverse swing played a large part throughout the match. In fact, even before 20 overs, balls started to reverse.
Mitch Starc made full use of reverse swing on offer and he was backed up well by Nathan Lyon and the other bowlers who chipped in with a wicket or two whenever South African looked to get going.
The Proteas looked to be in complete disarray after being bowled out for 162 and then down to 4/49 in the second innings with Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis back in the hut.
What followed was an extraordinary display of solidarity from Proteas future gun Markram, Theunis de Bruyn’s rearguard knock and a Quinton de Kock special.
They almost took the game away from Australia. You could see it falling apart for the visitors before Mitchell Marsh broke through with the big scalp of Markram to begin a mini-collapse which saw the hosts lose four wickets for seven runs.
But even in the morning, you could see Morne Morkel wasn’t going to give in easily.
He faced 38 balls for his three, but it was clear he was not going to give it away without any hustling from Australia.
What a late resurge it was from the Proteas, and they can take the momentum from this Test to next Test.
With three more to go and home advantage, the South Africans can very well go on to make history.
But now with noise around the latest episode of De Kock and Warner, it surely will have the crowd on its feet whenever both come out to bat next time.
Whether the talk between two got personal or not, the players know that very well and will be out to prove a point which might work in their team’s favour.
AB de Villiers had tweeted in the morning that the series would be unforgettable, and there has been lot of noise around the incident. Several former players and commentators have opined on what’s right or wrong.
Perhaps they could have a beer after the fight, and we might not know that.
But whenever Warner or De Kock steps onto the field, expect some stary eyes and constant chatters as the series will have that extra spice to it.
The series just got that extra bit of flair. It’s going to be more exciting now if South Africa is showing some resilience and, with the quality, there is no reason the Proteas can’t win the series.
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