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Pat Cummins has proved this summer he’s Australia’s most lethal paceman, but he can’t get his hands on the new ball.
That honour has been exclusively reserved for Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, but when Starc missed the current Test in Johannesburg to be replaced by newcomer Chadd Sayers, Cummins was still ignored, this time by new skipper Tim Paine.
Unfazed, Cummins has returned career-best match figures of 9-141 in Johannesburg, and for good measure scored a career-best 50.
Cummins is also one of the best boundary riders saving plenty of runs in the deep. He is very much the complete cricketer.
But it’s his bowling that demands attention.
Every delivery is full of passion, he leaves nothing in his approach.
But he’s more than that, he is consistently the fastest of the Australian trio, the most accurate, the hardest to handle, the most feared by the opposition – and the most successful.
To further prove the point, Cummins was the leading wicket-taker in the Ashes, and has repeated the performance in South Africa.
In the Ashes he snared 23 wickets for 567 – average 24.65 – and 22 for 472, average 21.45, in South Africa.
Combine those, and Cummins is by far Australia’s most successful bowler this summer of nine Tests with 45 wickets at 23.09.
(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
By comparison, Starc’s combined stats are 34 wickets at 27.38 from one less Test – and Hazlewood’s 33 at 30.76.
Offie Nathan Lyon can also take a bow in Johannesburg after his marathon 81 overs in taking 5-298 with an economy rate of 3.67.
But Cummins and Lyon are rare bright spots in a Test that has been cut to ribbons by the suspensions of Steve Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft.
South African skipper Faf du Plessis has done nothing to make this Test memorable.
Nobody could blame him delaying a declaration today until he scored his first century of the series to end a drought.
At the time South Africa led by 507, more than enough for Australia to chase.
To be brutally honest, this Australian team would battle to score 507 in two innings.
But du Plessis ploughed on, perhaps to give the boring Dean Elgar a chance of his second century in the series.
No, when Elgar was dismissed for 81, and South Africa led by 524, du Plessis still didn’t declare until the lead was a massive 611 at tea.
(AP Photo/Mark Baker)
He tried to cover his decision by letting the television commentators know Morne Morkel had a side strain, Kagiso Rabada a bad back, and Vernon Philander a groin strain – South Africa’s three top quicks.
While the commentators were advising viewers of the news, Philander was in the middle lofting sixes off Lyon, and strongly hooking, hardly groin injury shots.
And the fake news from the shed was blown to bits when Rabada, Morkel, and Philander were all bowling flat out from the start as Australia began the chase of an unlikely 612 for victory.
What else would you expect from du Plessis who twice pleaded not guilty to ball tampering charges, despite irrefutable television footage?
Du Plessis was found guilty on both counts, and is still allowed to play.
He will be the last ball-tamperer to get away with it.