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Five reasons South Africa won the Test series

(Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
Roar Guru
5th April, 2018
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You could be forgiven for not knowing who actually won the Australia-South Africa Test series, a series that will forever be remembered for the wrong reasons.

But it was the Proteas who emerged as victors, and here are five reasons why.

1) Low scores from Warner and Smith
David Warner and Steve Smith have been the top two batsmen in Australia for three or four years. Smith, especially, has singlehandedly pulled Australia out of the woods many times.

To recall his most recent heroics, just ask England how difficult they found it to dislodge Smith.

This time, he managed only one half-century in six innings at an average of 23 before going home.

David Warner, with 543 runs at 90 and three centuries in 2014, managed two half-centuries this time around in the six innings he played.

2) None of the other batsmen are stood up
With the sandpaper saga haunting Australia, it was the perfect chance for someone like Shaun Marsh or Usman Khawaja to put their hands up.

Alas, they failed to. Khawaja looked all at bay against spin, while both Marsh brothers couldn’t go on to make it big.

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Australian batsman Usman Khawaja.

(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

The fact Cameron Bancroft was the leading run scorer for Australia, with 223 runs at 37 in six innings, shows the lack of production by the Australian batsman.

In fact, only once in the series did they manage to get a score of above 300, and that came in the first Test at Durban, which Australia won.

3) AB de Villiers was the difference maker
The whole world knows the importance of wicket of ‘Mr 360’ and, hence, you could forgive Warner or Nathan Lyon in a way as they knew with the wicket of De Villiers, they had the match in their pocket.

After scoring 71* and 0 in the first Test, he came back to score 126* in his first Test century in the last three years, following that up with 60s in both of the next Tests.

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It’s not just that he scored runs, but he countered reverse swing, spin and fast bowling. His strike rate through the series was 65 over his career strike rate in Test matches of 54.

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He batted beautifully with the tail in the second Test to get a crucial 120-run lead and stood up with Dean Elgar in the third Test to take South Africa to a decent total.

When De Villiers batted it seemed as if the pitch had eased up, but that was not the case as found out when other South African and Australian batsman batted.

AB de Villiers is class act, isn’t he?

4) Kagiso Rabada’s ban was overturned
Just when you thought it was even stevens once Rabada was banned for remainder of the series, the ban happened was overturned.

Rabada was cleared to play for last two Tests and, although he picked up only eight wickets over 15 innings in the first two Tests, the sight of Rabada on the field must have stung the Aussies.

After being booed and taunted by crowd and South African officials, one more decision not going their way would have given more pain to the visitors than any on-field exploits.

With Dale Steyn, Lungi Ngidi and Morne Morkel injured at various stages in the series, their top bowler missing out would have been the death knell to the hopes of South Africa.

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It wasn’t the case in the end.

South Africa’s bowler Kagiso Rabada

(AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

5) Australian bowlers didn’t step up
The trio of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins wreaked havoc in the Ashes, with Nathan Lyon not giving anything away.

In this series, neither Hazlewood nor Lyon could get crucial breakthroughs when needed. In fact, both averaged in the 40s, with Mitch Starc in the high 30s at the end of the series, despite his first Test heroics of nine wickets.

Pat Cummins, however, who was the second leading wicket-taker in the series, consistently challenged the batsman.

Perhaps a more telling figure will be Australian bowlers taking just two five-wicket hauls.

For South Africa, though Kagiso Rabada was the standout with 23 wickets, Keshav Maharaj took nine wickets in the first Test and started the fall in second innings of the third Test after dismissing Shaun Marsh for zero.

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Even Morkel, after looking flat in the first Test, came out to take 5-23 in the third Test to break the back of Australia.

Vernon Philander can never be far behind in South African conditions, as he took six wickets for three runs yesterday to end the agony for Australia and take his 200th Test wicket.

Lungi Ngidi continued to impress by picking up big wickets whenever given the opportunity.

No doubt ‘Sandgate’ became a monster and both teams had off-field issues to deal with.

But South Africa stood tall amidst it all, and it did help that Australia had three players banned and coach Darren Lehmann quitting the job after the end of the series.

Despite some outstanding individual performances from both sides and some new heroes such as Aiden Markram and Tim Paine coming to light, this series will be remembered more for its off-field controversy.

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