Opinion
Marnus Labuschagne is known as a bit of a lucky cricketer for the number of times he seems to have catches dropped when he’s batting but he got both sides of the coin on day one in Sydney.
Fortune was on his side with the catch that was given not out at first slip but he could count himself unlucky that he was dismissed off what turned out to be the last ball of the day.
When he nicked Marco Jansen to first slip when he was on 70, my immediate thought was that it had carried.
Paul Reiffel sent it upstairs with a soft signal of out and with the replays that the third umpire looked at, the South Africans were right to be filthy after it was ruled that it had touched the ground.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Richard Kettleborough on the side-on view thought it had touched the ground looking at the best footage from the Fox Cricket cameras but there was an ultra HD angle on the Seven feed which looked more conclusive to me that it was a fair catch.
The whole system seems a bit blurred. Do you even need the soft signal from the umpire on the ground if the third umpire doesn’t have to conclusively prove otherwise if it’s given out or not out?
But then Marnus was unlucky to still be on the field when he copped that rip-snorter from Nortje at the end of the day.
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Did the light change that much from the time he faced that delivery to a minute or two later when Steve Smith came to the wicket and the umpires decided the light was now too bad? No.
The playing conditions for light need to change, the spectators deserve more. You almost have to be checking the light after every ball in situations like that.
Overall we could have easily got more play in today. I think they went off too early and that set a standard for when they could get back on.
Marnus Labuschagne of Australia speaks with Kyle Verreynne and Sarel Erwee of South Africa. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
I think they could have played after drinks and almost got through to tea. There was probably another half an hour period where they could have played but because they had gone off the first time that had set the benchmark unfortunately.
So it’s just another day where we’ve lost playing time in Sydney.
On a dreary day I thought the Proteas had started off bowling pretty well.
Nortje finally got the new ball and showed he’s an opening bowler, When he and Jansen were on together they built some pressure in the lead-up to lunch.
But after the first session they let the Aussies off the hook. Simon Harmer was clearly bowling the better out of the two spinners but Dean Elgar went back to Keshav Maharaj who was ineffective yet again.
Dean Elgar of South Africa. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
And he brought back Kagiso Rabada who has regressed in form and confidence as the series has gone on and Uzzy and Marnus got off to a flyer early in that second session.
Elgar got that wrong. They had dried up the runs and then all of a sudden the two Aussies cashed in.
Marnus looked a certainty to get a hundred against the nation of his birth but that won’t happen now. I think Khawaja looks settled in for a big score so if he gets going early on day two, he could occupy the crease for a long time.
There was a bit of criticism about the pitch being too low and slow but I didn’t think it was that bad. The sun won’t bake it too much so it won’t deteriorate too much – the weather gods look a bit iffy the next few days so hopefully we don’t lose too much time and get a result.
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