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Opinion
If you were playing the stockmarket, Usman Khawaja is a bullmarket on the up, up and up.
His batting average and career runs just keep rising and rising.
The Proteas are a bearmarket. Their stocks are low and falling through the floor.
Khawaja knows his game so well and just goes with the flow and has thoroughly deserved every one of his 195 runs so far and I’m sure they won’t declare on him overnight so he should have no trouble bringing up his first Test double ton early on day three if Sydney’s rain can stay away.
There were a few tempo changes in his knock on day two. He took it upon himself to be the main scorer when Steve Smith was taking a while to get going early in his innings and then later when Travis Head was smashing the South Africans to all parts, he was content to sit back and give him the strike even though he was deep into his hundred at that stage.
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He’s a remarkable batsman these days. And he’s so good to watch, very easy on the eye.
Bowlers rarely rush him for shots, he plays the ball so late. I thought his cover-driving was a real feature of this innings.
Usman Khawaja of Australia acknowledges the crowd as he leaves the field during day two of the Second Test match in the series between Australia and South Africa at Sydney Cricket Ground on January 05, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
He played some cracking pull shots and cuts, even some runs down to third boundary where he just watched it all the way and then just opened up the face. Some good sweet shots against spin as well. So it was just another SCG Usman masterclass.
Three Test hundreds in a row for him at his old home ground. It’s remarkable to think 12 months he might have been thinking he may never play Test cricket again. And he plays like that to some degree.
There’s a real freedom that in this bonus period of his career he’s just going to express himself and and show everyone his best qualities.
He’s averaging close to 50 now. He was under-used as an opener throughout his career but the way he’s batting, there’s still plenty runs to come even though he’s 36.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
And in his celebration was his superstar celebration. I love the little Usman shuffle, I think we’ve seen it on social media. Almost like a Michael Jackson moonwalk. So he has obviously practised those milestone celebrations, that was a real highlight.
For Smithy, there was a time in that first session where I felt like South Africa really built some pressure. Anrich Nortje and Marco Jansen bowled well together again, Simon Harmer was under-bowled in the morning.
Smithy was really battling until after lunch and it was another puzzling decision by Dean Elgar when he went with spin four for three or four overs into the second new ball.
We thought he’d be getting Nortje and the other quicks to come in and be really hostile.
On a pitch like this the new ball can misbehave for the quicks, it’s lower bounce than Brisbane and Melbourne but we saw on day one with the Marnus dismissal it can just go through the top a little bit.
Harmer was used bizarrely – barely used in the first session and then ne was on when he shouldn’t have been in the second session.
Ricky Ponting saw this on the Seven coverage that whether Smith felt like it was a bit lower that he opened himself up a little bit again to his old style of batting. And whether that was because of the lower bounce or he felt like he was battling, I don’t know but the longer the innings went on, he went back to being side on and played some exhilarating shots.
He looks so hungry. He hates getting out even after getting into triple figures. He’s go 30 hundreds now and he’s getting into that upper, upper echelon of Australia’s greats. He’s passed Sir Donald Bradman for hundreds now and I’d love him to play long enough to battle Ricky Ponting for most tons and runs.
He’s just a run making machine.
And then Travis Head, wow, we just keep talking about him every innings now. You look up the scoreboard and he’s 30 already, then he gets 70 off 59 balls. That’s an incredible strike rate.
I think there was a feeling that if the rain could stay away, let’s have a crack at South Africa’s batters tonight. That would have been nice but the rain came.
Heady is in rare form. He’s looking more and more solid, particularly some of those pull shots against Kagiso Rabada.
Steve Smith. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
You just can’t give him any width. Off stump is almost like seventh stump line week. You know off stamps almost like a seventh stamp line. He just frees his hands and hits so well square of the wicket on the off side.
The next challenge for Trav will be can you get runs in India or in England.
Back to Elgar, he’s a very defensive captain and very loyal to his players. It’s almost like they had a pecking order before the series – Rabada is the No.1 fast bowler, Keshav Maharaj is the top spinner. And he’s stuck doggedly with them, which is admirable that he’s backing guys that have delivered in the past but Maharaj got too many overs instead of Harmer and Nortje should be getting the nod ahead of Rabada as the main paceman.
The art of captaincy is about reading the pitch and the match scenario. You’ve got a bowl who’s most effective on the day, in that session, in that hour. I can’t fathom how Nortje didn’t just come out after lunch and bowl as fast and as furious as he could.
There was periods where you just thought that they were just bowling the ball and waiting to see how Australia go about their task, waiting for the eventual declaration really.
With the match situation now, if we can get a full day’s play each day, Australia probably won’t bat again. And the only saving grace for South Africa is this pitch hasn’t been baked by the sun.
Hopefully the sun does come out for Jane McGrath Day so we get a big crowd and plenty of money raised for such a worthy cause. Pink always looks better when there’s a nice blue sky in the background.