Lyon, Boland and Starc strike to leave South Africa in tatters

Tea South Africa 66 for 7 (Erwee 1*, Bavuma 0*) & 152 (Verreynne 64, Lyon 3-14) level with Australia 218 (Head 92, Rabada 4-76)

There were wickets. Lots of them. Fifteen on day one across both teams. Five Australian ones in the morning session. Seven South African ones in the middle one. And in the end, it means Australia will probably chase a small total and, barring anything record-breaking, will take the series lead.

The frequency of dismissals means much discussion will be had about the pitch, which was as green as the outfield on day one and has shown signs of inconsistent bounce, but that can’t take away from the explosiveness of the Australian attack. After erring on the side of too short in the first innings, they were much fuller and more incisive in the second and reduced South Africa to 3 for 2 at lunch and took five for 59 in the afternoon session.

In the second over of the second session, Sarel Erwee was caught in the gully for the second time in the match. He couldn’t withdraw his bat against a Cummins short ball and the edge went high but Cameron Green was on hand to pluck it from the sky. Green had another opportunity off the next ball but the edge off Khaya Zondo fell short and saved him from finishing with a pair.

In the next over, Boland found Kyle Verreynne’s outside edge with a delivery that moved away slightly and Steven Smith completed the catch at second slip. Two balls after that, Boland bowled Marco Jansen with an away-seamer. On the stroke of the scheduled tea break, Starc bagged another when Keshav Maharaj nicked off. South Africa were still two runs behind. They leveled the score by the tea break but are staring at a big defeat.

Earlier, Australia took the lead in the first five deliveries as Kagiso Rabada completed his overnight over. Green tucked into a half-volley and drove Rabada down the ground to put the hosts ahead. Green repeated the shot two more times in Rabada’s next two overs to force him out of the attack early, but that did not work to Australia’s advantage.

Marco Jansen replaced Rabada and struck twice in his first over to clip Australia’s brisk start. Green received another half-volley, off Jansen’s second ball, and he attempted a booming drive. He only managed a thick edge that flew to Keshav Maharaj at third slip. Maharaj parried the ball up and Erwee, from first slip ran behind him to take the catch. Two balls later, Head tried to glance a short ball down leg side and appeared to glove the ball down leg, to Verreynne. Head reviewed and though there was nothing on hotspot, snicko revealed a spike that confirmed he had hit both glove and shirt. His 96-ball innings finished on 92.

Australia’s lead was only 30 runs at that stage, and it was up to Alex Carey and the lower order to push that past 50. Starc lofted Jansen over mid-off and pulled Anrich Nortje through mid-wicket and put on 31 with Carey for the eighth wicket. Carey ran well in his short innings, with no boundaries in his 30-ball 22, but 12 singles, two threes and a four, which he and Starc ran.

They took Australia’s lead to over 60 before Lungi Ngidi was introduced after the first drinks break and broke through. Starc hit Ngidi’s first ball in the air through mid-on for four and then drove the last ball aerially as well. Ngidi got down low in his follow-through and completed a good return catch.

A pumped-up Rabada then bounced Cummins out, with three short balls in a row. The first popped up to point and Cummins was given out but reviewed successfully. Replays showed the ball had hit the arm guard. Cummins nearly edged the second and then pulled the third to mid-wicket, where Nortje was waiting. In this next over, Rabada had Nathan Lyon caught at mid-on to finish with four wickets in the innings and has gone past Stuart Broad to become the leading Test seamer of 2022.