Key events
30th over: South Africa 78-4 (Bavuma 18, Verreyne 4) He’s been out there a couple of overs, and now Verreyne gets to face a ball. We’ve seen him counterattack in previous innings, two fifties in three hits this series, and he starts the same way today, reverse-sweeping Lyon with power for four.
29th over: South Africa 74-4 (Bavuma 18, Verreyne 0) Make that 79 boundaries to go. Bavuma smokes Cummins through the covers. Maybe getting a little fired up will help his game.
Rohan O’Farrell writes in. “I’m very curious whether or not SA have the batting pipeline (clearly not at present) to be able to present a team that plays good cricket with both bat and ball. Given these things can by cyclical, it’ll be interesting to see whether that happens before this current crop of excellent bowlers leaves the side.”
The previous cycle was about 15 years of all-time greats: Graeme Smith, Amla, de Villiers, du Plessis, Kallis. So living up to that is tough. As for the broader picture of South Africa’s domestic production line, Daniel Gallan wrote well on that for us recently.
28th over: South Africa 70-4 (Bavuma 14, Verreyne 0) First ball of Lyon’s over, Bavuma whacks through cover for four. Needs about another 80 of those to wipe away the memory of wasting a wicket that his team can ill afford. He nearly nicks one to follow, straightening past the outside edge. Keeps the strike to end the over.
27th over: South Africa 65-4 (Bavuma 9) I wonder if there’s a bit of Mitchell Starc in that dismissal. I was just writing a note that Zondo has been very disciplined at the non-striker’s end, staying well in his crease while Cummins was bowling. Had he been wandering a metre out like de Bruyn then he might have had a chance of putting in a dive at the far end.
WICKET! Zondo run out (Head) 1 (South Africa 65-4)
Marinated and basted! Zondo has been cooked. These two have been doing a good defensive job, and Bavuma has been looking to pick up singles. But this one from Cummins he drops defensively towards cover, off the back foot, and calls yes straight away. Zondo honours the call but he is nowhere near his ground as Travis Head’s underarm hits the stumps.
26th over: South Africa 65-3 (Bavuma 9, Zondo 1) Bavuma survives a loud appeal from Lyon, hit on the pad sweeping. Drives a single down the ground.
25th over: South Africa 64-3 (Bavuma 8, Zondo 1) Another scoreless over, Zondo batting with discipline against Cummins.
24th over: South Africa 64-3 (Bavuma 8, Zondo 1) It’s Lyon Time. The spinner will be doing a lot of the remaining work, you feel. Zondo is playing him by getting across his stumps to the off side, trying to step into the ball and smother it. Hitting the ball square to the off side. Gets his first run after a few attempts.
23rd over: South Africa 63-3 (Bavuma 8, Zondo 0) Cummins to Zondo, who still can’t score but gets off strike after being hit on the leg. Bavuma sees out the rest stoutly.
Prediction. Elgar will come good and make a captains knock in the dead rubber, pushing the game to a fifth day.
— one last handle (@number86) December 28, 2022
I strongly doubt this, Number 86, but that is the fun of predictions.
22nd over: South Africa 62-3 (Bavuma 8, Zondo 0) Another Boland delivery past the outside edge. But Bavuma hits back with a solid straight drive for four just before drinks.
21st over: South Africa 58-3 (Bavuma 4, Zondo 0) Cummins replacing Starc now, and beating the outside edge immediately. Bavuma plays drop-and-run to cover, as he did in Brisbane to good effect. The problem is staying out there long enough to build a score in that manner. South Africa still 328 behind.
20th over: South Africa 57-3 (Bavuma 3, Zondo 0) Could have had Bavuma before de Bruyn got out, too, nicking through the cordon. Now it’s Bavuma and Zondo, who batted well together for a little while in Brisbane.
WICKET! de Bruyn c Smith b Boland 28 (South Africa 57-3)
The charmed life of de Bruyn comes to an end, and the Scott Boland Second Innings Experience is underway. Great delivery, it leaps at de Bruyn from a length and takes his glove on the way to the cordon. Labuschagne dives in front of Smith to confuse him but the second slip manages to hang on. That’s catch 150 for Smith in Test cricket.
19th over: South Africa 51-2 (de Bruyn 25, Bavuma 0) No run to Bavuma from the first over he faces, keeping out Starc despite being beaten once.
18th over: South Africa 51-2 (de Bruyn 25, Bavuma 0) Another escape for de Bruyn! The edges of his bat must have been blessed: Saint Nick. This time it’s over third slip, and Marnus goes up but can’t get it in his fingertips. Four runs too. Boland sighs and goes back to work.
WICKET! Erwee lbw Starc 21 (South Africa 47-2)
17th over: South Africa 47-2 (de Bruyn 21) Nope, Erwee hits his natural ceiling of 20-odd. What an eventful over!
It starts with de Bruyn looking like the one who will get out. First he hurls the bat at a wider ball from Starc, nicks it just over Khawaja in the gully. Green can’t field there, or indeed anywhere. Then aims a booming drive at a straighter ball and hits fresh air as it zips past his off stump. Some pain for Starc too as he fields a ball hit back at him, hitting his sore finger and making him yelp.
De Bruyn gets off strike with three through midwicket, then the next ball he gets a run-out warning at the non-striker’s end! Stops in his bowling stride and points back to the stumps, at which stage de Bruyn is three feet out of his ground.
Last ball of the over, Starc convinces Cummins to take an lbw review after smashing Erwee on the toe before his bat gets down. Umpire says not out, replays show that it was foot before bat. And that is crashing into middle and leg stump! Three reds.
16th over: South Africa 40-1 (Erwee 21, de Bruyn 14) Back to classic Boland this over: one run from it, and draws the edge from de Bruyn but it doesn’t carry to slip.
15th over: South Africa 39-1 (Erwee 21, de Bruyn 13) Another good one for Erwee! Gets the strike from de Bruyn, then cracks Starc down the ground for four. He’s had a couple of starts, maybe this is the day he goes on.
14th over: South Africa 34-1 (Erwee 17, de Bruyn 12) Modest crowd in today but they give a good cheer for Scott Boland when his name is called out. Runs from him early, inside edge and then outside edge, two and then three. Ugly batting from Erwee. A single out of the middle for de Bruyn, and Erwee comes to the party after that: nicely onto the front foot, presenting the full face through cover and it slows up enough that they can get back for four all run. Ten runs! That must be the most expensive over of Boland’s Test career.
13th over: South Africa 24-1 (Erwee 8, de Bruyn 11) And there’s the first alarm. Catch nearly taken off de Bruyn. Not a full chance, he gets a thick low edge into the cordon and Smith at second slip has to dive to his right and low. The ball hits the ground and his fingers at about the same time, with his hand on the ground.
12th over: South Africa 23-1 (Erwee 8, de Bruyn 11) No alarms as yet for South Africa. Not many runs, but no alarms. Another six balls defending and leaving Cummins for de Bruyn.
11th over: South Africa 23-1 (Erwee 8, de Bruyn 11) Erwee’s first run of the day, dropping the ball towards cover from Starc and taking off. Nice shot from de Bruyn to finish the over, timing the straight ball out through midwicket for three.
10th over: South Africa 19-1 (Erwee 7, de Bruyn 8) A bye will be South Africa’s first score of the day, as Carey fumbles a take from Cummins. Starc must have applied some superglue or something to that finger, he’s on the boundary below us now and there’s no blood on his uniform anymore. Runs for de Bruyn, a thick edge along the ground behind point for two.
9th over: South Africa 15-1 (Erwee 7, de Bruyn 6) Starc will start the day bowling, good news for Australia. Not sure how much of it he’ll be able to do with that damaged finger. He angles across de Bruyn for the most part, swings the last ball into the pads. No run.
8th over: South Africa 15-1 (Erwee 7, de Bruyn 6) They make it through the first over, Erwee seeing off Cummins with a stout forward defence. Almost gets beaten on the inside of the bat a couple of times. No runs.
Players and umpires heading onto the ground now. What’s the feeling out there? It seems to me that if a wicket goes early, we could be out of here around lunchtime. It would be good to see South Africa make Australia work though.
The southerly, I can attest, is very brisk, having just made my way to the ground from the north. It was up in my face like a nightclub bouncer.
Conditions: After glorious sunshine on day one, scorching heat on day two, and rain on day three, we now have cool blustery conditions at the MCG. How very Melbourne. Thankfully there should be no rain, but we’re looking at a top of about 20C with temperatures kept in check by a brisk southerly.
If you have something to contribute to the OBO, send it our way. Email and Twitter are the avenues, at least for now.
If you’d like to know what happened yesterday in more detail, our match report has you covered.
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
Day four. Well, well. After two days in Brisbane this seemed a distant possibility. It hasn’t come about because South Africa improved, but because Australia batted for much longer, and there was some rain, and the over rates from both sides have been truly atrocious. But here we are, no ticket refunds from Cricket Australia. Unless things move really quickly.
The situation: South Africa are 371 runs behind, one wicket down, two days to play, against a team that has only batted once. It is not the sort of position that instils confidence, but it is also a chance to show something against the odds. An outmatched batting team can’t just exceed its deficiencies by leaning on sporting cliches about heart and determination, but at the start of a day, one never knows what might happen.
The one opening for South Africa is that the Australians are down two bowlers. Cameron Green is out for sure, and while Mitchell Starc bowled yesterday, it was in major discomfort and against what the medical staff had previously said would happen. If the visitors can get through a couple of spells from Pat Cummins and Scott Boland, they could make life difficult for Australia with part-timers needed to support Nathan Lyon. But then, Boland is the second-innings destroyer, after taking 6 for 7 here last year in the Ashes.
All set. Shall we?
Discussion about this post