Be afraid, SA - Mitchell Johnson is back

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

BE afraid, SA. Be very afraid - the bastard’s back. Mitchell Johnson spent a good chunk of last summer scaring the bejaysus out of South Africans, and he was at it again in Harare on Monday.

This time his targets were not SA’s batsmen but a covey of SA-based television commentators perched just so atop the sightscreen at Harare Sports Club (HSC), where Australia played Zimbabwe in the first match of a triangular series.

Tinashe Panyangara loped in to bowl the 49th over of an innings that would yield 350/6, the biggest total yet seen at HSC. And with the sweetest, straightest swoop of his bat Johnson sent the ball arching down the ground and over the boundary - and straight into the windows supposedly sealing the commentary box from anything that could befall the prattling posse inside.

Yelps of alarm were followed by the shattering of glass, and frantic attempts to ensure the flying shards had not done much damage. Blood was apparently drawn, but minimally.

From the middle, Johnson held up a hand in acknowledgement of the damage he had caused. But the cold grin on his face said he enjoyed the moment as much as he did taking 22 wickets at 17.36 in Australia’s test series in SA in February and March.

“I was very happy with that,” Johnson said. “I’ve been trying to hit the ball as straight as possible instead of across the line, and I’m not going to apologise for that.”

As if to reinforce the worrying truth that he had SA back in his sights, Johnson took the new ball and with it immaculate figures of 6-2-7-1 as Zimbabwe crashed to 152 all out and defeat by 198 runs - their biggest loss in 28 completed ODIs against the Aussies.

And to think Johnson was not even the Australians’ main threat on Monday. That was Glenn Maxwell, who played every shot in the book and invented a few along the way to score 93 off 46 balls.

“There is no plan to Glenn Maxwell,” Sean Williams said.

Mitchell Marsh was not far behind with his 89, which was part of a stand of 109 scored with Maxwell in just nine overs.

Not that Australia’s captain on Monday, George Bailey, was overly impressed: “No hundreds; that’s something we’d like to get.”

With Michael Clarke back in the line-up and Phillip Hughes smuggled in there somewhere - Clarke has a hamstring problem and Hughes did not crack the nod despite the 202 not out he made in a List A game against SA A last month - the centuries should flow.

But when SA arrive at the ground on Wednesday to take on the Aussies they will know they are in for a match that will be unrecognisably different from those in the 3-0 triumph AB de Villiers’ team completed over the home side on Thursday.

The Australians did not hold back, they did not allow the Zimbabweans into the game and they did not let the conditions dictate how they played. SA were guilty of all three mistakes, which has taken the gloss off the fact that they have won every match they have played on this tour so far.

On Wednesday, if SA need a reminder of how things should be done, the smashed commentary box window should do nicely.