Unfinished innings cost SA

Times Media - March 4 2014

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

Each of the seven SA batsmen who reached double figures at Newlands yesterday spent at least half-an-hour at the wicket. Only two of them scored half-centuries.

Those unfinished innings by players who had made the hard yards only to squander their starts will cost the home side dearly as Australia push for victory in the third test - and with it the honours in the series - on the fourth day today.

At stumps, Australia were 27 without loss in their second innings for a lead of 234 runs. That means SA will be in survival mode for the rest of the match.

Michael Clarke declared on Australia’s overnight score of 494/7, and by lunch SA had slumped to 127/4.

Alviro Petersen grafted hard for his 53. Then he undid himself by sparring at a high, leg-side delivery from Mitchell Johnson. The bolt of anger that shot from Petersen as he realised his error was good to see - if only his foresight had been as good as his hindsight.

The ball that summed up the visitors’ superiority was bowled by Ryan Harris in the fourth over before lunch. It reverse swung late and nipped between Hashim Amla’s bat and pad to bowl him for 38.

That made Faf du Plessis stop just short of slinging the accusations of dubious ball-management that David Warner made against SA last week back at the Australians.

“I was really surprised to see the ball reverse,” Du Plessis said. “It was 20 overs old and with the damp conditions ... let’s leave it at that.”

Naturally, Mitchell Johnson had a different theory: “We know the ball reverses here. It was rough enough on the rough side and shiny enough on the shiny side, so it was perfect.”

Du Plessis, who came in at No. 6 in SA’s shuffled order, showed the right kind of patience. He also had the right kind of luck: he was dropped three times and became the beneficiary of a missed stumping.

Petersen had also offered an untaken chance on an unusually messy day in the field for the Australians.

Not that the South Africans made them pay too high a price for their mistakes, although Clarke would have thought otherwise while Du Plessis and Vernon Philander ground out a stand that reached 95 before Harris had Du Plessis caught behind for 67 after tea.

Johnson, armed with the new ball, wrapped up the tail - in the process smacking Dale Steyn square on the helmet - to finish with 4/42.

“I know that I am going to get it back,” Johnson said. “He is a fierce competitor; he just smiled straight away.”

Clarke has declined all three opportunities he has had to enforce the follow-on in his 37 tests as Australia’s captain. Why would he have in this case, considering the pitch will be difficult to bat on in the fourth innings?

Steyn sustained a hamstring injury while bowling in the visitors’ first innings, but he skipped down the stairs untroubled to bat yesterday.

However, Smith had the good sense not to give him the ball in the six overs Australia faced before the close. In fact, Philander, Steyn’s regular new-ball partner, also didn’t get a bowl.

Instead, Morne Morkel and Kyle Abbott did the honours. But they couldn’t stop Warner from clipping 25 runs off 17 balls - 16 of them in boundaries.