Adam Voges and Adam Collins look back on a first day full of unexpected twists at Newlands (3:10)
Lunch Australia 67 for 2 (Bancroft 22*, Smith 4*) trail South Africa 311 (Elgar 141*, De Villiers 64, Cummins 4-78) by 244 runs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Kagiso Rabada won a brief and breathless battle with David Warner on the second day in Cape Town after Dean Elgar earlier became the first player in Test history to carry his bat twice in the same year, and just the second man after Desmond Haynes to carry his bat three times overall. South Africa added 45 to their overnight total for the loss of their final two wickets to be bowled out for 311, before Australia moved to 67 for 2 at lunch.
The short contest between Rabada and Warner, two men who have each been at the centre of controversies during this series, lit up the period before lunch. Clearly intent on stamping himself on this match, Warner crunched three successive deliveries through the off side for boundaries to end Rabada’s second over, and began his third by hooking a six and slashing another four behind point.
But if Rabada’s frustration level was rising, having just been dispatched for 22 runs in five balls, he had the last laugh when his next delivery not only jagged from leg to off to beat Warner’s defence, but hit the top of off stump and sent it cartwheeling away out of the ground. Warner had made 30 from 14 deliveries, but in the context of a five-day Test that was little more than a cameo.
Usman Khawaja also fell before lunch, when he hooked Morne Morkel’s third ball of the match straight to Rabada at deep backward square leg for 5, a disappointing end so close to the break. Australia went to lunch still trailing by 244 runs, with opener Cameron Bancroft at the crease on 22 and Steven Smith on 4.
Earlier, Elgar had finished unbeaten on 141 after he and Rabada frustrated Smith with a 50-run ninth-wicket stand. Elgar had previously batted through an entire Test innings against England in Durban in 2015, when he finished on 118, and in January this year in Johannesburg, where he finished on 86 against India.
Rabada rode his luck by attempting pulls and hooks off the fast men and struck three boundaries on his way to 22. Smith persisted with Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood for the first 10 overs of the morning, before trying a change of tactic by introducing Nathan Lyon, and the move worked immediately.
Lyon struck with his first delivery when Rabada drove at an offbreak and edge to Smith at slip, and four balls later, Morkel fell in almost identical fashion for 4.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo