Lunch: South Africa 88 for 1 (Markram 53*, Amla 13*) v Australia
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Considering the events that unfolded over the past week, it was an unusually quiet morning for Australia, literally and otherwise. The fallout of the ball-tampering chaos was at its worst on the fourth day of the Cape Town Test, but ensuing incidents seemed to have only worsened Australia’s morale in Johannesburg, their bowlers lacking penetration or oomph on a pitch offering sufficient seam movement. Aiden Markram capitalised, moving to an unbeaten 53 as South Africa went to lunch at 88 for 1.
Markram was patient right through the morning. He waited for mistakes in length or width, particularly wide outside his off stump. A jaded Australian bowling line-up erred often: he scored 27 of his 53 runs, more than 50%, through point.
Nathan Lyon, extracting plenty of turn, meant hitting that area was fraught with risk. Markram then showed off his straight-bat range, including a delectable drive through cover and an extended lofted drive over mid-on, for six.
Dean Elgar had made a scratchy 19 off 47 balls, during which he made two errors against Lyon. In his first over, Elgar attempted to heave Lyon over midwicket, but he didn’t account for atypically sharp turn on a first-day Wanderers pitch. The resulting skew off the outside half lobbed over cover.
In Lyon’s next over, Elgar made the same mistake, looking to work the ball against the turn. This time, a leading edge carried to mid-off, Australia’s only wicket of the morning.
Australia’s new cycle of Test cricket began in Johannesburg after the sanctions handed out by Cricket Australia following the ball-tampering scandal. Tim Paine, not even Tasmania’s first-choice wicketkeeper a matter of months ago, became Australia’s 46th Test captain. Joe Burns and Matt Renshaw, opening for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield final earlier this week, replaced David Warner and Cameron Bancroft. Peter Handscomb, running drinks among other responsibilities through this series, was included in Steven Smith’s No. 4 position. In addition, fast bowler Chadd Sayers, whose steady pace and lateral movement troubled South Africa temporarily, was given a debut in Australia’s only unforced change of the Test, in place of Mitchell Starc, who has tibial bone stress in his right leg.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo