Starc, Cummins leave South Africa in trouble after Australia post 218

Lunch South Africa 3 for 2 (Erwee 1*, Bavuma 0* & 152 (Verreynne 64, Lyon 3-14) trail Australia 218 (Head 92, Rabada 4-76) trail by 63 runs

Only four sessions of cricket have been played in this Test but South Africa are already in the process of setting Australia a fourth-innings target. In a fast-forward morning, seven wickets fell as Australia were bowled out for 218 to take a lead of 66, and South Africa lost two of the top three in five explosive overs by the Australian opening bowlers in reply.

The surface continues to prove challenging to bat on, with decent bounce and plenty of movement on offer, but as Travis head‘s 92 proved, not impossible to score runs on.

Dean Elgar was the first to be dismissed on the fourth ball of the innings when he was beaten by a Pat Cummins length delivery and struck on the front pad. He reviewed, perhaps hoping the bounce would take the ball over the stumps but was out on umpire’s call with bhttps://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/records/bowling/most_wickets_career.html?class=1;id=2;type=teamall-tracking showing the delivery would go on to clip middle-stump. That dismissal came off a good ball but the best was yet to come.

Mitchell Starc claimed his 300th Test wicket with a beauty that seamed in at pace and snuck through Rassie van der Dussen’s bat-pad gap to bowl the South African No.3. Starc is the seventh Australia bowler to take 300 Test wickets.

More to follow..

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *