AB’s brilliance puts Proteas ahead
PORTELIZABETH: Australia fought back on the second day of the second Test but could not stop AB de Villiers taking South Africa into a slender first innings lead at St George’s Park on Saturday.
South Africa were 263 for seven at close, a lead of 20 runs after Australia were bowled out for 243 in their first innings.
There was a flurry of wickets after tea but De Villiers counterattacked to hit 74 not out off 81 balls with easily the most aggressive batting of an otherwise slow day.
Australia were able to take only one wicket before tea, that of nightwatchman Kagiso Rabada, as Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla ground out half-centuries.
But the scoring was painfully slow and Australia were right back in the game when both batsmen were dismissed in the first two overs after tea, followed by two more batsmen being dismissed cheaply.
REVERSE SWING
The Australian bowlers made effective use of reverse swing, firstly to restrict the scoring and then as a weapon in all four wickets. Amla was bowled by a fast, reverse swinging yorker from Mitchell Starc for 56 four balls after tea and Elgar was caught behind off Josh Hazlewood for 57 in the next over. Like Amla, Elgar fell to a full delivery which swung late.
Medium-pacer Mitchell Marsh trapped South African captain Faf du Plessis and Theunis de Bruyn leg before wicket, again with full, swinging deliveries.
De Villiers and Quinton de Kock put on 44 for the seventh wicket before De Kock was dismissed by off-spinner Nathan Lyon. While other batsmen had struggled to gain any momentum to the South African innings, De Villiers looked at ease and played strokes to all parts of the ground.