SA bowlers keep it tight
PERSISTENT: BOWLERS KEEP TIGHT REIN ON AUSTRALIA
Proteas’ attack stick to their task on unhelpful wicket.
South Africa’s persistent bowling attack restricted Australia to 225/5 on the first day of the first Test at Kingsmead yesterday, which would have exceeded expectations at the start of the day when the visitors won the toss and elected to bat first on what looked a flat pitch on a sweltering, humid day.
The Proteas bowlers generally kept a tight lid on the Australian batsmen with a workmanlike performance that made the most of what little help was available on a pitch with grass that was decidedly brown rather than green.
Vernon Philander was the best of them, using his simple method of sticking to tight lines and just wobbling the ball around to take 2/36 in 17 overs, and his strike on the stroke of lunch to remove David Warner for 51 was a key moment.
Warner and Australian captain Steven Smith had added 56 in little over an hour in the one period of play when the visitors’ run-rate accelerated to threatening proportions, but moving wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock up to the stumps seemed to unsettle the left-hander and he edged a prod outside off stump to second slip, where AB de Villiers held on to a flyer.
Smith, the most in-form batsman in Test cricket as his No 1 ranking would suggest, could not get past 56. Having breezed to 46 off just 60 deliveries, his next 10 runs took him 54 balls as South Africa tightened their pythonesque coils.
Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, who was brought into the attack as early as the 11th over and immediately extracted turn, was South Africa’s other workhorse yesterday and it was he who snared Smith, caught at slip as a bottom-edged cut ballooned off wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock’s leg.
Maharaj took 2/69 in 24 overs and that second wicket ended a determined innings of 40 from Shaun Marsh, who edged a delivery that bounced to take the shoulder of the bat, to slip.
That left the Australians on 177/5 but an unbeaten stand of 48 between Mitchell Marsh (32*) and Tim Paine (21*) ensured the visitors would feel satisfied enough with their efforts on an enthralling first day of the fourTest series.