Big-hearted Morne on fire
DOCILE:
South Africa could afford to take their time with the bat yesterday as they piled up a lead of 611 against Australia in the fourth Test at the Wanderers, but fast bowler Morne Morkel, playing in his last game for the Proteas, seemed in a rush to get the series done and dusted when he roared in from the Corlett Drive End.
Australia ended the penultimate day of the series on 88/3, and Morkel’s spell of 2/18 in eight overs was made even more great by the fact that he was suffering from a side strain, one of several niggles the pace bowlers were suffering that reportedly delayed South Africa’s declaration.
The Proteas had batted through to tea in scoring 344/6, captain Faf du Plessis stroking a morale-boosting 120 after his lean pickings in recent times. But after all the talk about Rabada having a back strain, Philander struggling with his groin and Morkel injured from the first innings, that trio were all in action from the start of Australia’s second innings.
Philander could have had Matt Renshaw caught in the gully, but Temba Bavuma dropped the low chance, and the first wicket only came in the 13th over, Morkel’s second, when he fired a full inswinger into Renshaw’s pads to have him lbw for five.
Usman Khawaja, making little effort to play a shot, was beaten by the flight and turn from Keshav Maharaj, being out lbw for seven.
Joe Burns could at least feel proud of the fight he showed in scoring 42, but Morkel (below) trapped him lbw as well.
South Africa began the day on 134/3, and play was first delayed for 15 minutes and then interrupted for 16 by bad light. But it did not stop Du Plessis from playing with increasing fluency.
Dean Elgar was content to play the sheet-anchor role in scoring 81 in 377 minutes, off 250 balls.
Australian paceman Pat Cummins took 4/58 to finish with match figures of 9/141.
Dogged South African opening batsman Dean Elgar batted for over six hours against Australia in the fourth Test at the Wanderers, but said the fourth day did not have the same intensity as previous contests between the two nations.
The fallout from Australia’s ball-tampering debacle is undoubtedly the major reason for that, but the match situation also reduced the tourists to sullen silence as they trailed by 267 runs on the first innings and were then set a ridiculous target of 612 to level the series, after Elgar’s 250-ball 81 and Faf du Plessis’ brave 120 allowed South Africa to declare on 344/6.
“It was odd. I’ve played quite a few Tests against Australia and it’s definitely been the most docile Test I’ve played against them. I don’t think it’s going to last very long. I think you need to have a tenacious approach in Test cricket. Nice guys come second, that’s my saying. You’ve got to have an element of proper fight, and sooner or later if your bowlers are clocking massive overs and biting their tongue, they will unleash something.
“There are a lot of frustrations over the course of five days. It’s only human nature for guys to say words to each other, but that’s fine as long as it’s not personal and it just has a competitive edge, I am okay with that. It’s never nice being called nasty things on the field, but I don’t mind that. It gets me going, so I will use that to my advantage. We are playing Test cricket and we have a massive goal as our team,” Elgar said after stumps yesterday.
Elgar dropped anchor for long periods of the second innings, but he said that was his role – just to take advantage of the huge amount of time they had to build an impregnable lead.
“With so much time left in the game I knew that it was ultimately my job to just try and anchor the innings and try and put up a big lead. We were in a fortunate position, which doesn’t really happen in Test cricket.
“I think it was important for someone to drive it home by spending some time at the crease. We were fortunate with Faf playing a superb knock today and with myself being able to extend our lead in quite a good way.
“I think it comes down to trying to nail the basics of batting and just trying to be hungry out there with a lot of discipline with regards to defence. The pitch is not the easiest, but Faf made it look quite easy. I’ve had a brilliant battle with Nathan Lyon and I can’t wait for the next one. It’s a battle between two guys who are highly competitive. He has had the edge over me, but I know he has also bowled a helluva lot of balls at me and I’ve frustrated him. He’s someone I know I’ll have a beer with afterwards,” Elgar said.