Aussies fight back on tough day

DURBAN. — Bad light ended an enthralling opening day of the first Test in Durban, with Australia 5-225 at stumps yesterday.

The leadership duo of Steve Smith and David Warner posted half-centuries before Mitchell Marsh (32no) and Tim Paine (21no) batted out 18 overs to the close of play, which was ended prematurely after 76 overs.

Much of the talk prior to the series was about the raw pace of both sides, but it was the guile of swing bowler Vernon Philander and spinner Keshav Maharaj who provided the highlights for the hosts with two wickets each on day one.

Smith won the toss and didn’t hesitate electing to bat first and would have liked what he saw initially as South Africa’s new-ball pair of Morne Morkel and Philander struggled to find any swing in humid conditions.It took only three balls for some action when the Proteas burnt a review trying to remove Cameron Bancroft lbw, but the delivery from the towering Morkel was projected to soar over the stumps.

Less than 10 overs later, South Africa had no reviews left after Maharaj ripped his first ball past the inside edge of Warner’s bat and into his pad, but again the flight path of the ball was deemed to be missing the stumps.

The tweak to the Decision Review System last October resulted in Test teams being permitted just two unsuccessful referrals in total per innings instead of two every 80 overs, and with both of their reviews gone inside the first hour, the Proteas’ fate was left in the hands of the standing umpires.

In between the DRS drama, Bancroft was dismissed for five, caught behind off the metronomic Philander after taking two steps towards the bowler, a proactive move he had practiced in the nets but one that didn’t pay off in his maiden Test innings on foreign soil.

While Bancroft looked scratchy and possibly nervous against his new foe, Warner looked right at home in a country he’s dominated like no other.

Four years ago, Warner was player of the series for his 543 runs and three centuries in the thrilling 2-1 victory and it didn’t appear as though a day had passed since his twin hundreds at Newlands in 2014 to Thursday in Durban.

The vice-captain showed no signs of rust or jet lag despite having flown in a week after his teammates and missed Australia’s sole warm-up match in Benoni.

He ran hard between the wickets, picked off singles and left the ball judiciously.

He had moved to 20 from 31 balls when Usman Khawaja was out for 14 to a spectacular catch by gloveman Quinton de Kock, a one-handed effort diving in front of first slip off a rocket from a Kagiso Rabada delivery that angled across the lefthander and found the edge.

Warner and Smith made batting look easy for the remainder of the session, the skipper in particular ruthless on anything wayward by the Proteas bowlers to have five boundaries in his 24 at lunch.

But from the last ball of the morning session, wily Philander extracted just enough bounce and movement to take the edge of Warner’s bat to AB de Villiers at second slip, a catch made more impressive given de Kock was standing up to the stumps to the veteran seamer.

Philander returned after the main break to complete a seven-over spell that — in all — produced five maidens, eight runs, the wicket of Warner and a dropped chance of Smith by de Villiers, a difficult one at third slip that only just carried to the fielder.

Du Plessis said on match eve that one of the ways to beat Australia was to dry up the runs and the drought was on after lunch as the Australians limped from 3-121 to 3-129 in eight overs.

And the plan would have produced a wicket had the Proteas had a review up their sleeve.