Australia’s batters are motoring towards a declaration with the tourists growing their lead to 280 runs with six wickets in hand at lunch on day four of the first Test against South Africa in Durban. Live updates below!
Starting the day 0/33, Australia added 141 runs to their overnight total in 30.2 overs to be 4/174 after the first session, and well-placed to perhaps be bowling again before tea.
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Following his first innings 190, Matt Renshaw (32*) and Alex Carey (5*) made it to lunch unbeaten after Nic Maddinson (48), Marnus Labuschagne (37) and Steve Smith (27) all kept the scoreboard ticking over but failed to reach fifty.
Live updates from Day 4 of the First Test below!
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Travis Head (11) was the first to go, falling cheaply when his leading edge resulted in a simple catch for Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma at mid on off the bowling of left arm quick Marco Jansen.
Maddinson picked up where he left off on the third evening, however, smacking a rapid fire 48 from only 38 deliveries.
The left-hander struck six fours and two sixes, the first of which was flicked over square leg off Wiaan Mulder yesterday before he launched off spinner Simon Harmer into the sight screen this morning, in a drastic turnaround from his 33-ball duck in the first innings.
Maddinson’s cameo came to an end when Anrich Nortje splattered his stumps with a high class yorker.
“They bowled poorly, they did,” Australian great Mark Waugh declared on Kayo Sports of the South African bowlers’ battle with Maddinson.
“Nortje should have opened the bowling for a start, they bowled rubbish.
“Good that he got 47, but he’s going to need more than that.
“ You know, he’s going to need a proper Test match innings to keep his spot.”
MATCH CENTRE: Live scores from the first Test
Maddinson’s stumps splatter, out for 48 | 00:36
The South African speedster then created the most riveting overs of the morning as he pinned Smith on the helmet before the champion Australian and Labuschagne fought fire with fire.
Smith flayed back-to-back boundaries over the off the side off Nortje at point and the fiery quick responded with a bouncer that sailed over Smith’s head for a wide.
Then the Aussie No.4 smacked another four behind point to take 14 off the over after Labuschagne crunched Nortje to the fence twice in his previous over.
Smith came unstuck trying to put the foot down against Harmer, however, as he picked out Jansen, who juggled a fine catch, at long on after smacking the spinner over fence earlier in the over.
In promising signs for Nathan Lyon, spin claimed another casualty when Labuschagne miscued Keshav Maharaj to Bavuma at cover.
Smith responds sharply after high blow | 00:35
The South African-born Queenslander remarkably fell for 37 off 58 balls – exactly the same score of the same amount of deliveries as the first innings.
Looking ahead to later in the day and tomorrow, former Australian leg spinner Kerry O’Keeffe declared on Kayo Sports that this is “a big Nathan Lyon pitch”.
“The surface is starting to shift when the ball pitches. It’s a big Nathan Lyon pitch from now on. Another 70, 350 is enough, then throw everything through the quicks and then Lyon,” O’Keeffe said.
Waugh added: “Australia is well ahead.
“I think it’s just a matter of how quick they can get, I think they might need a bit more than 350 because it’s such a quick scoring ground.
“I reckon 370, 380, and get there as quick as you can.
“Doesn’t matter if you get bowled out, and that’s the way the game should unfold.
“I think if they are aggressive, they can get there pretty quickly I think.”
After lunch, the Australian batters will be looking to keep their momentum going to continue to swell their lead with a declaration in Pat Cummins’ sights later in the day.
The Proteas famously chased 340 in Durban to defeat Australia in 2002, with former great Alyssa Healy urging the visitors to bat sensibly rather than attempt to set up an early declaration.
“No doubt that’ll (declaring) be at the back of their mind … (but) you can’t really think too far ahead,” Healy told foxsports.com.au.
“That first half hour to an hour is often really important: if you try and go too hard early in the day and you all of a sudden lose three wickets, then you’re on the back foot and you almost let South Africa get back into the game.
“They’ll have an opportunity to have a really good look at the conditions this morning and what the bowlers are going to come up against, and then hopefully get on top of the conditions.”
Healy also wasn’t prepared to rule out a Proteas comeback, either, despite a disappointing first innings marred by a number of reckless shots.
“The opportunity to keep themselves in this game is to bowl Australia out,” the ex-Australian women’s captain said.
“So I think overnight they’ll probably have sat down and tried to work out those plans and how to execute them on that surface.”
Match details
Venue: Kingsmead, Durban
First ball: 6:30pm (AEDT)
Watch it live: On Fox Cricket (channel 501), and streaming on Kayo, from 5:30pm (AEDT)
Teams
Australia: Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Matt Renshaw, Alex Carey (wk), Beau Webster, Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.
South Africa: Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, David Bedingham, Temba Bavuma (c), Tristan Stubbs, Wiaan Mulder, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje.