Latest / The Follow-On / Saved by the Rain?! Boland leaves South Africa rattled as Aussies make BRUTAL Lyon call - RSA vs Australia 2nd Test, Day 1 Review
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Fox Cricket Podcast,
- 0:04Speaker 1: The Follow On. A joint, Fox Sports Australia and also
- 0:07Speaker 1: Code Sports Australia are a production for this wonderful tour
- 0:10Speaker 1: of South Africa. We're at the moment in St George's
- 0:13Speaker 1: Park where the opening day of the second test has begun,
- 0:18Speaker 1: but we're doing it in a different location. We're actually
- 0:20Speaker 1: in the indoor nets with good reasons.
- 0:22Speaker 2: Tell me why, Dan Cherney.
- 0:24Speaker 3: Well, if you can see that small figure, quite small
- 0:27Speaker 3: figure I must say, in white behind the Courtney's here.
- 0:31Speaker 3: That's Tim Mavuma, the South African captain. He's getting some
- 0:33Speaker 3: throw-outs at the end of day one's play, which lasted
- 0:36Speaker 3: all of.
- 0:36Speaker 4: How many overs did we get? 12.2 overs. 12.2 overs.
- 0:39Speaker 3: But long enough for Australia to take two wickets and
- 0:43Speaker 3: leave South Africa in a difficult spot.
- 0:44Speaker 4: Two down.
- 0:45Speaker 3: Scott Boland brought into this Australian side an expensive Nathan Lyon.
- 0:49Speaker 3: We'll get to that in a moment. He took two
- 0:51Speaker 3: wickets in as many balls, removing Aidan Markham, the key
- 0:54Speaker 3: South African wicket, and then David Benningham for Golden Duck.
- 0:58Speaker 3: with a nick, the first wicket was chopped on. Knockout's
- 1:02Speaker 3: middle stump, actually. It was a sight to behold from
- 1:04Speaker 3: an Australian perspective.
- 1:05Speaker 4: But a very strong position for Australia, albeit for a
- 1:08Speaker 4: very little cricket.
- 1:09Speaker 3: It was on again, off again, and then off again
- 1:11Speaker 3: for a long period of time, and eventually it all
- 1:12Speaker 3: finished up. I mean, we just saw, probably half an
- 1:15Speaker 3: hour or so ago, a wet T-shirt competition with Cameron Green,
- 1:20Speaker 3: Cooper Connolly, and Matt Coonerman all doing some shuttle runs
- 1:23Speaker 3: on the outfield here, and the hardy souls who remained
- 1:26Speaker 3: trying to get behind them, and there were some South
- 1:28Speaker 3: African fans who were there. But anyway, a great day,
- 1:30Speaker 3: a great start for Australia.
- 1:32Speaker 4: Albeit from limited cricket.
- 1:34Speaker 1: So we'll get to what actually really unfolded beforehand, and
- 1:38Speaker 1: you were here, and we'll.
- 1:40Speaker 2: Keep any close on it.
- 1:41Speaker 1: And you could tell straight away, there's always a sign
- 1:44Speaker 1: when it comes to selection, and it's when you see
- 1:46Speaker 1: someone either.
- 1:47Speaker 2: Marking out the run and or holding a ball underneath
- 1:51Speaker 2: their arm. And what did we see today?
- 1:52Speaker 3: We saw Scott Boland marking his run. And actually, eventually
- 1:56Speaker 3: it was Nathan Lyon helping him hold his run. We
- 1:58Speaker 3: saw Nathan Lyon tossing around a Holden Steedon rugby league
- 2:02Speaker 3: ball in his arm, and.
- 2:03Speaker 4: That was a good sign.
- 2:04Speaker 3: Look, there'd been speculation for a while now, certainly on
- 2:07Speaker 3: Match Eve, Pat Cummins had not shut the door on
- 2:10Speaker 3: that decision. There were little signs perhaps on Match Eve
- 2:13Speaker 3: as well around training. Pat Cummins said the comments he made,
- 2:17Speaker 3: and then Scott Boland actually got battered for a bit
- 2:19Speaker 3: longer than we expected. George Bailey had a chat to him,
- 2:21Speaker 3: and there was just a sense... that this was coming,
- 2:24Speaker 3: even so.
- 2:25Speaker 1: And that great line yesterday from the press conference from
- 2:27Speaker 1: Pat Cummings, on the eve of the second test, the
- 2:31Speaker 1: batsmen are walking away from the nets going, how can
- 2:33Speaker 1: we leave this guy out of this? How is this
- 2:35Speaker 1: guy not in the 11? That's how well he's been bowling.
- 2:38Speaker 1: Last week in Durban at Kingsbury Park and here at
- 2:41Speaker 1: St George's Oval, it's been, he was just tearing it
- 2:44Speaker 1: up in the nets.
- 2:45Speaker 3: No, look, he's irresistible at the moment Scott Boland, so
- 2:48Speaker 3: he's just a very, very hard man to leave out.
- 2:50Speaker 3: And given that the other seam options are also compelling
- 2:52Speaker 3: as well, in Stark, Hazelwood and Cummins.
- 2:54Speaker 4: You've got Hazelwood who's just.
- 2:55Speaker 3: Taken a six for last week and averaging 14 with
- 2:57Speaker 3: the ball since the start of 2024. You've got Mitchell
- 3:00Speaker 3: Stark who was a player of the series in the
- 3:01Speaker 3: Ashes last year and a couple of votes off winning
- 3:03Speaker 3: the Alan Bourne medal. And obviously Pat Cummins is the captain,
- 3:06Speaker 3: one of Australia's greatest fast bowlers ever.
- 3:08Speaker 4: So it's very tough.
- 3:10Speaker 3: But I suppose the broader discussion, and look, I suppose, well, actually,
- 3:13Speaker 3: let's quickly just give a note to Scott Boland, his Jews,
- 3:15Speaker 3: because it's been a while since he'd played for Test Cricket,
- 3:19Speaker 3: not since Sydney in January, where he played all five
- 3:21Speaker 3: Ashes Tests.
- 3:22Speaker 1: And you had the great point today, and it's one
- 3:24Speaker 1: of those ones that raises your eyes, or eyebrows. The
- 3:28Speaker 1: oldest fast bowler to play for Australia since Ray Linwell
- 3:32Speaker 1: in 1960.
- 3:32Speaker 2: Amazing.
- 3:33Speaker 1: It's astonishing.
- 3:34Speaker 4: Yeah, 66 years. Ray Linwell, I think, was 39 when
- 3:36Speaker 4: he played in 1962.
- 3:39Speaker 3: Might have been the West Indies series, maybe it was
- 3:40Speaker 3: the one before that, but yeah, a long, long time ago,
- 3:43Speaker 3: and it's easy to forget Scott Boland, but he is
- 3:46Speaker 3: the oldest guy of these four quicks, he's actually made
- 3:48Speaker 3: the team younger by replacing Nathan Lyon, who's a year
- 3:50Speaker 3: a bit older than him, but he's a couple of
- 3:52Speaker 3: months older than Steve Smith, and it makes you wonder
- 3:55Speaker 3: how it took him until he was almost 32 to
- 3:57Speaker 3: play test cricket at all for a straight, sorry, almost 33,
- 4:00Speaker 3: he was 32 when he made his debut on Boxing
- 4:02Speaker 3: Day in 2021, clearly he's a vastly improved bowler from
- 4:06Speaker 3: early in his career.
- 4:07Speaker 4: And he's learned to wobble seam, and He was super fit,
- 4:10Speaker 4: but he's got even super fitter. And he's had very,
- 4:14Speaker 4: very few injuries in the last few years as well.
- 4:16Speaker 4: As you touch wood at the age he's at, but
- 4:18Speaker 4: he looks still raring to go.
- 4:20Speaker 3: And clearly he's somewhat fresh, given he hasn't played much.
- 4:24Speaker 3: He played one one-dayer in Victoria on the grand final leave,
- 4:27Speaker 3: as we see. I'm tempted.
- 4:30Speaker 4: Tim is welcome to make a cameo here if you want,
- 4:31Speaker 4: but he's politely declined. So we are here.
- 4:35Speaker 3: LAUGHTER Anyway, that's thrown me. He'll have to face Scott
- 4:39Speaker 3: Boland tomorrow. I feel sorry for him. But yeah, remarkable
- 4:41Speaker 3: Scott Boland. What a luxury of riches they have.
- 4:45Speaker 2: Incredible.
- 4:46Speaker 1: And I suppose within the question it points to is,
- 4:50Speaker 1: should Nathan Lyon be disappointed about being left out? I
- 4:52Speaker 1: think he will be disappointed about being left out. But
- 4:54Speaker 1: I also, it's the first time he's been left out
- 4:56Speaker 1: in a red ball test.
- 4:59Speaker 4: Since 2013. Since 2013.
- 4:59Speaker 3: Since Ashton Agar and that series, of course, Agar and
- 5:02Speaker 3: his heroics. He's 98 on debut at Trent Bridge. And
- 5:06Speaker 3: then the second test as well, that Agar played in
- 5:09Speaker 3: the line, came in for the third test of that
- 5:11Speaker 3: series and didn't miss a test, well, didn't miss a
- 5:14Speaker 3: test at all for 10 years until he did his
- 5:17Speaker 3: calf at Lourdes famously in 2023, the infamous stumping, Besto
- 5:21Speaker 3: Carey stumping test. And then he came back, fought for
- 5:25Speaker 3: injury and then didn't miss another test until he was
- 5:27Speaker 3: dropped in the West Indies last year.
- 5:29Speaker 4: So this is the thing.
- 5:31Speaker 3: So at the time when he was dropped in the
- 5:33Speaker 3: West Indies in Jamaica, And Tony Dotter made, I was
- 5:37Speaker 3: lucky enough to be there, and Tony Dotter made the
- 5:38Speaker 3: Australian selector on duty at a press conference almost as
- 5:41Speaker 3: soon as that selection was made to explain the rationale.
- 5:44Speaker 3: It had been sort of flagged the day before by
- 5:45Speaker 3: Pat Cummins, and that happened on the day. And it
- 5:47Speaker 3: had been such a bombshell because Nathan Lyne was never dropped.
- 5:50Speaker 4: He was rolled gold. He was locked in the side
- 5:53Speaker 4: seemingly until he retired. And they dropped him.
- 5:56Speaker 3: But they said, look, this is a special test, a
- 5:58Speaker 3: pink ball, Duke's ball, which does, you know, hoops around corners,
- 6:01Speaker 3: the lights, the light, coming in pretty early.
- 6:05Speaker 4: Oops, sorry. The lights need to take effect pretty early
- 6:07Speaker 4: in Jamaica. This is a one-off.
- 6:09Speaker 2: Okay?
- 6:10Speaker 3: And Scott Boland takes a hat-trick in that match in
- 6:12Speaker 3: the West Indies. They bowl that for 27. Then, against
- 6:15Speaker 3: the Baz ball and the fact that England's innings don't
- 6:18Speaker 3: go very long.
- 6:18Speaker 2: Yes.
- 6:19Speaker 4: Nathan Lyon barely bowls in Perth. Two-day test.
- 6:21Speaker 3: They lead him out for the Gabba. Another pink ball test. Again,
- 6:24Speaker 3: concerned about the light, concerned about how much cricket would
- 6:27Speaker 3: be under lights. They bring in Michael Neeser's length in
- 6:29Speaker 3: the batting.
- 6:31Speaker 4: Pays off. Michael Neeser takes a five-five. Again, on that occasion,
- 6:34Speaker 4: George Bailey, the chairman.
- 6:35Speaker 3: Of selectors and the selector of duty at the time,
- 6:36Speaker 3: he convenes a press conference or a press briefing, I suppose,
- 6:41Speaker 3: almost immediately to say this... It can't be a one-off
- 6:45Speaker 3: because it happened twice by that point, but to say
- 6:47Speaker 3: he is definitely playing in Adelaide. They made a point
- 6:49Speaker 3: of that almost immediately. Here today, crickets from Cricket Australia,
- 6:54Speaker 3: or at least from any team representative, was not made
- 6:56Speaker 3: available after play. There was a request made for George
- 6:59Speaker 3: Bailey and not forthcoming, but within their rights, they don't
- 7:01Speaker 3: have to put someone up. But I think the point
- 7:04Speaker 3: being that it's now reached a point where Lion is
- 7:07Speaker 3: now a fringe member of this side. I don't think
- 7:09Speaker 3: there's any other way to put it. I mean, he's
- 7:11Speaker 3: now being left out in three separate sets of circumstances.
- 7:14Speaker 3: It's no longer just about the pink jukes. It's no
- 7:16Speaker 3: longer about the pink ball. He's been out at a
- 7:18Speaker 3: red ball test. I know the conditions were helpful foreseen.
- 7:21Speaker 3: I know that was a thing. But this is also
- 7:23Speaker 3: a venue where spin has a very, you know, not
- 7:26Speaker 3: a particularly bouncy wicket. Even the early data suggested it
- 7:29Speaker 3: wasn't particularly bouncy.
- 7:30Speaker 4: It's the lowest....
- 7:33Speaker 3: It's got, outside of Asia, in the last 10 years,
- 7:36Speaker 3: it's got the lowest bowling average for spin in test
- 7:39Speaker 3: cricket for a venue that's hosted three or more tests.
- 7:42Speaker 4: So this is a venue that traditionally favours spin.
- 7:45Speaker 3: And look, it's not the end for Nathan Warren, but
- 7:47Speaker 3: it is getting close to the end.
- 7:49Speaker 1: And look, I will point out that he was very good,
- 7:52Speaker 1: I thought, last week in Durban. He took two wickets
- 7:54Speaker 1: in the first innings, didn't take a wicket in the
- 7:57Speaker 1: second innings, but Josh Hagerwood was basically running amok and
- 8:00Speaker 1: was spectacular as a as they bowled. Matthew Renshaw was
- 8:03Speaker 1: very good. But what Lyon did exceptionally well was the control.
- 8:07Speaker 1: And he basically held down an end and bowled really
- 8:09Speaker 1: well in that second innings. He allowed the champion trio
- 8:12Speaker 1: of pacemen to rotate, to come in for short, sharp bursts.
- 8:15Speaker 1: So he was really effective, I think, in Durban. Certainly
- 8:19Speaker 1: wouldn't be putting the line through him in any way,
- 8:21Speaker 1: shape or form. It's just, as you said, it's no longer,
- 8:24Speaker 1: I think we can safely say, it's no longer a
- 8:25Speaker 1: guaranteed selection. It's a, But I did have a laugh
- 8:28Speaker 1: at another thing and come in touch with it, but
- 8:31Speaker 1: I also thought today, so the best two-performed batsman for
- 8:34Speaker 1: South Africa, Mark Room, who with a pretty wild shot,
- 8:38Speaker 1: now we know he was away from the camp for
- 8:39Speaker 1: a few days for personal reasons, got back yesterday. You
- 8:41Speaker 1: don't know about what impact that may have had on him.
- 8:44Speaker 1: Then David Bedingham comes in and he batted very well.
- 8:48Speaker 2: I thought, last week. Two scores in the 40s.
- 8:52Speaker 1: He did a press conference here a couple of days
- 8:54Speaker 1: ago when he spoke about how hard it is for
- 8:56Speaker 1: to face the Australians, and he said, you know, you
- 8:59Speaker 1: see off Stark, and you see off Lion, and then
- 9:01Speaker 1: in first, sorry, see off Stark, you see off Hazelwood,
- 9:04Speaker 1: and in first class cricket, you know, generally, his mates
- 9:07Speaker 1: are asking, you know, what's it like? And he said, well, generally,
- 9:09Speaker 1: your third bowler and your fourth bowler, you've got a
- 9:11Speaker 1: chance of a crack at them, but those two go,
- 9:13Speaker 1: and then you've got Pat Cummins, the Australian captain, and
- 9:16Speaker 1: Nathan Lion, you know, the most successful ever off spinner,
- 9:19Speaker 1: apart from, obviously, a pretty fine bowler as well, but
- 9:22Speaker 1: Australia's most successful off spinner coming in, and so This time,
- 9:27Speaker 1: there's no line.
- 9:28Speaker 2: But the number three is Scott Bolin.
- 9:30Speaker 1: He hadn't even referenced Scott Bolin, and he comes out
- 9:32Speaker 1: to face him and gets a first ball, let's just
- 9:35Speaker 1: say a corker.
- 9:36Speaker 4: Yeah, that was a very, very good ball.
- 9:38Speaker 3: And the hat-trick ball itself, Timber, who was behind us,
- 9:42Speaker 3: they briefly thought it might be out. He got an
- 9:44Speaker 3: inside edge onto the pad, and it was a bit of.
- 9:47Speaker 4: A shout, which there inevitably.
- 9:48Speaker 1: Is any time.
- 9:49Speaker 2: Didn't send it upstairs. I'm thinking, that was a hat-trick ball.
- 9:51Speaker 3: No, it definitely wasn't, because it was definitely bad.
- 9:54Speaker 4: But I suppose you know, any.
- 9:55Speaker 3: Time there's even a 1 in 100 chance that it's
- 9:57Speaker 3: going to be an appeal, but no, it wasn't there.
- 9:58Speaker 4: And then their heads sort of went down pretty quickly because.
- 10:01Speaker 3: They thought maybe Scott Ball had a second test hat-trick
- 10:04Speaker 3: in the space of 16 months, deep into his 30s.
- 10:07Speaker 4: No, look, it's a tricky one.
- 10:09Speaker 3: Look, you're allowed to jump to too many conclusions, or
- 10:11Speaker 3: you've got to be, sorry, maybe you've got to be
- 10:12Speaker 3: careful not to jump to too many conclusions. But I
- 10:14Speaker 3: think when you look at line now, as long as
- 10:17Speaker 3: these four are fit... the quick studies, can they, who
- 10:22Speaker 3: can they leave out? I mean, really, are you going
- 10:23Speaker 3: to drop, we'll see how it goes, but are you
- 10:25Speaker 3: going to drop Boland for the next test?
- 10:29Speaker 2: It's obviously horses for.
- 10:31Speaker 3: Courses to a degree, but the way I would now
- 10:33Speaker 3: frame it is Lion is now, I think it's gone
- 10:38Speaker 3: from a position where it's horses for courses to leave
- 10:40Speaker 3: Lion out to horses for courses to put him in.
- 10:43Speaker 3: I actually think he's now, it's probably reached the tipping
- 10:47Speaker 3: point where it's, He's almost.
- 10:49Speaker 4: Starting on the outer.
- 10:50Speaker 3: I think, look, they haven't picked a specialist spinner in
- 10:53Speaker 3: five of their last eight tests.
- 10:54Speaker 4: Todd Murphy didn't play in Melbourne. No, that's right. Lyon
- 10:56Speaker 4: barely bowled in Perth. It's now multiple opponents, multiple conditions,
- 11:00Speaker 4: a venue that favours spin.
- 11:01Speaker 3: I know that he has the rain and the pitch
- 11:02Speaker 3: and all that, but at the end of the day,
- 11:04Speaker 3: they're now finding a lot of reasons not to pick
- 11:06Speaker 3: Nathan Lyon and.
- 11:07Speaker 4: He's deep into his 30s. They've got India. I think
- 11:08Speaker 4: if they didn't have India.
- 11:09Speaker 3: Coming up, I think we'd be saying this might be
- 11:11Speaker 3: it for Nathan Lyon, but there is that, so there's
- 11:14Speaker 3: the light at the end of the tunnel.
- 11:15Speaker 4: It's just whether he's going to be it. I think
- 11:17Speaker 4: he will be, but... He's got to have the.
- 11:18Speaker 3: Fortitude, the gumption, just as tight as he bowled last
- 11:22Speaker 3: week to withstand this prospect and the ego hit of
- 11:26Speaker 3: a guy with 573 test wickets now being far from
- 11:28Speaker 3: an automatic selection.
- 11:30Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, as I said, I'm more of the
- 11:32Speaker 2: horses for courses.
- 11:33Speaker 1: I do think the conditions have played a significant part here.
- 11:35Speaker 1: But if Scott Boland takes five tomorrow, and I've got
- 11:38Speaker 1: to say, when the covers are on overnight, we come
- 11:41Speaker 1: back tomorrow and we think the rain will clear about
- 11:42Speaker 1: midday is what we're told. But by the way, he's
- 11:44Speaker 1: not the only shock spinning selection today. South Africa have
- 11:48Speaker 1: taken a few gambles in this. They're one love down.
- 11:50Speaker 1: Part of the gamble, Rabada is back in, as expected.
- 11:54Speaker 1: But there's a little element of question there. We want
- 11:55Speaker 1: to see how he gets through this game because he
- 11:57Speaker 1: has not played a test for 12 months. He was
- 11:59Speaker 1: initially ruled out of this series with a serious hamstring problem.
- 12:05Speaker 1: We know that we've watched him in the nets and
- 12:07Speaker 1: he's looked very impressive. I was very impressed today, by
- 12:09Speaker 1: the way. When he walked off, he looked like he
- 12:11Speaker 1: was ready to go. But he was also tapping around
- 12:14Speaker 1: a football, sorry, a football, a soccer ball, on about
- 12:17Speaker 1: just touching.
- 12:18Speaker 4: So that wasn't a bad sign.
- 12:20Speaker 2: 49 in a row.
- 12:21Speaker 1: Oh, right. He got 49 in a row, left foot,
- 12:23Speaker 1: right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot,
- 12:25Speaker 1: as he was walking up and thinking, that's some pretty
- 12:27Speaker 1: handy footwork without it touching the ground.
- 12:29Speaker 2: But he looks ready to go. So that's one gamble.
- 12:31Speaker 2: We'll keep an eye on that. But the other one,
- 12:34Speaker 2: they've gone for Simon.
- 12:35Speaker 1: Harper, the local offie, over Maharaj, who absolutely would have
- 12:39Speaker 1: been the number one spinner leading into the series for
- 12:41Speaker 1: South Africa.
- 12:42Speaker 2: I think he's played seven tests here.
- 12:43Speaker 1: You know, A colleague of ours from South Africa, I
- 12:46Speaker 1: think Telford Vice, has written today that he's not been
- 12:49Speaker 1: left out of a test team. He hasn't been dropped
- 12:51Speaker 1: from a test team since 2016 when it hasn't been
- 12:55Speaker 1: an all-seam attack. So he's not been dropped in preference
- 12:57Speaker 1: to another spinner. So 10 years since.
- 13:00Speaker 4: He became one spinner. That's huge.
- 13:02Speaker 3: I mean, it's almost more significant than Lion because I
- 13:04Speaker 3: suppose the difference with Lion is he's yet to be picked.
- 13:07Speaker 4: He's yet to be usurped by another spinner.
- 13:11Speaker 3: We wait to see whether that could potentially happen in India,
- 13:14Speaker 3: I suppose, but A lot of water under the.
- 13:17Speaker 4: Bridge, but let's get to that point. But yeah, no,
- 13:19Speaker 4: Maharaj is significant. Simon Harmer, who had.
- 13:22Speaker 3: Oh, look, I don't think either of them are particularly influential.
- 13:26Speaker 4: In the first test in Durban, but clearly... I think.
- 13:29Speaker 2: Ineffective would be the word in a track where we
- 13:31Speaker 2: thought it might spin more.
- 13:32Speaker 3: I suspect part of the rationale, and which Harmer touched
- 13:36Speaker 3: on this a couple of days out from the first
- 13:38Speaker 3: test when.
- 13:38Speaker 4: He did some press, is that there is.
- 13:41Speaker 3: Australia does have a lot of left-handers. So if they're
- 13:44Speaker 3: weighing up, willing to pick one spin. They're both sort
- 13:46Speaker 3: of similar level batters as well, so you're not making
- 13:48Speaker 3: a huge... They're both sort of handy without being.
- 13:50Speaker 2: Yeah, and they showed that last week, actually, with the
- 13:52Speaker 2: bat as well.
- 13:52Speaker 1: They do.
- 13:52Speaker 4: They both hang around.
- 13:53Speaker 3: Yeah. And there's quite a bit of useful batting in
- 13:56Speaker 3: that lowest African order.
- 13:57Speaker 4: But no, ultimately, I think the fact that you've got
- 14:01Speaker 4: the left-armers, and it's interesting now, and Maharaj is, you know,
- 14:03Speaker 4: he's also... He's 36.
- 14:04Speaker 3: Yeah. Again, you're not going to draw a line through him,
- 14:07Speaker 3: but once guys start getting dropped deep into the 30s,
- 14:09Speaker 3: you've got to sort of think, how much longer is
- 14:12Speaker 3: there to go? So.
- 14:13Speaker 2: And it is just on that.
- 14:15Speaker 1: And we know that when the Aussies get to England
- 14:16Speaker 1: next year, obviously going to get through this series, they
- 14:19Speaker 1: desperately want to win here. They want to win, beat
- 14:21Speaker 1: New Zealand. They want to win against India or over
- 14:23Speaker 1: in India. And we've got the 150th test into the
- 14:27Speaker 1: potentially the World Test Championship.
- 14:28Speaker 2: Final and the Ashes.
- 14:29Speaker 1: But we know when they get to the Ashes, the
- 14:31Speaker 1: Fleet Street Press will be calling them Dad's Army, the
- 14:34Speaker 1: oldest team.
- 14:35Speaker 4: They're a younger team today than they were last week.
- 14:38Speaker 1: By about, and that's exactly right. Younger team is still
- 14:40Speaker 1: the second time in there.
- 14:41Speaker 4: And it's also.
- 14:43Speaker 2: I mean, Australia's.
- 14:43Speaker 1: Got 11 players over 30. South Africa have eight players
- 14:47Speaker 1: over 30.
- 14:48Speaker 2: So there's 19 players.
- 14:49Speaker 4: Is it combat plate straight? Exactly.
- 14:51Speaker 1: 19 players in that test, in this test here, that
- 14:55Speaker 1: are over the age of 30. It's the first time
- 14:58Speaker 1: in 100 years that's happened. 1926, there was 20 Australia
- 15:02Speaker 1: versus England in Nottingham.
- 15:03Speaker 4: So it's, you know, it's an opportunity.
- 15:05Speaker 3: And that's notwithstanding that Nathan Lyon and Keshav Maharaj.
- 15:08Speaker 4: Both team in their 30s, you've both been dropped for
- 15:09Speaker 4: this test. I mean, it's a sport for old fellas.
- 15:13Speaker 1: So, look, plenty to talk about. Even with the rain,
- 15:16Speaker 1: even the fact there was only 12 overs, it was
- 15:18Speaker 1: pretty lively.
- 15:19Speaker 4: We've spoken for longer than the play went for today.
- 15:23Speaker 1: Look, my name's Courtney Walsh. With me is Daniel Churney.
- 15:26Speaker 1: We've got lots of good stuff in Code Sports tomorrow.
- 15:28Speaker 1: Plenty on foxsports.com.au as well. Thanks again for tuning in
- 15:33Speaker 1: to St George's Park. The second test, we're underway. Australia,
- 15:36Speaker 1: I think, has pretty much got the upper hand. Two
- 15:38Speaker 1: wickets is pretty handy in the first 12 overs. Scott Boland,
- 15:42Speaker 1: build that man a statue. We'll look forward to being
- 15:44Speaker 1: back tomorrow.