Latest / The Follow-On / Smith's CATCHING MASTERCLASS! Aussies seize control in Durban - RSA vs Australia 1st Test, Day 3 Review

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Smith's CATCHING MASTERCLASS! Aussies seize control in Durban - RSA vs Australia 1st Test, Day 3 Review · The Follow-On

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to our review of the opening day's
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: play of the test between South Africa and Australia in Durban.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: At Kingsman Stadium.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: My name's Courtney Walsh, I'm a senior reporter for Fox Sports,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: also a host of the podcast The Follow-On.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: I'm joined by Daniel Cherney.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Senior reporter for Code Sports and the cricket correspondent who
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: brought us the news today that Nick Maddison would.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Be playing before the actual team came out.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Tell us about your observations there, Dan. How did that
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: happen and what unfolded from the moment that Nick was
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: chosen to play?
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Well, it was all downhill from there, Courtney. Look, there
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: were signs before play. There was obviously a lot of
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: discussion around the composition of the Australian XI. Ever since
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Cameron Green was ruled out of this match, there was
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: discussion as to how.
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: They would line up.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: The overwhelming sense in recent days has been it was
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: going to be between Cooper Connolly and Nick Maddison. Now,
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: in hindsight, I'm actually not sure it was that black
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: and white.
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: I think there's a fetch.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: I suspect Bo Webster was also in discussions as to
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: whether he may miss out for Cooper Connolly because they
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: wanted a left-arm spin option.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: Anyway, in the end, Maddison got the nod.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: Now, Maddison playing in and of itself was not per
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: se an enormous shock because there was proper discussion that
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: he would play.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: What was a genuine shock to me?
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Maybe not, you know, I suppose not absolutely blow your
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: socks off, but it was a fairly big surprise was
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: that he was going to open the batting. And I
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: think in hindsight, that has proven to be It's one
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: day in, but not even a full day, because we've
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: got to finish with bad light, which we can get
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: to later. But somewhat of an unmitigated disaster. Unfortunately for
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Nick Maddison, he has made what should otherwise be an
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: amazing story of a guy who's come through cancer, playing
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: his first Test match in a decade, almost a decade,
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: and he made the longest duck for an Australian opener
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: in Test.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: History on record. 33 balls. He should have been out.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: from the 15th ball of those when he should have
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: been LBW to be on Mulder.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: That didn't happen. It was overturned on... Sorry. It should
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: have been overturned on review, but the South Africans didn't review.
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: They didn't send it upstairs. It's very red lights.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: I think we think Tamababuma, the captain, might have thought
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: it was inside edge, or perhaps he thought it was
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: pitching outside.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: Anyway, in any case, it should have been out then.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: It was a very, very scratchy innings, and eventually he
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: was gone for a duck from 33 balls... chopping on
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: to Marco Jansen. Now, Courtney, I mean, this was already
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: an incredibly contentious selection. The fact that he was called
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: up at all, even into the squad, because this is
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: a guy who had not played first-class cricket since early 2025.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: He's already polarised massively. We saw Matthew Hayden come out,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: condemn this selection very dramatically in a podcast a few
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: days ago. It's another commentator from the state system. There's
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: been some significant.
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: Angst around there.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: So then to actually go and pick him ahead of
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Cooper Connolly, who'd been notionally the spare batter in the
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: squad I suppose in hindsight he was probably more of
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: a spare or a round on the spare batter, or
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: a more round option. And then to open him ahead
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: of Matt Renshaw, who was the standout opener in Shield
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: cricket last year, and then for it to happen as
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: it did, I mean, it does strike, it does appear, again,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: he's going to most likely bat again, but sort of
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: an all-time selection howler, and one where they've overthought it.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: It's got some, you look back to.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Nagpur 2023 when they dropped Travis Head, to pick Renshaw
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: and Peter Hanscom in India. This selection panel has made
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: several bold calls, but this one just, day in, did.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: Not pay off.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Basically, listening to the former greats, Mark Waugh for Fox Cricket,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: KO Sports, Simon Kadic, who is over here, he made
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: a century here in 2009, they were saying, how can
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: you possibly justify this selection? It obviously looks a lot
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: worse in hindsight. He does have the opportunity to bat again.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: We do know that in a couple of days. And
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: we've just come from a press conference with Matt Renshaw,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: who is the man who was selected to open to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: replace Jake Weatherall in Mackay, all of two tests ago
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and just a month and a half ago. And yesterday
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: he's told he's batting at number five. Now, it didn't
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: seem to worry Matt at all. And, of course, when
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: you're batting at five, the conditions got easier later on.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: When we saw it was we haven't even been with
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the ball this morning, it was, It was bouncing a lot.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: There was a bit of seam. It was moving.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Hansen was just frightening to watch at times and moulded
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: bold very accurately. But the point from Katic Amore is right.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: How can it be justified based on what we've seen?
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: And then it does open the door to the next segment.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Chopping and changing of the batting order. Are you setting
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: up the Australian batsmen to fail? We know that this
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: is a team that is unorthodox in their approach in
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: terms of There is no such thing as a batting order.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: It's the top six, the best six batsmen in the
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: country play.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: And there is a school of thought that they think
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: that they can bat anywhere. Listening to Kadic today, he's saying,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: hang on. No, you're a specialist batsman for a reason.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: There are reasons why we have openers. There's a reason
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: why someone will come in at five, six and seven.
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: War.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: He's making the same point. Gary O'Keefe couldn't believe it.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: He said, what's the point of him being there, Nick?
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: And what's the point of Renshaw batting the five? Now,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I'm interested in your thoughts on that, but it does
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: seem that it's a... You know, we saw Cameron Green
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: bounce all over the batting order last summer, and he
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: could not get settled. He did get settled finally at
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: number five, makes a century in Darwin, out with injury,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: and maybe all of this may not have happened had
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Cameron been fit to play. But, you know, this chopping
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and changing must make it very hard for.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: The batsmen to feel at home.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: I think the other thing about that match is that
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: it's selective, which is why it frustrates me, because they're so.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: They'll sort of say, oh, well, we can't move Steve
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: Smith anymore.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Because Steve, you know, strong argument about moving him to
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: number three, or there was, leading into this tour, where
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Armanis is positioned now, including the back of Armanis for
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: the time being.
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: You know, move Travis Head back down to five.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: There's an argument for it because he's had great success
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: at number five. But it just feels as though it's the,
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: and I suppose that's the.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: Nature of life to a degree, it's the stars that
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: get the.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Most power, or at least that they are the ones
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: that are sort of, you know, allowed to have first choice,
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: first dibs, But it's the fact that it's these fringe
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: guys that get shuffled.
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: Up and down, moved around on the whims of any
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: given day, any given situation.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: I understand there's a need to be versatile, and Renshaw
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: has throughout his career batted in a lot of different
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: positions in first-class cricket and in one-day cricket as well.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: But to me, it just seemed unnecessary and I was
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: overthinking it. I mean, again, a lot of the rationale
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: behind picking Maddison ahead of Connolly, or at least the
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: discussion around the camp and the Nets when we were watching,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: was that Maddison's a better player of spin than Connolly.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: But he wasn't going to face spin facing the new
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: ball on a reasonably.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Grassy wicket with plenty of bounce.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: It was probably a bit tougher even than they necessarily anticipated.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: We had some data from Crickview suggesting that it was
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: pretty tough to bat on.
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: It just doesn't feel necessary. You look at.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: I was grudging to numbers earlier too. From a number
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: five perspective... And the last, since David Warner retired in
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: early 2024, the following guys have made centuries for Australia
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: at number five. Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Steve Smith, or
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: when they had a night watchman who was cutting down a.
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: Position, Travis Head and Cameron Green. Matt Renshaw, he could
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: go on himself. I mean, he's not in 50 yet,
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: but he looks well set.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: And it could be very vital for Australia.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: And it could.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: And that would be great.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: And I suppose in that respect, I would say, oh, justified.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: But no, they're looking to try to find an opener.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: You just get this revolving door. And if you're going
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: to pick Jake Weatherall, give him a central contract... worth
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: upwards of $ 350, 000 a year and then drop him after
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: one test and format Renshaw and then move Renshaw the
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: very next test down the order, it just smacks of a,
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: as I said, an overthinking. And look, I know they
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: go into this with a lot of data, but I
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: just sometimes sense that they, you know, there's two clever
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: by half and, you know, they're going to cop it.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: And Maddison, as I said, was a very contentious call
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: even before the opening decision.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: And look, it's not something that the coach, that the
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: selectors are not aware of. They know that when a
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: bad result happens, they will cop criticism. Australia has won, what,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: 14 in the last 17 tests. But Andrew McDonald, and
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: there is one other factor of play here. It is
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the first time in history Australia has sent out a
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: cricket team where every player is older than 30. It's
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: the seventh oldest Australian team in all time.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: The average age.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: 34.6 or 34.7, it's this, you know, clearly there are,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: you know, not allegations, clearly the description, Dad's Army, I
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: know they hate it, but my word, it's impossible to
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: say that when you're putting out the oldest team in
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: some regard, the shoe fits.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: It occurred to me today, watching, this itself has been
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: a little funny sidebar throughout the last few days, I
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: was watching Noah Anderson, the Gold Coast Suns captain, out there,
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: who's been spending the week with this Australian team on
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: the leadership development program.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: The Aussies have had football entities, other.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: Sporting entities come through the team at various times in
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: the last few years. You know, leave that to one side.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: He's the captain of an AFL team.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: He'd be, what, 25?
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: He would be comfortably the youngest player in this 11
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: by five years.
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: He's the captain of an AFL team.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: That underscores, you're going as captain, but that underscores how,
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: and I just think, even the Connolly decision, I just think,
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: I feel like, I mean, again, it's easier in hindsight
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: because Maddison has failed, but it was such an abject failure.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: And unfortunately, you feel massively with Maddison because it would
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: have been much better had he made a first ball guy.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: Yes. But the 33, and then you think, oh, well, look,
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: you get a good one earlier.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: But the fact that he was in there for so
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: long and he was allowed, and his timing was just off.
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: And there were a couple of times where he thought
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: he was off the mark, but there were leg buys.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: And it was just cool.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: It just felt cool.
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: And it was a really, it just underscored a sense of...
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: you know, they've really done it this time. They've jumped
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: the shark a bit as a panel.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, Renshaw did say it is a weird
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: game and he has come from the nets and we
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: know the Aussies, you know, the Aussies were in what
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: were spicy nets.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: You know, your first time out in the middle, it's
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: a different pitch.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: It was lively.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: It was moving around. So, significant challenge.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: But, you know, when he bats again, let's hope he
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: can make some runs and If they can somehow find
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: their way out of trouble, that's one thing. The other
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: thing I wanted to talk to you about, just from
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the batting perspective, Pat Cummins has implored the Australians at
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: different stages. In Darwin, to grind, to dig, to put
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: a price on the wicket. Again, just before the tests
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: on Thursday when he was speaking, he said, we've got
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: to find a way to grind. You look at the numbers,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: none from 33, a duck from 33 balls. Head was
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: fairly cautious.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Effectively, if you look at the ratio in terms of the,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: the runs to balls. I think Renshaw was something.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Like 40-odd off 100 or so. They were trying to
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: put a price on the wicket from mine, but what
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: got away from them was.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: The ability to build the partnerships. Marnus goes to the
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: last ball before lunch.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Steve Smith, the first over after lunch, and he'd been
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: softened up by a ripper the delivery before and then
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: was out. But wickets fell in clubs. Only two wickets
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: at a time. You basically had The two openers, Head
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: and Maddison, go at the same time. Effectively, Marnus and
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: then Smith at the same time. And then we had,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: later on, you had Webster and Carey effectively go within
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: the space of a ball. So, yeah, you could see
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: that they were trying to stick in, but they were like,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know, we'll just sort of put it together
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: until this last partnership between Cummins, who, by.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: The way, had only averaged 10 against South Africa, let
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: him in.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: It's been a very handy.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Sort of lower order dig from him. And Renshaw, 63,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the partnership stands at the moment.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: It's something they have to try and do. To win
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: this series, they're.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Going to have to knuckle down and make sure that
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: they build these partnerships.
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: For sure.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: The game's still not far from over. It's not a
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: situation where they're out of it. And we do know
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: Australia has managed to win tests with some of these
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: patchy first-inning scores in recent times.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: They did lose, in this fashion, in.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: The world's first championship final against South Africa. They actually
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: had a poor first innings there. South Africa had a
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: poor first innings. They really lost it in the third
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: innings there. Australia and then Aidan Markham helped chase down
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: a modest total on day three or four.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: Of that match. In any case, though, you're right. They
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: did grind.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Again, the stats show they've been playing a lot more
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: on the back foot, Australia, and I wonder if that's
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: in part a sense that they are literally.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: Both proverbially and literally, playing on the back foot.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: They are trying to absorb pressure, but again, they don't
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: have the players to strike the tempo.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: Look, it is tough.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: I think from a technical perspective, look, Labashain's even got
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: beautifully set.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: Up by Mulder with some of the wobbles seen. I
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: think the, when you're looking at head, you know, got
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: one down the leg side. I like it. Yeah, that
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: does happen. Frustrating way to get out. Faintish sort of edge.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: Webster's one was a bit of a worry.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: Like, he's just, he's looking to the poking at a
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: second ball, first ball four, and then second.
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: Ball to the poking outside off stump. He didn't really
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: need to just defend defending.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Herschel Gibbs on social media, I noticed, made that point.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Why are you defending outside off stump?
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: I did see that tweet from Herschel. And he does
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: tend to do that a bit. Webster, he's now, he's
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: looking a bit vulnerable.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think, I think there's a fair chance
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't play. Four innings since he's made a 71.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: But those four innings since that 71 haven't been convincing.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: No.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: And I think the thing with Webster is there was
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: always a sense that He was always warming his seat
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: for Cameron Green.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: It was only going to take a little bit.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: And now that Green has established himself on the back
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: of those couple of innings against Bangladesh, it's not going
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: to take a lot.
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: And now he plays here because he's the fourth seamer.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: But as soon as.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: Green's back, and Green's probably not going to be able
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: to bowl this series anyway, but, gee, even the Webster v.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: Connolly discussion, I mean, there's a lot of different considerations
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: whether they eventually go a four-pronged seam attack and then
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: maybe Connolly comes in for Webster. depending on what happens,
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: you know, how line goes, what the.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: Conditions are like. There's a lot of different moving parts.
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: We're one day, well, we're a day into the series.
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: I say a day.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: Now, we're a day into the series with only 60
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: overs down because we went off.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: The light very, very early, Courtney, which is another big talk.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: What did you make of this?
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Well, I was outside at the time they flicked the
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: lights on. That was about 2.25 p.m. I'd gone for
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: a wander around. I'd seen Noah Anderson doing his run-throughs,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: thinking this guy might be batting for us next week.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: In a town formerly known as Port Elizabeth. And it
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: still seemed quite bright.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: And the other factor there was the Australians were actually
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: batting well at that stage.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Cummins and Renshaw looked very much in control.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: And my mind immediately flicked back when the lights went
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: on to Lords last year, the World.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Test Championship final. When the lights went on, the Australians
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: went off.
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: They struggled.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: And the first couple of overs.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: After that, they looked a bit more skittish, a bit
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: more jittery. But it did surprise me.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: I don't blame them for taking the light.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: And what it does do, I spoke to Dean Elgar,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the former South African captain, last month.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: He just retired.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: And he was saying, the timing of the series, you
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: were going to get bad light. And he said, if
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: it works, it could well be a really sad thing.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: This great series between the world's top two ranked teams.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: the man of the match might be bad light at stages. Now,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: we know tomorrow they're extending the first and the middle
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: session by 15 minutes.
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: That doesn't matter, though.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Well, it doesn't.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: You get more play in terms of when the.
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: Before the breaks.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: But it also suggests to me that they know that
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: if there's weather about, and I think there's going to
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: be a little bit of weather about tomorrow, that if
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: the clouds are here, we're going to be finishing early.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: The problem is, intuitively, you would actually start early tomorrow,
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: but the thing is, this match is already starting at 9.30,
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: and the play starts at 9.30, which is, I must say,
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: is pretty early. when you're covering a test match and
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: the teams are getting year eight and you've got to
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: be able to, anyway.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Well, the other thing there is, when we were walking
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: this morning, it was steamy, it was sweaty, it almost
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: had the dew.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Like, it felt really, really sweaty.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: So you wonder, and the Australians are going out to
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: bat in that opening at a time where it was like, ooh,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: this is uncomfortable.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: Discussing with one of the Pressbox colleagues earlier around the
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: scheduling of the series, not just the time, but also
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: geographically with the series being in Durban, where the it
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: does tend to get darker earlier this time of year
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: compared to, say, up.
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: North in, say, Joburg or Centurion.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: They're doing enormous margins here, but particularly for a country
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: where there is only one time zone, that can be
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: a factor. So you do wonder if perhaps.
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: That was a bit of a misstep.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: We're one day in, but it could be a concern,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: and it was a concern that was flagged with me
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: last month, and I'm sure they were aware.
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: Of it too.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: I suppose the other thing was tests tend to go
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: pretty quickly.
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: Maybe they've cracked the code. Maybe this is the way
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: you get a lot. Tests are on day five. You
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: only have 50 overs a day. Maybe they're geniuses.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: Test cricket's now starting at 9.30 to 3 p.m.
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: Like school hours or something.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: Anyway.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: And there is another factor of play here as well.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: And it was glaring at times. A highly anticipated series.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: We know how valuable it is. If you were looking,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the stands look sparse. I think they were predicting about
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: 7,000 people here today. I went wandering around. Now, there's
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: one thing, as I said, it was quite uncomfortable.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: It was very warm.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: So what may not have been evident was there was
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of people sort of in the shade, you know,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: in the stands in the shade. Maybe 2,000 to 3,000,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: I would have thought. They're hoping for more tomorrow. Like
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: I think Dan said, sort of 8,000, 9,000. But it's
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: a concern for Durban. It's been flagged before that this
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: is a ground that they struggle to get the big crowds.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: So it'll be fascinating to see. But we also know that.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Outside the Big Three, where you get big crowds in Australia,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: big crowds in England, for the quality of the cricketers
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: out there, and we talked about the struggles of the
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: top order from Australia, but these are the best two teams.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: And they've been compelling rivalries. So let's hope... let's hope
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: that the stands start to fill.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Brendan Julian had said it was the most hostile place
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: to come and tour. You'd be fielding at fine leg
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: and you'd be getting all manner of taunts. When Steve
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Smith walked out for his first Test match since the
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Sandpaper Gate series in South Africa, I went.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: And positioned myself over underneath the castle corner. I wasn't
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: grabbing a beer. I just wanted to see if there
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: might be a bit of flavour. Now, of course, he
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: was in about 10 o'clock.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: So I'm pretty sure the fans and attendants hadn't had
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: time to get too many beers.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Under the belt.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: But it was barely a murmur. A couple of blokes
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: yelling out, you know, did you bring the sandpaper? But
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: it was the least hostile reception you could imagine.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: It was pretty tame. I mean, I.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, when I was looking around earlier during, once I
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: went off the padlock and wanted out to have.
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: A bit of a look, and there was still a
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: lot of the Australian tour groups that hang around. It
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: was a real reminder.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: It had a sense of what it was like in
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: Sri Lanka last year and the West Indies last year,
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: like you've got both of those tours. And again, it
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: feels like a lot of these tours, Test cricket is,
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: the crowds are Australia and English tour groups.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: You know, filling up grounds.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: There's nations where Test cricket is just sort of, I
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: don't want to say, because they're the only World Test champions,
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: they're a very good team. But from a psyche perspective,
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: where the investment is, where the eyeballs go, even the
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: building of the summer. I mean, you know, South Africa's summer,
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: the SA20 is at the height of the summer in January.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: It was underwhelming, particularly for a much-anticipated Series Day 1. Hopefully, hopefully,
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: things pick up tomorrow.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: Looking forward to reading your fine work tomorrow. Codesports.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: It'll be online very early in the next few hours
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and also in the tabloids and you can also pick
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: up some of of the fine work from my colleagues
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: at Fox Sports as well.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Foxsports.com.au.
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: Yourself too, Courtney. So we'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: joining us.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Absolute pleasure, guys. Okay.
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: Thank you. How'd that go? Not bad.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: I think that was fine.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: You ticked off a lot.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: That was good.
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that was plenty. That was enough solving points. So
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: we're going to bid sessions agreed?