Latest / The Follow-On / “2 MASSIVE COLLAPSES!” Starc sparks Aussies in extraordinary escape with new ball - RSA vs Australia 3rd Test, Day 1 Review

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“2 MASSIVE COLLAPSES!” Starc sparks Aussies in extraordinary escape with new ball - RSA vs Australia 3rd Test, Day 1 Review · The Follow-On

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the joint Fox Cricket and Code
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Sports Australia podcast, The Follow On.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: My name's Courtney Walsh.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: I'm a senior writer with Fox Sports Australia, joined as
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: always by Dan Cherney, senior reporter for Code Sports.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: We're coming to you.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Live from Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town after what
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: can only be described as an astonishing day in the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: first day of the decider between Australia and South Africa.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I've got to say that at lunchtime I thought, I
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: asked myself three questions during the day. Lunchtime, I thought,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: where do I start with what's just unfolded? At dinner,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I thought, where do I start? And now, after what's
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: just unfolded, I've got to say, I've got to start
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: at some stage, but where do I start with this?
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Can you please explain why I'm so puzzled, Dan?
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: It's funny, you look at the scorecard from the end
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: of day one, or at least just the synopsis, and
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: you see South Africa bowled out 329 on day one
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: of the test. And that's a very normal sort of
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: day's cricket, particularly with modern scoring rates. And, you know,
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: without bad light ending play, pretty much a four days
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: test cricket. We got 82.2 overs, I think, in the end. Well,
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: close enough to full bottom line standards. But the thing
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: was that in and amongst that were two massive collapses.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Five for, what.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: Was it, 30, got me now, five for 30 on.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was four for 29 and then another one
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: fell not long after.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: For South Africa. And then they lost four for two
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: at the end. An initial start going nuts with the
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: second new ball. But before that point, South.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Africa had reached none for 158, which was a very,
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: very strong position and a position in which the match,
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: this test.
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: Match, this series, and really the legacies of this generation.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: And I'm not, yeah, that might sound like I'm overstating things,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: but you've got to remember that this is the start
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: of this massive odyssey of these three major series over
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: 12 months, nine, 10 months with India, South Africa and England,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: all those test tours. And if they lose this, they
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: lose the chance to do that grand slam, to run
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: the table, so to speak. So there is a lot
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: still on offer here, and a lot of them at stake.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: And at number 158, it was looking very, very dicey
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: for Australia. The decision to win the toss and bowl
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: was highly contentious. They were being pilloried, lampooned.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: From all quarters.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: Those in the commentary box, those on social media, those
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: just sitting around... reading live blogs or checking into the scores,
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: watching back on TV at home back in Australia. But
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: from there, and some of it was self-inflicted by South Africa.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: Australia did find a way back into this contest. I
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: think that deserves some credit for, that deserves a fair
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: bit of credit for probably most pertinently stemming the bleeding
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: to start with. And clearly the departure of Marcus Ackerman
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: as he tried to hit Nathan Lyon out of the
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: ground and was stumped for 95, five runs short of
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: maiden test century and just his second test, clearly that
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: stemmed the momentum significantly in and of itself because he
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: was striking.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: At about 100.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: But after that, they did a very good job at
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: tying up Aidan Markham, who batted very.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: Nicely with him in the opening stand.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: Admittedly, he had been dropped not long before lunch by
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Travis Head at cover. And they did a good job.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: And then South Africa played some poor shots. Lyon and
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Cooper Connolly came into the game, not through any enormous turn,
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: but Just some good tight bowling, some nervous early play.
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: Temp of a boomer missed. Just moved a fraction and
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: played all around it early up. And they were in
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: big trouble. Certainly South Africa were in reasonable trouble.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: And then the seventh wicket stand of Marco Janssen and
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: Ryan Rickleton, they did very well.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: They put on almost 100. More than 100. 105, I
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: think it was. More than 105.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: They were scraping.
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: I'll do my maths.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: 9,505?
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: They were scraping to the second new ball.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: And Australia were.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: You know, Cooper Connolly and to a lesser degree Lionel
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Banks sort of milked. And then as I said, out
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: of nowhere, the second year ball, Mitchell Stark, it always
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: loomed as major. In the end, there was only a
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: couple of overs bowled and he was fantastic. The second
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: year ball took four wickets in the space of six balls.
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: No hat-trick.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: He was on a hat-trick, but he didn't get there.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: But in the end, all that 329, bizarre day. Didn't
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: even mention it. It started with Steve Smith being ruled
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: out of playing Newlands. We've been talking about it for
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: the last eight years.
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: Finally coming back here.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: But it's... Yeah, look, all in all, probably honours even,
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: but at various points it looked firmly in South Africa's
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: group and then probably for a brief period Australia had
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: the ascendancy just, maybe just, they might have just put
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: their noses in front at six down and then in
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: the end it's even Stevens, I reckon.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: So the day dawns. It is a magnificent day in
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: New Orleans. You touched on it just at the tail
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: end there.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Sun shining.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: The fascination surrounds whether Steve Smith will play. Now you're here.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: fairly early on, and you see the reports coming through.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Steve Smith's out in the nets doing another fitness test.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: We saw him at the tail end of a net
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: session yesterday when he went through the initial nets session
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: and batted for 35 minutes and then went and had
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: a sit down. He was clearly stretching his neck, basically
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: tilting the right neck to the left-hand shoulder, came back
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: in and faced another five minutes of throwdowns, and he
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: looked really frustrated at the end he got himself out
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: he was kicking the kicking the crease you know slamming
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the kit bag away but at that stage you're thinking
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: well I mean he was able to bat for.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: A reasonable 40 minutes this day but.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Then you know the reports come through now clearly had
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I think an unsettling impact on.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: A lot of factors today this this.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Late withdrawal or the late pull out now he was
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: assessed but Mitchell Stark after that magnificent performance comes in
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: and speaks to us just a short time ago and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: he said He wasn't aware that he wasn't playing, basically,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: until he came down for the warm-up. I think it
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: was that late. They were, you know, there was certainly some,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: you know, we knew he was doing fitness tests, et cetera, but.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: It was that late the call, and it's clearly shocked them.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it certainly surprised them. I mean, I suppose, to
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: a degree, can they be completely shocked? Well, you couldn't
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: be completely shocked, given that they've been to speculate. I mean,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: he's had a bung neck last week, and, you know,
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: he's had a fitness test yesterday. So, you know, it's
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: not a bombshell because he's been pulled out.
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: But nonetheless, obviously it is disruptive. And I suppose there
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: was always that little remote chance.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: I mean, we saw this very, very similar circumstances to
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: Adelaide last summer when, again, he had the vertigo about
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: mistraining on match eve or two days out. And there
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: was sort of word from the Aussie camp that, nah,
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: he's going to be okay. And then it gets to
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: match day and he has a little bit of, I
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: think a little bit of a bat out in the
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: middle and back at Adelaide Oval.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: And very quickly, line through him.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: And it was Nkwaja, of course, got a reprieve on
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: that occasion and made 80 yards to sort of, I suppose,
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: ensure smooth passage for him to the end of what
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: proved to be his final test series. Here was Josh
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Inglis who comes into the side. And I suppose that's, look,
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: so many subplots to this.
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: How do you say this delicately? I think it's hard
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: to completely.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: Ignore the fact that we are, well, we shouldn't ignore
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: the fact that this was so much made of this test.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: I mean, Steve Smith has spoken about the emotional impact
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: of what happened here eight years ago. And how much
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: of all that clouded his mind when he decided, and
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: ultimately it's worth stressing, he pulled out himself. This was
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: not a decision made, I believe he was medically cleared
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: to play. Certainly there was nothing medically stopping him from
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: playing if he was comfortable enough doing so.
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: This wasn't a sort of a concussion situation where they said, no,
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: you can't play.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: It was his call to pull out, and only he
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: will know, and in the fullness of time, hopefully he
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: answers that question, only he will know why he decided
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: to pull out.
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: It was a pure discomfort.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: He did not feel comfortable enough batting.
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: Did the fact that we're here.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: come into it at all, was the anxiety around playing here,
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: which I don't think can be completely ignored, or at
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: least I think it's reasonable to speculate on. Did that
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: come into it? In any case, he didn't play. They
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: bring in Josh Inglis, who had been told pretty much
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: just here, I think, by George Bailey, just around where
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: we were standing yesterday, around 28 hours ago, that he
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: was not playing in this test match, and then he is.
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: He's listed at number five.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: So Australia comes in with this. Look, to be frank,
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: a bit of a ramshackle top seven. I mean, you've
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: brought in Green, who's coming off a little cricket. Inglis
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: come in, you know, this tour he's come, he's gone
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: back at home and back and hasn't played test match
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: since last summer.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Both players only cleared to play medically.
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, themselves not exactly. Mardis Labichon has just hung on
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: to a spot.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: Let's be frank again, playing for his career explicitly, effectively
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: in this test match.
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Renshaw has just moved back up to the top
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: of the order.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Kerry batting at six. Kerry batting at six because it's
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: been out of form. Cooper Connolly back for just his
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: second test match. So there were all these moving parts.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: And now then, that goes to what was really the
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: day's major talking point. Australia's decision to bowl first when
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: they won the toss. Now this was very, very divisive.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: And again, under 158 or even before that, they were being,
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: as I said, lampoon pilloried.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: All those sorts of things.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: This was likened to Nasser Hussain batting at the Gabba, sorry, bowling,
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: of course, at the Gabba in 2002. Ricky Ponting bowling
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: first at Edgbaston in 2005. They were careering towards the
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: Hall of Infamy. And yet, they managed to turn it around. Again,
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: how much had Steve Smith been playing or had Pat
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: Cummins had perhaps greater faith in his batting outfit?
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: Again, we haven't heard from Pat Cummins yet. Mitchell Stark
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: says he didn't know anything about it.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: He sort of effectively said, above my pay grade, which is, Look,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: you know, somewhat rich for a guy who's probably made
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: roughly $ 25 million from cricket.
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: But, you know, each to their own. Anyway, he.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Look, I may be a bit facetious there, but in
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: any case, they did bowl.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: It was a big gamble. I mean, we'll see if
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: it pays off. It didn't pay off, but they got
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: away with it, I think would be the way I
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: put it.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Look, and I think it's impossible to think that Cummins
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: didn't assess the brittleness of the batting order, but also
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the late situation, the late change in terms of Smith
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and how unsettled that.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Meant in terms of that batting order. I can't imagine
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: he didn't factor that in.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, the Fox Frigates favourite, Kerry O'Keefe, said that
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: there is a standard line when it comes to captaincy.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: When you win the toss and you look up and
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the sky is blue and you look down and the
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: pitch is brown, you bat and then you try and
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: bat for days. South Africa's, you know, 95, Marcus Ackerman
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: just came in and he said that had they won
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the toss, they would have batted.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: Oh, that was a surprise.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: And, you know, that's interesting for a guy who's playing
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: a second test. Now, Marcus Ackerman, I think, is 30,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: so it's not as though he's some kid. And he was,
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: you know, pretty, he didn't pull too many punches, like
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: even he was talking about.
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: The light and other things.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: And some of the four shots.
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: Some of the four shots of his own teammates. Exactly.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: So, you know, and to be fair to South Africa,
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: throughout this series, from pretty much all their media performances,
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: they've I'd say run at a 70% hit rate of
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: being pretty open from most of their players.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: I've loved them. It's been great to hear from them
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: and refresh and they speak.
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: Pretty plainly.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: But anyway, for a second test player to come out
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: and say that Pat Cummins, really a future legend of cricket,
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: probably surprised that call. That's not nothing. Again, we never
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: know the counterfactual. Mitchell Stark did say that they did
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: expect more lateral movement.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: But they got none. And the other thing that's really
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: important to note is that they not only didn't.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: Get any lateral movement from the pitch, which is important,
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: and you touched on the conditions, but the overheads, but
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: they also got no swing from the ball.
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: And Mitchell Stark.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Certainly not initially.
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: No, with the first new ball. The second new ball,
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: of course, they've gone.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: They got a bit of a reverse at times during
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: the day, but that new ball movement that has been
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: embodied has been.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: Mitchell Stark's Catch call, really. Catch cry.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: And he's one wood, and the thing that we love
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: to see from him that he'll probably be most remembered from,
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: it didn't come in the first innings.
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: Sorry, the first new ball.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: But the second new ball, it came, and it came
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: very quickly. And it was all wrapped up for 3.29,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: as I said.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: So another factor, and we've talked about this at length,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: and we've talked about individual performances getting them out of
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: trouble time and time again. Arguably, you could say that
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Stark at the end just wrapped them up after Jansen and...
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: And Rickleton got away again after the initial flurry from
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Hackerman and from Aidan Markham. What I will say, though,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: is we also know they do respond to a crisis.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: They tend to bounce back. And I think it was
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: the alarm bells were ringing if they weren't in a
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: crisis at lunchtime. After they'd let South Africa off the
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: hook in the second test when they had them 6-1-10
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: to be able to get away to 4-25 like they did.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: This looked like an attack that was tired. It wasn't
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: necessarily stinging. Then you saw some acts straight after lunch.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: I think I touched on seeing Josh Hazelwood, who I
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: think was down on his pace today, didn't perhaps bowl
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: as well as what he has at different stages. But
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: his desperation in the field was significant early on. And
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: somehow they sort of fought and grasped. And then you
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: saw Nathan Lyon deceive Ackerman after Ackerman tried to hit
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: him out of the attack, deceive him, get him stumped.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: And you saw him.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Celebrate like he was a street brawler, proper prize fighter.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: He was like, You know, that was a really emotional
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: response from Lyon to steer that wicket. Then they just
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: kept trying to find a way back. Stark hasn't been
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: in his best six series. He spoke about that. But
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: somehow he gets back-to-back wickets with, you know, short pitch
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: bowling midway through this collapse and really fought. Pat Cummins
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: didn't get a wicket. Again, he's gone without a wicket
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: in the last two innings. And there's a man who runs. And,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: you know, clearly the captaincy call.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: Will be there.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: But what I did note with Pat Cummins was that
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: He switched the bowlers regularly.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: I also saw him when Stark was, by the way,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: hammered by.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Ackerman for four consecutive fours.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: Hammered.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: And he was being toyed with at that period in
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: the innings.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I saw Pat go up to Stark a few times
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: during that stint, grab him by the shoulders, relax Pat
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: on the back.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: You saw him run.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: He was really proactive in terms of running, getting to
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: his bowlers, trying to consult, trying to figure things out.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: He changed things around. Look, he didn't get a wicket
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: and he will be.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Criticised for what happened, I think, correctly with the call, perhaps, given,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: you know, again, there were so many different variables in it.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: But I was really impressed by that response. And I
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: thought that was a strong, strong, mature response to a
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: position where they could have easily let it get away
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: from them completely after lunch. 329, they've still got the
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: runs on the board here. Australia's got a brittle, you know,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: we know that it's an unsettled top order. So, you know,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: where does it sit? South Africa, I'm sure, would have
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: wanted 450, basically, where they got to. But when they've
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: still got their nose ahead, you know, it's in the balance.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: A lot rests on tomorrow morning. But I thought that
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: was a good response from the Australian attack.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: Well, look, from number 158 to get them bowled at 329,
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: and then I suppose from, what were they, 6 for 3, 27?
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Bowled at 329.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: Again, both great victories from 6 for 2, 12, whatever
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: it was, 232.
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: I think it was 232. I've got to double-check.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: But from 6 for whatever they were, 230-odd, to then....
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: Let it get to 329. I don't know. Again, it's
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: probably about par. Yeah.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: No, look, I think you're right in the sense that
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: this ultimately, and this, look, this is the advantage of
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: having such a senior team.
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: They have seen it all before. They are adults.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: They are not, of course they have emotions and they
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: get flustered, but Pat is a pretty unflappable character.
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: Most of that attack are relatively unflappable.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: You know, Stark and Lion and Times can show their
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: emotions a little bit, but not, but you know, they're not,
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: The histrionics don't tend to be there too much. It's
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: funny because you touched on that Ackerman wicket and the
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: line getting him as he was trying to hit him
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: out of the attack, which Marcus discussed in the press conference.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: They were, I don't know, were they 40 minutes away
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: from it being reached, passing the point and no return?
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: I mean, at number 158, if you're going along at
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: six and over, say it's another hour, suddenly you're number 230.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: It's a pretty long way back from that point. So
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: that was a critical moment. Even then, there was still
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: one for 203 before Markham went. But I think what
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: was important there before Markham went was that they had
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: managed to dot him up and they put the pressure on.
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: So they just had to stop the.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: It was a gradual stemming of the bleeding. So I
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: think the way you describe it is that they got Ackerman.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: who was absolutely whacking them and was accelerating it right
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: where it could have gone out of control very, very quickly.
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: That stemmed it to a point. Then they managed to.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: Stem Markham, get him out, and then from there, with
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: new batters in, although Beddingham didn't get to 50, they
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: just managed to frustrate some over here and expose some
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: of the new players, new batters, and they made errors.
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: You see new batters in there and they make errors,
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: and that's what happened in cricket. That's why.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: The old saying about only over two wickets away from
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: things changing dramatically. What was, you know, played out today.
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: So, strange all day. The Cummins one is also fascinating.
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: I mean, he's now got more than 300 balls without
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: taking a test wicket.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: This is a guy who averages 20 in the 22s
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: in test cricket, strikes generally at less, you know, once
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: every eight overs or less. I think it's 46 or 47. So,
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: it's a long time for him. There was one drop
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: catch in that.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: I think he's been, I think he definitely bowled too
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: short in Durban. I mean, it wasn't, it was in
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: Port Elizabeth. There wasn't a lot of, he didn't bowl.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: Too short in Durban he bowled very well in Durban
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: there wasn't a lot in him today but he had
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: to stand up and he hasn't yet with the ball
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: they've got away with it but in the third innings
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: he's going to have to do something because they're not
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: going to be I don't think they're going to win
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: this test if Pat Cummins goes wicketless again so with
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: no Smith and having gone in with left Boland out
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: and that is always a contentious decision because Scott Boland's
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: averaging 18 in test cricket um Pat has to live.
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: So, yeah, we'll wait and see. But, as you said,
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: it's all in the batting tomorrow. It's Marnus. It's Connolly.
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: It's Green.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: It looks like it's cause for some nerves for Australian fans,
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: I think it'd be fair to say.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: And speaking of nerves, I'm getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: We've got the beautiful Table Mountain behind. I might go upstairs, sit,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: pause for a second before I write. Thanks, as always, Dan,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: for joining the follow-on. You'll be able to read Dan's
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: great work at codesports.com.au. I'll have a couple of pieces
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: up at foxsports.com.au.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: We'll be back.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: After play tomorrow to give you wrap day two, but
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: what an unbelievable day here at Newlands. Thanks for joining
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: the follow-on.