Latest / The Follow-On / Boland Does It AGAIN! Aussies take charge as Bavuma stands alone - RSA vs Australia 2nd Test, Day 2 Review
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to another episode of Fox Sports and
- 0:03Speaker 1: Code Sports joint production of The Follow-On. My name's Courtney Walsh.
- 0:07Speaker 1: I'm a senior writer for Fox Sports Australia, joined by
- 0:10Speaker 1: Dan Cherney as always, cricket correspondent, senior writer as well
- 0:14Speaker 1: for Code Sports back home in Australia. End of day
- 0:19Speaker 1: two at.
- 0:21Speaker 2: St.
- 0:21Speaker 1: George's Park Inn. Kaburka, I can't pronounce that.
- 0:25Speaker 2: Not bad, not bad.
- 0:25Speaker 1: Not bad, getting better. Beautiful blue skies behind us, but
- 0:28Speaker 1: that wasn't necessarily the case today. We finally got some cricket.
- 0:33Speaker 1: They got underway about three hours ago. We got through
- 0:36Speaker 1: 30 overs, and it was old man marvel once again.
- 0:40Speaker 1: Scott Boland, take us away, Dan. Tell us what unfolded.
- 0:44Speaker 2: Scott Boland, who.
- 0:44Speaker 3: Took two wickets on day one in the little more
- 0:47Speaker 3: than 12 overs that we saw, having been, of course,
- 0:49Speaker 3: included at the expense of Nathan Lyon, took another two
- 0:51Speaker 3: wickets today. Richard Stark got one as well. And South
- 0:54Speaker 3: Africa are five down for, what are they, 100-odd?
- 0:57Speaker 1: Yeah, not quite 100.
- 0:58Speaker 2: Not quite. Just shy of 100. Just shy of 100.
- 1:01Speaker 2: So certainly an advantage to Australia.
- 1:03Speaker 3: Now, the fact that we've only got 40 or so overs,
- 1:06Speaker 3: 42 overs so far in the match, clearly 43, I think,
- 1:09Speaker 3: might be. But not a lot of cricket yet. Certainly
- 1:12Speaker 3: is going to work against both sides, particularly Australia from Australia.
- 1:15Speaker 3: trying to win this match, given that Australia is in
- 1:18Speaker 3: the box seat in the early stages, but they're probably.
- 1:21Speaker 2: More working against time than anything. We're not sure, though.
- 1:23Speaker 3: The pitch is difficult to bat on and may only
- 1:25Speaker 3: get tougher, as was noted by Ashwell Prince, the South
- 1:28Speaker 3: African assistant coach, during his post-play press conference. Because it's
- 1:33Speaker 3: been quite moist and there have been a lot of
- 1:35Speaker 3: divots created, if the sun does come out and dries up,
- 1:37Speaker 3: that could make it very hard for batting with the
- 1:40Speaker 3: divots and the uneven bounce. So that can be a
- 1:43Speaker 3: real tricky dynamic.
- 1:45Speaker 2: Comes into play.
- 1:46Speaker 3: But look, as I said, Australia's day, the one man
- 1:48Speaker 3: standing between South Africa, Australia and a really commanding position,
- 1:53Speaker 3: if they're not in there already, is Temba Vuvuma, the.
- 1:56Speaker 2: South African captain, who's approaching 50.
- 1:57Speaker 3: He batted beautifully, whacked Pat Cummins out of the venue
- 2:01Speaker 3: with a beautiful hook six, played some stunning drives off
- 2:05Speaker 3: Scott Boland, absorbed some pressure, made great decisions, left well,
- 2:09Speaker 3: but unfortunately didn't have enough help around him.
- 2:10Speaker 2: Some was just the brilliance of Australia and the difficult conditions.
- 2:15Speaker 3: Then there was some Four shots, in particular the one
- 2:18Speaker 3: played by Matthew Britski to get out to Mitchell Stark,
- 2:21Speaker 3: the one non-Bowland wicket to four, wafting outside the off
- 2:24Speaker 3: stump of the ball. He just didn't need to play.
- 2:25Speaker 3: It was a real nothing shot caught behind by Alex Carey.
- 2:28Speaker 3: Bowland's fourth wicket, the.
- 2:29Speaker 2: Last one of the day to remove Ryan Rickleton.
- 2:32Speaker 1: Oh, boy.
- 2:32Speaker 3: An edge.
- 2:33Speaker 2: Lovely delivery from Bowland. Got the edge.
- 2:36Speaker 3: And then Bowland himself didn't think it was going to
- 2:39Speaker 3: be a wicket because Alex Carey didn't go through.
- 2:41Speaker 2: Just didn't quite react, basically. Didn't quite react.
- 2:44Speaker 1: Probably not.
- 2:44Speaker 2: Kerry's finest moment of glove work, it must be said.
- 2:47Speaker 3: But it was more than made up for by some
- 2:49Speaker 3: stunning work by Matt Renshaw, lunging to his right to
- 2:52Speaker 3: take the catch, first slip. It just stuck the mid-out,
- 2:56Speaker 3: came behind him, got it at the last moment. Mark Taylor-esque,
- 2:59Speaker 3: right up there with one of the better slips catches
- 3:01Speaker 3: you'll see. And another man breathing a sigh of relief,
- 3:04Speaker 3: not just Alex Kerry.
- 3:05Speaker 2: It's true.
- 3:05Speaker 3: Because only a couple of overs earlier, Marnus Labuschagne had
- 3:08Speaker 3: dropped Rickleton on 26, and he and Ian Boomer had
- 3:11Speaker 3: been developing quite a solid partnership, the two of them.
- 3:14Speaker 3: for South Africa's fifth wicket. But Labochon won. I wonder
- 3:18Speaker 3: if he was caught unsighted. He was standing at leg
- 3:22Speaker 3: slip off Pat Cummins, got it off the hip, bit
- 3:26Speaker 3: of a rising delivery to Rickleton, came at Labochon.
- 3:29Speaker 2: He just never really saw it.
- 3:30Speaker 3: It landed in his sternum, his midriff. He was sporting
- 3:32Speaker 3: a bruise that he was more than happy to show
- 3:34Speaker 3: to his Australian teammates as he walked off it. But
- 3:37Speaker 3: a bit of carry-on from Manus, not completely unexpected. But anyway,
- 3:41Speaker 3: no great damage done from an Australian perspective.
- 3:44Speaker 1: And overall, they're in a very, very good position. So
- 3:48Speaker 1: there's a couple of things I'd like to touch on.
- 3:50Speaker 1: Temba Bavuma, and similar to what Pat Cummins had been saying,
- 3:53Speaker 1: Temba Bavuma, when they left Durban last week, he said
- 3:56Speaker 1: to the South Africans, we need to be able to
- 3:58Speaker 1: find a way, not using the word grind, but we
- 4:00Speaker 1: need to be more judicious with our batting, basically. We
- 4:02Speaker 1: need to be playing more disciplined. When we arrived here
- 4:05Speaker 1: in the city formerly known as Port Elizabeth, the eastern
- 4:08Speaker 1: Cape City, notable was the man who was in the
- 4:12Speaker 1: nets the last. It was Timber Bovuma on Thursday. Notable
- 4:16Speaker 1: who was in the nets the last on the Friday,
- 4:18Speaker 1: Timber Bovuma. And then last night in our previous episode,
- 4:22Speaker 1: it was also noticeable, we were recording indoors after 12
- 4:25Speaker 1: overs bowled yesterday and there's Timber Bovuma again.
- 4:28Speaker 2: In fact, he was in the closing credits, I believe,
- 4:30Speaker 2: for his cameo performance. He was in the closing credits. Yeah.
- 4:33Speaker 1: Timber basically has been, you know, he's the man, he's
- 4:37Speaker 1: the captain, but he's leading by deeds as much as
- 4:40Speaker 1: by actions. And there are a couple of batsmen out
- 4:43Speaker 1: there today who played some pretty poor shots. Now, admittedly, Prince,
- 4:47Speaker 1: I think, gave them a little bit of an out.
- 4:49Speaker 1: He said, he's a batting coach, but he said Scott
- 4:51Speaker 1: Boland was so good and such an accurate, tempting, deceptive
- 4:59Speaker 1: bowler that, you know, you could almost make an excuse
- 5:01Speaker 1: for them.
- 5:01Speaker 2: But a couple of those shots.
- 5:03Speaker 3: Well, I think in particular the one I'm trying to
- 5:05Speaker 3: think of, in particular the one from Bretzky was really–
- 5:07Speaker 3: and that was the Stark one.
- 5:08Speaker 2: And it was interesting that a couple of points there.
- 5:09Speaker 3: I think Boland– Prince explicitly mentioned Boland making life tough.
- 5:14Speaker 3: He didn't mention Stark. Not to say that– clearly Stark.
- 5:16Speaker 2: It's true.
- 5:17Speaker 3: And we should actually– I would be remiss not to
- 5:20Speaker 3: mention Josh Hazelwood didn't bowl today because.
- 5:22Speaker 2: He was unwell. He wasn't on the ground.
- 5:24Speaker 3: I don't think he was recently didn't make his way
- 5:26Speaker 3: out to the field. He was sick, had a stomach bug.
- 5:29Speaker 3: I'm hoping he'll be back tomorrow.
- 5:30Speaker 1: Yes.
- 5:31Speaker 3: Bo Webster bowled a bit more. The fact that they've
- 5:32Speaker 3: gone in with a four-paced attack. Bo was quite good. Yeah,
- 5:34Speaker 3: he drew a couple of edges, a couple fell short
- 5:37Speaker 3: of the corner. He could easily have taken a wicket
- 5:39Speaker 3: or two. It wouldn't have been too far.
- 5:41Speaker 2: Of a stretch.
- 5:42Speaker 3: But yes, I think it was quite notable that Prince
- 5:46Speaker 3: explicitly mentioned Boland, but not the Stark wicket, which was
- 5:51Speaker 3: just a nothing shot, just a real throw your wicket away,
- 5:55Speaker 3: I must say, from Britska, who's coming to the side
- 5:57Speaker 3: in the middle order. Marcus Ackerman had done all right.
- 6:01Speaker 3: He was the first guy to fall to Boland. Not
- 6:03Speaker 3: a great shot either, but Britska won. was the worst
- 6:07Speaker 3: of the lot. Rickleton, interestingly, speaking of guys who had
- 6:12Speaker 3: put the work in, Rickleton, who, of course, opened in
- 6:15Speaker 3: the first test, dropped down the order, and he'd actually
- 6:18Speaker 3: spent a lot of time in the middle batting and
- 6:20Speaker 3: keeping well before his.
- 6:22Speaker 2: Teammates were here, what was it, a day or two
- 6:23Speaker 2: out from the test match. A good hour or so. Yeah,
- 6:25Speaker 2: he spent a lot. I think it was yesterday. No,
- 6:27Speaker 2: two days ago. I've lost track of time.
- 6:29Speaker 3: But he spent a lot of time there in the middle,
- 6:31Speaker 3: and he sort of deserves, maybe deserves a bit better,
- 6:34Speaker 3: albeit he did have a life.
- 6:36Speaker 2: And was caught by a worldie. At least he got
- 6:38Speaker 2: them back into the contest because they were four for
- 6:40Speaker 2: not many. Four for 40. Four for 40, and then
- 6:42Speaker 2: they were in real trouble. He's five for 92 now.
- 6:45Speaker 3: So they at least managed to put on 50, but
- 6:47Speaker 3: they're clearly, you know, already deep in the middle of it.
- 6:49Speaker 2: Jan Mulder's there. He's joined Bavuma. They're going to need more.
- 6:52Speaker 2: You know, if they can eke.
- 6:53Speaker 3: Their way to 200, they're in the game, particularly with
- 6:56Speaker 3: these conditions.
- 6:57Speaker 2: But, oh, look, it's hard.
- 6:59Speaker 3: Just given the nature of a game like this, it
- 7:00Speaker 3: is hard to see a path forward for South Africa
- 7:02Speaker 3: because they're going to need to take the 20 wickets.
- 7:04Speaker 1: Yes.
- 7:05Speaker 3: It remains to be seen whether Australia is able to
- 7:09Speaker 3: confront similar challenges to South Africa. But, you know, it's
- 7:13Speaker 3: going to be tough. Boland, look, you know, you run
- 7:17Speaker 3: out of superlatives. I mean, the story is extraordinary. I
- 7:20Speaker 3: think one– you run through the stats with Boland on
- 7:23Speaker 3: days like this because you're sort of trying to find
- 7:25Speaker 3: a point of difference.
- 7:26Speaker 2: And there's so many incredible Scott Boland stats.
- 7:28Speaker 3: But the one that really struck me today, or one
- 7:30Speaker 3: that really struck me today, was the fact He's now,
- 7:33Speaker 3: this is his 20th test.
- 7:35Speaker 2: And I think he's now taken 86 test wickets on
- 7:37Speaker 2: the back of this. Which is exceptional. Which is exceptional. Phenomenal.
- 7:42Speaker 2: You remember, I think the first half of Scott.
- 7:43Speaker 3: Boland's career being this extraordinary run and the six, obviously
- 7:46Speaker 3: the six were seven on debut.
- 7:48Speaker 2: And then those three tests he had at the end
- 7:49Speaker 2: of the 21-22 Ashes when he did really well in
- 7:51Speaker 2: Sydney and Hobart. But then you actually think after 10 tests,
- 7:55Speaker 2: he had 35 test wickets.
- 7:57Speaker 3: And since then, he's taken 51 at about 16.
- 8:00Speaker 2: So the second half of his career, if you want
- 8:02Speaker 2: a better serve at this stage, even better.
- 8:04Speaker 3: He's also, as we know, yesterday, become the oldest paceman
- 8:08Speaker 3: to play test cricket for Australia in 66 years.
- 8:11Speaker 1: And that drew a significant laugh when you put it
- 8:14Speaker 1: to him today. And he did take his time and say, well,
- 8:17Speaker 1: you know, yeah, no, it's true. I'm probably the oldest
- 8:20Speaker 1: Australian fast bowler in a while. He didn't want to
- 8:23Speaker 1: go six decades.
- 8:25Speaker 2: And just how he's been able to do it. I mean,
- 8:27Speaker 2: there's so.
- 8:28Speaker 3: Many strands to the bowling story. I mean, the fact that,
- 8:30Speaker 3: you know, he played a one day here for Australia
- 8:32Speaker 3: 10 years ago. And at that point, he was actually
- 8:35Speaker 3: probably seen as almost more of a white ball bowler.
- 8:36Speaker 3: He was more of a white ball bowler because he
- 8:37Speaker 3: was in the white ball setup. But he's really abandoned
- 8:41Speaker 3: the white ball formats, as he noted. He's been able
- 8:43Speaker 3: to very much focus all his energies on red ball cricket,
- 8:47Speaker 3: test cricket, making sure that he's primed for this long
- 8:49Speaker 3: run of test cricket that Australia has coming up to
- 8:51Speaker 3: be prepared.
- 8:52Speaker 2: For when the opportunity arises. He knew chances would come.
- 8:55Speaker 2: He did note today.
- 8:55Speaker 3: It was probably one of the– because this is a
- 8:57Speaker 3: guy who's not known for giving a hell of a
- 8:59Speaker 3: lot of way in press conferences, but he made a
- 9:01Speaker 3: slight concession that he realizes that because he.
- 9:04Speaker 2: Is deep into his 30s, there's not many opportunities left.
- 9:07Speaker 2: He accepted that.
- 9:08Speaker 3: And the fact that– so missing out– and it was
- 9:10Speaker 3: a good question for you actually, Courtney. The fact that– well,
- 9:13Speaker 3: you sort of go into it.
- 9:14Speaker 1: Well, basically, I wanted to know because he was left
- 9:17Speaker 1: out in the first test. We know his record is spectacular.
- 9:20Speaker 1: we also know that Australia's got a remarkable test. And
- 9:23Speaker 1: I wanted to ask, does it still hurt to be
- 9:25Speaker 1: left out, given you've had that experience so many times?
- 9:28Speaker 1: And he said, well, it does, because what you're saying,
- 9:31Speaker 1: part of the fact is he is 37 years old.
- 9:35Speaker 1: Fastballers will not go on forever. It's, you know, we
- 9:38Speaker 1: know it's taxing. And when you're that age, you want
- 9:41Speaker 1: to make every post a winner. So, you know, the
- 9:45Speaker 1: fire still burns, but he also said he knows that it's,
- 9:49Speaker 1: you know, part of being in this team.
- 9:50Speaker 2: This is the fact.
- 9:52Speaker 1: There are three outstanding pace bowlers from New South Wales
- 9:54Speaker 1: who are just magnificent, a once in a generation attack
- 9:59Speaker 1: bowling would be one you know a very handy addition
- 10:02Speaker 1: we've also got a champion off spinner it's a it's
- 10:04Speaker 1: it's a rich tradition so he's he knows he's placing
- 10:07Speaker 1: the picking order but he also delivers and he's made
- 10:09Speaker 1: sure he's right to go when he's ready and and
- 10:12Speaker 1: there was another question put to him which i thought
- 10:13Speaker 1: was really interesting how do you find your rhythm when
- 10:16Speaker 1: you come in with no tests and he said A
- 10:19Speaker 1: big factor here is the fact that the last few days,
- 10:22Speaker 1: the Aussies have been able to get out in the middle.
- 10:23Speaker 1: There was a bit of disquiet in Durban where the
- 10:26Speaker 1: South Africans had an outing in the middle in the
- 10:29Speaker 1: lead-in to the test. Here, both teams have had access
- 10:32Speaker 1: to the middle, sorry, probably three pitches down from where
- 10:35Speaker 1: the main one is. They got used to the rhyme
- 10:37Speaker 1: and rhythm and started straight away both days on song.
- 10:42Speaker 2: I like that you said that fire burns.
- 10:43Speaker 3: There's this quiet fire within Scott Bolling's team Softly spoken guy,
- 10:47Speaker 3: and you don't see major histrionics from him. He's the
- 10:52Speaker 3: last guy you can imagine being involved in a scandal
- 10:54Speaker 3: of any sort or some major drama.
- 10:56Speaker 2: But it's just there. It's just enough.
- 10:59Speaker 3: I remember even questions being asked of him ahead of
- 11:00Speaker 3: last summer's Ashes when it was particularly given how the
- 11:04Speaker 3: one test series he struggled in was the 23 Ashes.
- 11:07Speaker 3: And even then, I think he reckons he bowled better
- 11:09Speaker 3: than his figures suggested, but he averaged 115.5 in the series,
- 11:12Speaker 3: so it's not great. Which is crazy, because he averaged
- 11:16Speaker 3: 18 in test cricket at full stop.
- 11:17Speaker 2: But, you know, there was this thing, do you have
- 11:20Speaker 2: something to prove?
- 11:20Speaker 3: Because Mike Atherton, of course, had sort of written it
- 11:23Speaker 3: off a bit, or had a bit of a crack.
- 11:25Speaker 2: He held no fears for England.
- 11:27Speaker 3: And we asked him, you know, does that spur you?
- 11:30Speaker 2: And he goes, no, I've got, he effectively said, like,
- 11:32Speaker 2: I've got enough internal motivation. He's always driven.
- 11:35Speaker 3: You know, he wants to prove a point to himself.
- 11:37Speaker 3: And pretty much every time, he does continue to prove
- 11:40Speaker 3: a point, not just to himself, but to the wider public.
- 11:42Speaker 3: Gashwell Prince, another, I thought, interesting answer. He was asked
- 11:45Speaker 3: about what is the challenge that's presented by Boland compared.
- 11:48Speaker 2: To these other quicks.
- 11:49Speaker 3: And I think it's not to be underestimated. And clearly,
- 11:51Speaker 3: the conditions where it's not as bouncy helps. And obviously,
- 11:54Speaker 3: when it's nipping around, as it has here.
- 11:56Speaker 2: But because he is shorter.
- 11:58Speaker 3: And we just spoke to him just there, asking about
- 12:00Speaker 3: his thoughts on the Jake Stringer trade.
- 12:02Speaker 2: Yes, I was going to ask him what his answer was.
- 12:03Speaker 2: He's a big Saints fan. It was an off-the-record conversation.
- 12:07Speaker 2: I won't divulge exactly what he said.
- 12:09Speaker 3: But no, the challenge there for him, for facing Boland,
- 12:14Speaker 3: is that because you can, against a Stark or a
- 12:17Speaker 3: Hazelwood or a Cummins, and they're extra high, particularly Stark
- 12:20Speaker 3: and Hazelwood and Webster, I suppose, is you can leave...
- 12:23Speaker 3: on length because you can know the ball's going to
- 12:25Speaker 3: float over the stumps, whereas you really.
- 12:27Speaker 2: Can't do that, particularly on a less bouncy pitch like this.
- 12:30Speaker 3: And Alex Carey kept up to the stumps briefly for
- 12:33Speaker 3: him today, did also to Webster.
- 12:35Speaker 2: So, you know, you're in many minds.
- 12:37Speaker 3: You know, you can't leave a length, so you've got
- 12:38Speaker 3: to be weighing up, is this going to, especially with
- 12:41Speaker 3: the wobble seam and it nipping around. So, like, fourth
- 12:44Speaker 3: stump line, is this going to hit the stumps? Is
- 12:45Speaker 3: it going to nip back and get me, get my
- 12:47Speaker 3: top of off? If I move out, you know, will
- 12:50Speaker 3: I nick one off? Like, it is just, It is
- 12:52Speaker 3: a diabolical challenge to face this guy.
- 12:55Speaker 2: And that's why he averages 18 and tests cricket.
- 12:57Speaker 1: Well, I think we've covered off a lot today. The
- 12:59Speaker 1: sunflowers behind us are starting to wilt because there hasn't
- 13:01Speaker 1: been much sunshine. I'm freezing. You're freezing because it's actually
- 13:05Speaker 1: pretty chilly in what they call the windy city, the
- 13:08Speaker 1: windiest city in South Africa.
- 13:10Speaker 2: I like the fact that we're both from Melbourne.
- 13:12Speaker 1: It's also known.
- 13:13Speaker 2: As a city of four seasons in one day.
- 13:15Speaker 1: Well, we saw three of them today without the snow
- 13:18Speaker 1: at the end, I think.
- 13:19Speaker 2: You're from Ballarat. That's true.
- 13:21Speaker 1: I am from Ballarat initially, so that's a very good point.
- 13:24Speaker 1: The good news is I think we're going to see
- 13:27Speaker 1: lots of cricket over the next three days. I think
- 13:30Speaker 1: the forecast looks a lot more promising. Players are going
- 13:32Speaker 1: to start early tomorrow. I think 9.45 is the tick-off
- 13:36Speaker 1: local time, which I don't 6.45 p.m.
- 13:39Speaker 2: Australian Eastern Daylight Time. Check your local guides for details.
- 13:42Speaker 2: I wanted to say that.
- 13:44Speaker 1: And look, as always, you can read Dan's very fine
- 13:46Speaker 1: work on Code Sports. You'll have some analysis and some
- 13:50Speaker 1: news articles similar for us at foxsports.com.au. You can check
- 13:54Speaker 1: us out on YouTube and also the follow-on podcast. Pleasure
- 13:58Speaker 1: to be with you. Looking forward to day three. Can
- 14:01Speaker 1: the Aussies knock them over quickly? We'll find out.