The visitors crashed by an innings and 31 runs at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Thursday to leave the three-Test series finely poised at 1-1 heading into the decider at Cape Town next week. Australia collapsed to 99 all out in their first innings and were then dismissed for 295, with a superb 121 from Travis Head and defiant 40 off 166 balls by nightwatchman Scott Boland the only highlights.
Australia captain Pat Cummins admits it is hard to “paper over the cracks” after a thumping second Test defeat to South Africa, with the fate of at least three players hanging in the balance.
“Clearly need to be a lot better than that if we want to compete,” Cummins said.
Paceman Boland, who came into the side at Gqeberha at the expense of spinner Nathan Lyon, will be hard to drop given his batting exploits and a five-wicket haul in the first innings. “That’s the challenge.
Do you give someone one more game, or do you feel like now is the right time to make a move?” he said.
“I think a loss can sometimes kick you into gear. You can maybe paper over the cracks sometimes in a win. Whereas I think in a loss, it makes you ask questions as a player of yourself. “So, again, we’ll work on that in the next couple of days. It’s one Test match left in the series, we’ve got to win this.”
“He’s actually doing the hard bit, he’s getting to 30,” Cummins said of number three Labuschagne.
