SA vs AUS Live Updates 3rd Test : Australia eye a strong start on Day 2 after bowling out South Africa for 329 in the third Test in Cape Town. Mitchell Starc led Australia’s fightback on the opening day after Aiden Markram and Marques Ackermann put on 158 for the opening wicket. Starc took 6/72 after Ackermann (95), Markram (78) and David Bedingham (50) all made valuable contributions in a dominant display by the Proteas top order. Marco Jansen also scored 52 for South Africa, while wicketkeeper Ryan Rickelton chipped in with 42. ( Live Scorecard )
Can Australia bat well enough tomorrow to make their recovery today worth the effort? Newlands indeed served up an opening day that felt more like a constant shift in power. Mitchell Starc ripped through South Africa with an astonishing six-for, making full use of the second new ball, while the hosts’ batting group kept finding ways to counterattack. South Africa, though, will be left wondering how they let a position that had Australia on their knees slip away, especially with several dismissals born more of rashness than pressure. Australia will now return with a spring in their step, knowing they have the platform and momentum to post a strong first-innings total with the bat. That’s that from a fascinating first day of action. Join us then. Cheers! Roared back and how! If the morning belonged to South Africa, the afternoon and evening were the kind of reply Australia needed desperately. The lines were tighter, and the discipline was evident. Lyon was the one who finally broke the opening stand, drawing Ackerman out of his crease for a stumping that ended his hunt for a century. From there the slide had a rhythm of its own. Markram threw his wicket away off a needless pull against Hazlewood, Lyon then conjured an absolute peach to outfox Bavuma, and Connolly removed Breetzke, bagging his first Test wicket. ‘Straya’ left rueing the toss – It was one of the worst bowling sessions from this Australian side in recent memory. Seemingly spooked by Steve Smith’s late withdrawal and Boland’s shocking omission from the XI, Pat Cummins chose to bowl first on a fine morning and a flat pitch, only for his vaunted attack to be taken to the cleaners by Marques Ackerman and Aiden Markram. With no swing, seam or turn on offer, Australia erred with the short ball, width and leg-side lines, while Travis Head’s dropped catch off Mitchell Starc capped a very underwhelming session. And much of that is down to Mitchell Starc, a man who has made a habit of striking at the most crucial moments. Time and again, he has shown why he remains such a massive asset to this Australian setup. What difference can a day make? Plenty, goes the old line. What difference can a few minutes make? Ask South Africa, who have been jolted from a position of dominance to chasing shadows. OUT! CASTLED! FIVE WICKETS FOR STARC. 20th five-wicket haul for Starc in Tests, and he is on a hat-trick now. Hooping back in at the pads, full in length. The left-arm seamer has wreaked absolute havoc with the second new ball. Attacks the stumps with a full ball, does Cummins. Harmer drags his bat in front and blocks it to the off side.
A day that ebbed and flowed – Hello and welcome to Day 2 of the third and final Test in Cape Town. It was, by almost any measure, close to a perfect opening day of Test cricket, with 10 wickets falling and 329 runs of enterprising batting. Australia’s two collapses of resistance, 5/29 and then 4/2, captured a day in which neither side could stay on top for long. Looking forward to Day 2 – The way the day began, Cummins’ call to bowl first on an unresponsive surface looked like a huge gamble, but by stumps it has turned out to be a masterstroke. The first ball of the second day is scheduled to be bowled at 8.30 am GMT. Markram and Ackerman resumed with the opening stand already worth 140 and the pitch still flat, but the bowling had a different edge. Three quick strikes turned a commanding position into a struggle, with the hosts tumbling from 158/0 to 221/4 and handing the initiative back to Australia. It soon became 232/6 with the pacers deploying the short-ball ploy to perfection, with Bedingham too in the sheds. 3.55 pm GMT – Test cricket, you beauty – What a day of cricket! It swung one way, then the other, but as stumps are called in Cape Town on Day 1, it is the Australians who will be wearing broad smiles. At 203 for 1 in the 44th over, they were ruling the roost, but from there they lost the plot completely and have been bowled out for 329. South Africa are now 9 down for 329.
But there’s a lot of stories left to be told in this third and final Test match.
Coetzee plays all around it and gets hit on the pads before the ball deflects and crashes into the stumps, with the leg pole getting knocked out of the ground.
