DAY 3: South Africa’s batters fritter wickets away

South Africa’s batters had an afternoon to forget as they frittered away their wickets against a typically disciplined Aussie attack to stumble into the tea break on 238 for eight on the third day of the first test at Kingsmead in Durban on Sunday.

The hosts, who went into lunch on 115 for four in 38 overs, will not enjoy reflecting on the fact that each dismissal was, in different ways, handed to the opposition bowlers.

With both openers going to loose shots as well as skipper Temba Bavuma and David Bedingham, the need to take a lesson from Matt Renshaw and bat conservatively in the afternoon would have been paramount.

Wiaan Mulder and Tristan Stubbs began well enough while adding 56 in 98 balls for the fifth wicket, but then holes in the blueprint began to appear.

First Mulder (30) was beset by indecision as he hesitated whether or not to hook a Cummins bouncer. A final decision was not made but his bat remained in position for the shot with the ball lobbing gently to midwicket where substitute Cooper Connolly took the easiest of catches.

Seven runs and a couple of overs later it was the turn of Tristan Stubbs (32) who tamely hooked another Cummins bouncer to fine leg where Josh Hazlewood took a very good catch running forward.

Kyle Verreynne was the next to go in almost exactly the same manner as Bavuma in the morning, reverse-sweeping Nathan Lyon to Smith at slip who, anticipating again, took a superb right-handed catch to a shot that was hit harder than Bavuma’s. Smith, who is conducting a battle with England’s Joe Root, has now gone ahead of his rival for the most outfield catches by a fielder in tests, 222.

Marco Jansen played fluently and aggressively from the off, driving and pulling six fours in his 20-ball 26 before choosing the wrong ball to pull from Hazlewood, squeezing the ball instead to Travis Head at mid-off.

For the last hour of the session, sensible cricket broke out at last. The fact that Simon Harmer (17) and Keshav Maharaj (23) could add an unbroken 41 for the ninth wicket without any serious alarms simply reinforced the fact that the pitch was blameless and that the Proteas’ specialist batters had underperformed.

SOUTH AFRICA: Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, David Bedingham, Temba Bavuma (capt), Tristan Stubbs, Wiaan Mulder, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje.

AUSTRALIA: Travis Head, Nicolas Maddinson, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Matthew Renshaw, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (capt), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

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