The task awaiting Australia’s four greying veterans was a formidable one. Going by yesterday’s experience the pitch would offer nothing much, and the ball may be expected to die peacefully in its sleep after a prolonged illness around the fiftieth over. Swing? Seam? Neither of the above. You might as well expect to make an orange sit up and recite sea-shanties when pitched onto a sheet of glass. Day 3 is when most pitches are at their best for batting, and we might have expected that the home side would fill their boots. However. Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon have around 1600 Test wickets between them: a stupefying statistic suggesting that even batting against them on a sponge rubber mat might be challenging.
And so it proved. Australia’s best effort came before lunch. Bedingham and Markram played watchfully, pouncing on anything over-pitched. Their stand of 84 was the best of the innings. Yet the remorseless Australians pulled back their lengths a trifle. Starc got one to lift outside off, and Markram attempted an injudious waft and was well-caught by Renshaw. Lyon channelled the offies of yesteryear by flighting the ball outside off-stump. Bavuma, rendered strokeless, essayed a reverse sweep from Lyon and was superbly caught at slip by Smith: the first of his four catches. He now leads all-comers in fielding catches with 223, four ahead of Joe Root. When Cummins removed Bedingham (caught at slip by the indefatigable Smith) Australia’s luncheon must have been rendered more palateable by the consideration that early wickets were imperative, and the awesome foursome had gathered one apiece.
A curious feature of the day was the apparent willingness of the home team to repeat earlier blunders. Later on Verreyne echoed Bavuma’s mistake, with a similar result. And Cummins, pitching short to Stubbs, had him caught at deep square. Some time later Mulder managed a serviceable instant replay. The last two wickets garnered a vital 87 after the ball had mouldered away into a lump of putty. The stalwart batting of Maharaj, Harmer and Nortje merely served to show up the want of concetration from those more fancied above them. South Africa eventually made 284, but – incredibly – nobody even managed a fifty. Some blame attaches to them. But the laurels of the day are owed to the four immortals. They toiled away without any assistance to speak of, and secured a lead of 106.
After his excruciating torment on the first morning, it was not really a surprise when Maddinson whacked the first ball of the innings to the leg boundary. No point hanging around, he had evidently decided. Let’s get into them. He and Head raced to an exuberant run-a-ball 33 before the encroaching gloom brought proceedings to an early close, for the third day in succession. Is it too much to suggest that a pink ball might be substituted so play could continue under lights? Apparently it is. More tomorrow.