Australia toiled unrewarded for most of the morning on a somnolent pitch with an anaesthetised ball. They bowled well enough to cause occasional alarums, but Markram and Mulder applied themselves with the grim determination of the Horatii on the Tiber bridge. Lyon wheeled away with his customary guile, yet the pitch defeated him. He ought to have had Mulder the previous night, but Maddinson at short leg missed the tough chance. Cummins swapped his bowlers around frequently, rummaging for the key which would turn the lock. And for almost two hours they were frustrated. Finally Hazlewood had a slice of luck when Mulder flicked at a wayward leg-side delivery and was brilliantly caught by Carey.
Kyle Verreyne came and went, as too many of the local batsmen have done. He fell to Renshaw’s flight outside off-stump, playing for turn which wasn’t there. To be fair to him, Renshaw had turned the odd ball sharply; yet more experience on the subcontinent would have taught him never to anticipate imaginary spin. One can only imagine Lyon’s feelings when the part-time offie gets two cheap wickets, and he had thus far nothing to show for his efforts. The main issue for Lyon was that the South Africans played him off the back foot. In Australia this is a perilous practice, since he bowls with considerable overspin. Here the docile pitch blunted his best efforts. He should probably have pitched the ball further up, and risked being driven to the boundary. Runs really weren’t important.
At lunch the home side was 6/166, with Markram unbowed and unbeaten on 69, from 200 deliveries. Only he and Renshaw have passed fifty so far in the game. He has shown that those prepared to concentrate and fight it out can prosper here. With him was Jansen, who already looked uncomfortable with the needs of the situation. He is far happier clubbing the ball into the middle distance; but sterner tasks awaited him. In the leadup to the new ball he was given some allsorts upon which to fill his boots. Then matters took an ugly turn. It was Hazlewood who broke through, finding a minute slot between bat and pad to demolish the stumps. Jansen’s 35 had been a decent effort, but with his departure the closing curtain began to tremble in the wings.
Harmer received a brutish delivery from Hazlewood. It was full enough for him to play forward, yet the ball exploded off the deck like an overenthusiastic firecracker and took the edge. Carey had to pull in a high mark well above his head, but clasped it as though he was still playing football for Greater Western Sydney. Markram still clung to the crease like a dazed shellfish, but Starc had him caught behind off a fine edge. It was Carey’s fifth catch of the innings and the end of a marathon vigil by the doughty opener. To be ninth out, for 75 painstakingly acquired over six weary hours, says everything necessary. When Nortje swung optimistically at Hazlewood and dollied the ball to Lyon the contest was finished.
The laconic Hazlewood finished with 6/49, and without him the visitors would have struggled. His ability to extract bounce and seam from the most moribund of surfaces is his superpower. Yet the player of the match was self-evidently Renshaw, with 190 and 82 on a wicket where most struggled to score, and 2/30 with his gentle off-breaks. It was a stunning revival for a cricketer many had thought done and dusted.