Shades of Dizzy

Australia did not save the Test match today. But they managed to restore their lost honour, which is arguably every bit as important. Travis Head’s luck finally ran out on 121, bowled by Mulder. It had been an excellent return to form by the agressively moustachied one. Which brought Smith to the crease, though he looked far from his usual hyperactive self and soon holed out to Rabada’s bouncer. Medical advice would have been against his return to the match in all probability; but try keeping this man off the park. You’d need a crane, a barbed wire fence and a dozen armed security guards. Carey came out to bat at number 8, after some batting horrors in this series. He defended resolutely, and hope still flickered in the dressing room. The start was delayed by rain, but there was still a mountain to climb.

And there was the nightwatchman, still batting. Scott Boland loves playing Test cricket. He doesn’t get to play all that often, and when he does he makes the most of it. He made 40 today: second top score for the innings. His forward defence was like an ocean-going liner’s gangplank, thrust forward into the breach. The ball generally dropped dead in its tracks. Someone has taught him the merits of soft hands. He batted more than three hours, stormed at with shot and shell, and gave away nothing but the odd rueful smile.

Watching from the grandstand was Jason Gillespie. He and Boland are Australia’s only two known First Nations Test cricketers. Gillespie was a notorious nightwatchman, as hard to dislodge as an impacted wisdom tooth. In his final Test he came in at no.4 and made an eight-hour double century. Was Boland going to do something similar? Alas, not this time. It took a brutish delivery from the persevering Mulder to dislodge him. It was one he himself would have cherished: pitched on a length outside off and seaming sharply in to take the stumps. He walked off, bat in hand, disconsolate but proud, to generous applause from one and all.

It took an even better ball to get rid of Cummins; who, remembering Boland’s dismissal, played for the off-cutter. It seamed away just enough to miss the bat and take the off peg. By now hope had evaporated. And at long last Bavuma recalled Jansen and Rabada, who finished proceedings before the fickle weather could intervene again. The match was played in a fine spirit, although uncreasing groans from behind the stumps gave the impression that Ryan Rickleton was announcing a burst appendix to the world at large. But there: keepers are allowed some licence in these matters. With the series at one-all, changes will unquestionably be made for Cape Town. This writer can think of at least four which might happen. But that is with the selectors and the coach.