SA quicks call the shots as Australia struggle on Day 1 in Durban
Marco Jansen, Anrich Nortje and Wiaan Mulder picked up two wickets apiece to leave Australia at 187/6 on a curtailed opening day in Durban
South Africa flexed their pace muscle over Australia, sans Rabada, securing control early in Durban on the opening day of the first Test.
On a pitch with some grass but likely to develop cracks later, Australia made the straightforward choice of batting first, calling back Nic Maddinson from a ten-year hiatus. The first runs came off his pads, as Marco Jansen looked to angle balls into both left-handers. At the other end, Wiaan Mulder took the new ball, and not Anrich Nortje, who also made his red-ball comeback in Rabada’s absence.
Both bowlers angled deliveries into the left-handed duo, even as Jansen shaped the odd one away from over the wicket, using the early movement and good carry. Maddinson’s strokes remained muted through the opening phase, surviving a stone-dead lbw call that was curiously not taken upstairs. He hadn’t scored a run in 29 balls when Travis Head fell to a leg-side feather edge.
Marnus Labuschagne’s dearth of runs has been well-documented, and he walked in to a pace attack with their tails up. Soon, he was united with Steve Smith, when Maddinson’s run-less sequence stretched to 33 balls, ended by an inside-edge to Jansen, perhaps a rare attempt to force a shot.
Smith’s entry brought Anrich Nortje into the attack, and consequently, some extra pace. Labuschagne looked to stay positive despite coping a couple of balls into his chest. A straight drive past Jansen got him going. Nortje brought in heat and bounce, missing the edge a few times, but his reward would only come later.
Smith’s stodgy stance broke when Keshav Maharaj was brought in. Off his second over, Smith hammered two sixes as he looked to put on early pressure with turn in sight. Through his knock, he also surpassed another Steve, going past Waugh’s run-tally to be third among Australia’s all-timers.
Labuschagne remained dodgy, collecting a few streaky boundaries, and was finally taken out by a Mulder nip-backer which was reviewed in vain. He’s now gone 11 consecutive innings without a fifty.
On the other side of Lunch, Smith departed to Jansen, using the round-the-wicket angle to induce an edge that went low to gully. Fresh off a break, Australia had two new batters in the middle.
South Africa kept their probing lines but also lost their second review when a Jansen snorter to Matt Renshaw came off the forearm, and not the glove as they suspected. Simon Harmer made a belated entry in the 36th over, but it was Nortje who brought the next set of breakthroughs.
In one over, he sent back both Alex Carey and Beau Webster, inducing edges that went behind with his tight off-stump channels. Renshaw settled himself in, taking them safely until Tea alongside Pat Cummins without any further damage.
Renshaw continued the same strain of patience into the final session. As clouds grew over Kingsmead, Cummins remained watchful yet purposeful, navigating the spin well. Nortje was brought back in to shake things up, but the duo remained unmoved, bringing up the second fifty-plus stand of the innings.
As it grew darker, floodlights turned on but the grind continued. By the 66th over, the light meters were out. Renshaw and Cummins had brought some stability into the innings, but with the final session cut by an hour, the hosts still ended the day as the happier team.
Day 1 brief scores: Australia 187/6 (Matt Renshaw 46*, Marnus Labuschagne 37; Wiaan Mulder 2-31, Marco Jansen 2-35) vs South Africa.
