South Africa wash away Durban disappointment after rain-soaked wait
After a crushing defeat in Durban, South Africa battled rain delays and a determined Travis Head to bowl Australia out for 274 and seal an innings win in Gqeberha
First it was 9.45am. Then 10.20am. Then 10.25am. Then 11am. The advertised start of the last day’s play in the second Test between South Africa and Australia at St George’s Park on Thursday kept being revised. The moment finally stopped slip sliding away at noon.
The rain that had taken more than three-quarters of the overs out of the first two days returned with a cruel vengeance on Thursday. The covers were dragged on and off umpteen times. At first because of the merest of drizzles, later for proper rain that the whipping westerly brought almost horizontally.
You could feel the frustration rise in South Africa’s ranks. Having been bossed in the first Test at Kingsmead, where Australia won by 214 runs last Tuesday, they had hewn a path towards victory in Gqeberha despite the weather and the fact that they were 97/5 at stumps on the second day. And now this. More rain, which was a relief for the drought-stricken Eastern Cape; less so for cricketminded Eastern Capers.
Conversely you could tension ease in Australia’s dressing room with each announced delay. South Africa needed six more wickets to win. The Australians needed 170 more runs to make the home side bat again. That would be the same bunch of Aussies who were bowled out for 99 on Wednesday, when 13 of their wickets crashed.
Who said the elements don’t have a sense of humour? Play began in blinding sunshine interrupted only by the odd cloud scudding over the ground on the wings of that westerly. Rain? What rain?
Minutes before Kagiso Rabada bowled the first ball of the day to Travis Head, Simon Harmer sauntered from the outfield towards the dressing room. He wore his cap and his sunglasses, and his long-sleeved pullover was draped over his left arm. He looked like a man on his way to the beach, not someone who could be a matchwinner in the coming hours.
It was, after all, a fifth-day pitch. And this was, after all, Harmer’s home ground for the first 11 years of his long and winding career. That said, more than a third of the overs that should have been bowled on the surface in four days had not been sent down. It was a fifth-day pitch that was younger than its days, and so less receptive to spin. Still, Harmer was brought on after Rabada and Marco Jansen had burned through two overs each. That the day started with the new ball 26 overs away — and with Anrich Nortjé still off the field with a groin problem — was doubtless a factor in the early introduction of the slow stuff.
Head faced a dozen deliveries before he smeared the 13th, from Jansen, off his pads to midwicket for four. With that his overnight 87 — the devil’s number according to Aussies because it is 13 short of a hundred — became his 13th century. All that, along with Wednesday’s 13 wickets, would make triskaidekaphobes more than a touch anxious.
Then Scott Boland made room and ramped Rabada for four. Boland, the nightwatch! Rabada, the spearhead! Was it turning into that kind of day? Was the lifeblood of the contest leaking out?
There were near misses and would-be catches that dropped short. Rabada bowled two overs from the Park drive End before switching to the Duckpond End. Harmer made the same journey after his first five overs.
All the while the brass band maintained a holding pattern, never straying from punchy tunes delivered with discipline and at a respectably subdued volume. It was as if they were also holding their breath.
The new ball was still 5.2 overs in the future when Head, facing Wiaan Mulder with Ryan Rickelton standing up, leapt into the air to try and get on top of the bounce. His bat came down straight and hit the ball directly into the ground. From there it bounced onto the stumps, bowling him for 121. It was an unlucky but also a Headian dismissal; you can’t play like he does and complain when the cricket gods say enough already.
That ended a partnership of 59, the third half-century stand involving Boland in his 26 Test innings. When Steven Smith, who did not bat on Wednesday because of a neck issue, sliced a pull at the 13th delivery with the new ball — a short effort from Rabada — and was juggled but held by Matthew Breetzke at midwicket, the nightwatch loomed as the day doer.
Was Boland going to save Australia? Or even make South Africa chase? By the time that thought reared Boland had straight driven Rabada and the new ball for four, slashed Jansen over the cordon for another boundary, and lashed the left-armer through gully for still another. Then he slapped a Rabada bouncer high over and beyond point for two.
Boland’s technique and execution weren’t flawless, but there was no faulting his confidence. It was only the third time he had made it into the 20s. He had never batted for longer nor faced more balls. The man was doing his job and then some.
By tea, when Australia were 253/6, the band seemed to sense something in the ruffling air. Their playing was looser, more celebratory. Maybe they were willing a breakthrough.
It came three overs into the third session, when Mulder smuggled an inswinger through Boland’s defence and bowled him. His yeoman 40, Boland’s highest score, lasted more than three hours and took 166 balls out of the match. All of 149 of them - 89.76% of the total number he faced — were scoreless.
The band dared to dream louder, and when Mulder zigged another inswinger past Pat Cummins’ outside edge and onto his stumps 11 balls later they pulled out all the stops.
“Nono”, also called “Masambe Nono”, is a 2019 isiXhosa song by Ntandokayise Bangani, an Afro-pop artist better known as Ntando. The lyrics describe the joyous anticipation of a wedding. The song can be played for long minutes on end, riffing here and there as you go.
It has burrowed its catchy way into South African football when victory is imminent, and has become part of the band’s repertoire. A voluptuous rendition boomed long and hard at St George’s Park on Thursday even before Mitchell Starc took guard.
Australia were eight down and 36 shy of avoiding an innings defeat when the floodlights were turned on with a nasty-looking bank of cloud on its way from the west. Rabada took charge of that over, and his fifth delivery ripped through everything a swinging Starc slung and splayed his stumps.
Marques Ackerman’s throw from deep point would have run out Josh Hazlewood by more than a metre had it not narrowly missed the stumps. That prompted drinks, and the delivery of a light metre to the umpires.
But, seven balls later, Hazlewood lashed wildly at Jansen and was held, head high, in the safe hands of Aiden Markram at second slip to seal victory by an innings and 31 runs.
Australia had gone 34 Tests without being beaten by an innings. In that time they twice dished out defeats by that margin. South Africa haven’t lost by an innings in 24 Tests. This is their third such win since then. And easily the most significant.
To go from the disappointment of Durban to the first two days of this match to what they completed on Thursday was more than a win. It was the mark of a great team.
