Australia’s captain Pat Cummins could lead Australia to another stunning victory with another impressive display against South Africa in the third Test in Sydney on Saturday.
Cummins took three wickets for 29 runs in a rough 14 overs. This set up the Australians for a dramatic last-day charge to win and complete a clean sweep of the Proteas in the series.
At the end of day four, South Africa was on 149 for six, trying to beat Australia’s first innings score of 475 for four. Marco Jansen was on 10 and Simon Harmer was on six.
So far in this series, the South Africans have only once scored more than 200 runs.
Even though they’ve lost a lot of time due to rain, the Aussies still need to take 14 more wickets to pull off an amazing win. They can’t be written off after rocking the tourists in the Test’s two most exciting sessions on Saturday.
“I’m pretty excited about tomorrow,” said spinner Nathan Lyon. “It’s going to be an exciting day’s cricket, we know what we have to do.”
The first breakthrough came when Osh Hazlewood got rid of Dean Elgar for 15 runs, continuing the Proteas captain’s terrible streak of low scores.
Hazlewood had a lively first over and got Elgar out with a short, hard ball that hit his glove and was caught by wicketkeeper Alex Carey.
Sarel Elwee was so shocked by Lyon that he didn’t play a shot and was bowled top of off-stump for 18. This left the tourists with 37 runs and two wickets in the 18th over.
Four balls later, Heinrich Klaasen became Cummins’s first victim. He was caught by Carey off a vicious lifter to the leg side by Carey for two.
After tea, Hazlewood got through again with an inswinging ball that hit the edge of Temba Bavuma’s bat and let Carey finish the job.
Bavuma hit Lyon for two sixes on his way to 35 off of 74 balls, but Lyon’s dismissal was a big wicket for the Aussies, leaving the visitors with 85 runs after 39 balls.
“Reverse swing is in play, with a little bit of variable bounce, the short ball is difficult to play because of how slow it is coming off the wicket,” Hazlewood said.
“I think Ash (Agar) and Gazza (Lyon), it’s a big day tomorrow for them with the ball spinning with lefties and righties for them both to work with, there will be plenty happening tomorrow.”
Khaya Zondo was out because Cummins threw a great yorker that caught him leg before wicket. Zondo had 39 runs and was South Africa’s fifth wicket.
The captain rushed in to lead the Australian bowling attack. He threw two scary balls that hit Marco Jansen in the upper body.
Kyle Verreynne, who was 19, edged to slip, where Steve Smith caught it. This was Smith’s 151st Test catch.
“We’ve just got to stick to our basics, that’s what we’ve done over the last 10 years or so .. thrilling day tomorrow, do the basics well and see how we go,” Lyon said.
Photo by EPA/DAVID NEILSON
