Skipper Bavuma fighting a lone hand for SA

Temba Bavuma was left fighting a lone battle, as the rest of the South African batting unit again succumbed to the relentless pressure created by Australia’s storied seam attack.

Once again Scott Boland delivered several devastating blows, reducing batters not used to having their patience and techniques tested so consistently to shivering wrecks on a blustery day in Gqeberha, where only two hours of play were possible. The Proteas finished day two of the second Test, which started at 3.45pm because of overnight and morning rain, on 97/5, with only their captain, unbeaten on 41, showing the necessary fortitude, patience and method to ward off the tourists.

Boland and the rest of the Australian attack made those two hours feel like the longest days of cricket with their classic, unrelenting examination of the home team’s batters. Marques Ackerman discovered that regardless of domestic form, there are demands on mindset and technique that set Test cricket apart from any format.

Matthew Breetzke (4) found that it is much easier to bat from the couch or in a One-Day match than it is against the red ball, when Mitchell Starc asks if you’re willing to keep leaving the ball.

It was another day of harsh lessons for the South African batting unit. Coming into this series most predictions focused on Australia’s vulnerable batting. But any group of batters can be made to look fragile by this Australian attack, and with the exception of Bavuma, the rest of the Proteas creaked and then cracked over the course of 43 overs of the first innings.

After the poor performance in Durban, Proteas coach Shukri Conrad had talked about how South Africa have been too reliant on Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma in the last two years. In that period what they had been able to do against lesser bowling units from the West Indies or the subcontinent was to become a functional batting unit. Seven batters not named Bavuma or Markram made hundreds in that time.

But against the best attack in the sport, in the World Test Championship final last year, it was notably Markram and Bavuma who had to win the game.

Markram missed out in this innings, flummoxed by Boland’s mastery, something he didn’t have to deal with at Lord’s.

Australia, as they did in the first Test at Kingsmead, again read the conditions correctly and picked an XI that is suited for the St George’s Park surface. Winning the toss helped, but then they were able to take advantage with Boland to the fore. Perhaps for any other Test team he’d be a shoe-in, but this Australian attack featuring an off-spinner closing in on 600 wickets, a left-arm seamer nearing 450 and two right-arm seamers with 300-plus, means he has to bide his time.

It is to his credit he can just rock up as he has done in Gqeberha and leave opposing batters shuddering. Debutant Ackerman succumbed to the 13th ball of the day, unable to find the balance between attack and defence and ending up in no-man’s land, with an edge flying low to wicketkeeper Alex Carey.

Breetzke, playing in his third Test, was left steaming by another show of ill-discipline from a Proteas batter in this series. Having left the previous two balls from Starc, he then wafted at the third, with his feet rooted to the crease, gifting another wicket to the tourists.

Breetzke was seen later watching various replays of his dismissal, with his furrowed brow illustrative of his ever-darkening mood.

South Africa’s best period of a tricky day came in a 52-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Bavuma and Ryan Rickelton, who were both watchful in the extreme, but taking care to score runs when Australia missed their margins.

Rickleton (31) was left bitterly disappointed, when he fiddled at another Boland tempter with 15 minutes left in the day, the edge flying between Carey and Matt Renshaw at first slip, until the latter stuck out his right paw and held a scorching low catch.

Besides Carey, the other relieved man in the Australia side was Marnus Labuschagne, who had dropped Rickelton on 26 after the perfect execution of a short ball plan from Pat Cummins. The ball thumped Labuschagne, stationed at leg gully, in the chest.

Boland has already taken 4/31 from 14 overs and is dominating this Test match. Bavuma will have to produce something of the highest order to get his team back into this contest and hope the lower half of the South African batting order can provide sturdier support than the top has so far.

Full scorecard here.