Wow!! We didn’t see that coming when the Opening Test match between the Aussies and Proteas was just finished inside the one whole weekend at The Gabba in Brisbane.
We start off with Travis Head’s good 1st innings spell where he helped turn Australia around to about 145-150 on Day 1 yesterday afternoon with another Test 50. Sadly, he fell short in the nervous 90s once again after Head was caught behind by Kyle Verreynne off Marco Jansen on 92, before the Aussies were all out for 218 with a 66-run advantage.
South Africa came in to bat again but the Aussie quicks & spinner Nathan Lyon wasted no time getting the job done quicksmart, having restricted them to just under three figures of 99 – courtesy a 5fer from the skipper Pat Cummins, as well as Mitchell Starc’s 300th Test wicket milestone – as the Aussies only needed 34 runs to win.
Although there were some early wickets along the way from Kagiso Rabada, where Dave Warner batted poorly get again while Head was sent straight upstairs with a first ball duck; However, the Aussies got themselves into the winning zone first by six wickets, thanks to a number of poor huge bounces over Verreynne’s head & through the rope that led to more extra runs/byes on the board.
Looks like the pitch has dominated for the whole time with the ball on hand, with Head being the only batsman who caused the Proteas some damage behind the Gray-Nicolls bat. Now the Aussies are 1-0 in the series with two matches to go as we’ll wait & see if they can regain the series come MCG for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne – the last time Australia dominated SA was 2014 away from home, as well as 2005-06 on home soil.
