There it is! Australia just have completed a comfortable Test match win by an innings and 182 runs at the MCG, as South Africa are all out for 204. They also won the series 2-0 for the first time on home soil since 2005/06, with one game left to go ahead of the New Year’s/Pink Test at the SCG in Sydney on January 4-8.
Good to see the fielders overcame a series of dropped catches earlier on after they picked up from 13-1 at the start of Day 4 – which not only gave the seamers a sigh of relief when they bowl at their best for them to be prepared for each catching/run out opportunity, but they also upped their game with 1-2 direct hit wickets as well.
Although, the Aussies couldn’t get around Temba Bavuma for a while with his half-ton (65 runs off 144 balls); So does Kyle Verreynne – who scored another quickfire shift for a 40-ball 33 before he was trapped by Scott Boland with an LBW.
However, Australia eventually get the job done where their main spinner Nathan Lyon got rid of the other Proteas batting half with three wickets, while we saw a wonderful finish to this Test Match from part-time leggie Steve Smith after he clean bowled Lungi Ngidi (19 runs off 21 balls) through the gate.
Now there has been some good players from both teams that put up a really good show here at the MCG. First of all, Anrich Nortje was really fiery as always with the ball for SA – including when he busted Cam Green’s finger off a speedy 145 km delivery. Although Green was brave enough to bat through the pain for the next day with his 50, but then that puts him out of action for a few weeks.
At the end of the day though, Hats off to Dave Warner & Alex Carey, both of whom were outstanding with the bat that got Australia way ahead by more than a country mile, before they got away easily without Green on the field, as well as seeing Starc bowl with one of his injured fingers also like Green. We might be losing these two stars for a while, but we could showcase some young talent from Perth like Lance Morris & Aaron Hardie to wrap up this Test summer.
