The rebirth of Australian cricket began at the Wanderers stadium. Well, sort of. Of course, we haven't died, but there was a near fatal heart attack at Cape Town. But, with all new life, it is time to move on. A new test match, Usman Kahwaja is in for Shaun Marsh, who has been our best batsman of late. Our best bowler, Ryan Harris was injured, replaced by the great young hope, Pat Cummins. As usual, Clarke lost the toss, South Africa batting.
Mitch Johnson took the first wicket, hoping to save his career, Shane Watson took another and then promptly suffered an injury. And Jacques Kallis went nuts, scoring a 50 faster than he scores in T20 matches. Quck wickets to Pete Siddle and Cummins and we were on top. As usual we surrendered the adjacency with perplexing bowling changes and a streaky partnership between Ashwell Princess and A.BDevilliers.com. Princess gave his wicket away to Lyon to start the third session, abdevilliers.com skied a poor pull shot, and Cummins took a beautiful diving catch. Lyon had Vernon Philly LBW, and Spud Boucher skied Siddle on a poor pull. The tail was cleaned up by Clarke, and South Africa lost 6 for 25 to be all out for 266.
Of course, our bowling has never been the issue, however weak it has been. Not putting teams away with big totals and good batting is the problem. From the look of the pitch, it was a 400 first innnings par, and it looks pretty flat. The question hangs over Phil Hughes and Watson at the top, Kahawaja at three and Ponting at four. Have we ever had such an unknown top four? They seem to be so heavily unreliable, and they need to put our doubts, and their own at ease with big scores. A lead of at least 100 is a must, and we should be aiming towards 200. But, batting has been our weakness. The second day of the new life will deliver more answers than the first. And the question is for how long this life will last.
We shall see tomorrow.
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