If Cape Town’s first day was a rollercoaster , the second was some more sedate form of transport, though it continued with ups and downs fitting its mountainous backdrop. Twice, South Africa produced double strikes to stall promising Australian positions; twice the Australians rebuilt to get their train back on track. Finally, Josh Inglis and Alex Carey pushed Australia in front, 330 for 4 to South Africa’s all out 329, ready to surge on through day three with those six wickets left in hand.
While Travis Head was there, Australia’s first session threatened to match South Africa’s the day before, when Aiden Markram and Marques Ackerman had piled on 140 against a bewildered attack. Head threw his hands at width, mixing luck with skill for seven boundaries. His new foil Matthew Renshaw showed contrasting temperament for the opening role, leaving and defending the new ball with the clarity he had shown in the middle order in Durban, underlining why he was the original candidate to replace Jake Weatherald at the top before the selectors’ brief and ill-fated Nic Maddinson excursion.
Head’s contribution of 41 out of 58 will continue debate about his batting position. It’s clear at a glance, given an opener’s average of 49 is titanic by modern standards, but the detail is stark: that average breaks down to 23 in the first innings of a match, 43 in the second, 71 in the third, and 60 in the fourth. Head smashes up teams later in games set up to suit his approach, but hasn’t batted time when doing so is essential in tricky early conditions. Having more of a shield up top, leaving Head to plunder in the middle, may still be the best use of a precious resource.
There is also his current problem with chopping onto his stumps, today via an awkward cut against Simon Harmer’s off spin. That makes eight times bowled in his last 15 dismissals, up from 20 out of 66 before that span. Harmer struck again in the same over, teasing Marnus Labuschagne into a catch at slip on what must be Labuschagne’s last chance at Test cricket before the opportunity comes to blood a replacement during the Australian summer.
Labuschagne’s problem is not so much the duck, which can happen to anyone, but its tentative provenance: a player who has trained so hard to move dynamically against spin had both feet in cement, poking uselessly at a ball that would have carried on past the stumps. In theory, he has one more innings left to save himself, but that was the shot of a player who is in no state to use it.
Cameron Green arrived for a rebuild, but South Africa were fuming after the third umpire denied a catch from Gerald Coetzee’s bowling. Harmer at second slip was convinced, and replays looked identical to precedents where a player with fingers flat on the ground gets the ball to bounce up into their palms. This time it wasn’t given. Australia added 85 before the stand ended, including an explosive over when Green hooked the returning Rabada’s bouncer barrage, with some risk, for a consecutive six, six, and four.
Harmer also had Renshaw given not out to a gorgeous ball that drifted across the left-hander, spun back past the edge, and hit his back pad, but was umpire’s call for height. It was Marco Jansen who ended the frustration, needing third-umpire recourse to prove that extra bounce had nicked the top edge of Renshaw’s half-hearted uppercut, then in Jansen’s next over, Harmer at slip inked in the Green catch that had been whited out. Just before tea, Australia’s set pair had been removed for 74 and 65. Still trailing South Africa by 144, at 185 for 4, more was needed.
It came from Inglis and Carey, both wicketkeeper-batters, though Inglis adopted the traditional counterpunching style of their kind, while Carey tended more to defence between moments of creative scoring. Again a partnership grew with both contributors heading towards half-centuries. Harmer was milked, Rabada remained ineffective, and as Inglis opened out after passing 50, he hit a six off both, and consecutive fours cutting Coetzee.
There were moments of peril mixed in, like Harmer spinning one back to Inglis that almost took off stump, and a couple of top edges that landed safe, but Australia’s scoring kept the field spread, and unlike Mitchell Starc’s demolition derby with the new ball the previous evening, South Africa’s use of it just sped up the scoring. By stumps the stand was 145, with Carey 51 and Inglis 85, and after captain Pat Cummins was sufficiently unsure of his batting that he chose to bowl on day one, the new configuration had come good on day two. Next is whether day three sees Australia steam on to a decisive lead, or whether South Africa can stop that in its tracks.
