Aussie selectors left to mull classic Warnie one-liner on punishing day
Australia‘s selectors may be ruing their latest snubbing of Nathan Lyon, and chewing over one of Shane Warne’s most fancied one-liners, after a punishing day in the second Test of the South Africa series.
The brains trust got away with not picking the off-spin great in Kingston and Brisbane last year, but could be set to pay a major price for icing him out in Gqeberha.
Australia’s Beau Webster (left) and Pat Cummins in conversation on day three. Richard Huggard/Getty Images
Led by their pint-sized captain Temba Bavuma and helped by terrific contributions from lower-order batters Marco Jansen and Simon Harmer, the Proteas ripped the ascendancy from Australia’s grip on an utterly dominant third day.
Bavuma chalked up 179 in a beautiful Test match innings, Jansen clubbed 85 off 100 balls and Harmer – South Africa’s No.9 – peeled off 82.
Come the end of their innings, the Proteas had amassed 9-425 declared and Australia’s early-innings destruction spearheaded by Scott Boland – the hosts were 6-110 – had mercilessly and entirely been cancelled out.
South Africa then inflicted another blow when pace ace Kagiso Rabada, returning to the Test arena after overcoming a hamstring injury, removed Nic Maddinson for a duck as Australia was forced to navigate four overs before stumps.
It will never be known how things would look had Lyon been available to bowl in Gqeberha.
But the reality is the sixth-highest wicket-taker in Test history was watching on in an orange vest as Australia tried desperately, with little success, to break a pair of long and prolific partnerships.
First came a 132-run partnership between Bavuma and Jansen, then a 183-run stand featuring Bavuma and Harmer.
With Lyon out of the picture, captain Pat Cummins sought assistance from the off spin of Matt Renshaw and even the left-arm orthodox bowling of Maddinson.
Humorously, it was Marnus Labuschagne who brought Harmer’s innings to a close 18 runs short of a ton with a medium-pacer that kept low and skidded under an attempted slog sweep.
Josh Hazlewood wasn’t allowed to bowl in the first session because he’d missed a considerable chunk of play on day two due to illness. That was a complicating factor, both for Australia in its pursuit of wickets and the task of scrutinising Lyon’s non-selection.
Cummins copped a rare slaughtering, the skipper finishing with figures of 0-96 from 26 overs.
Simon Harmer and captain Temba Bavuma pump fists on day three. AP
Boland, whose figures were 4-31 when play resumed and 5-81 when South Africa declared, snared his third Test five-for.
But Australia needed another bowler to challenge the hosts, either through tying up an end and building pressure or by taking wickets. In Lyon, whose place in the side is growing increasingly uncertain despite his haul of 573 Test wickets, Australia has someone capable of both.
Much was said and written about the green on the wicket when Lyon was dumped to allow for a four-pronged pace attack in Gqeberha, making it the third time in eight Tests he has not been selected when available.
There’s little doubt what Warne would have said if the spin king was still around.
“If it seams, it spins,” the leg-spin icon often said.
Especially so at a venue like St George’s Park – the ground with the lowest bowling average for spin in Tests outside of Asia over the past 10 years.
One option was picking both Boland and Lyon and giving the injury-prone Hazlewood a rest.
Another was playing Lyon and the four gun quicks and dropping Webster, with either Cummins or Mitchell Starc batting at No.7.
The view that not having Lyon on day three had hamstrung Australia was put to Starc as he addressed media at stumps.
Nathan Lyon in action during the first Test. AP Photo/Themba Hadebe
“Coming into the game, you don’t know you’re going to be a man down, do you?” Starc, who took his 450th and 451st Test wickets on day three, said with a laugh.
“Beau bowled a lot more than he probably expected to, and I thought he bowled quite nicely. He beat the bat a lot.
“So he probably played that role, or that holding role, a bit more, and it came from both ends.
“... I mean, if you know you’re going to be a man down from the start, you’re probably playing a different make-up, aren’t you?
“Unfortunately, Josh has had a dodgy prawn or something.
“I think he’ll have fresh legs for the second innings.”
The decision to drop Lyon for the second Test was questionable.
It will be particularly questionable if South Africa manages to secure a series-levelling win over the final two days in the Eastern Cape.
