Former cricketers Matthew Hayden and Dale Steyn were puzzled by Australia’s defensive mindset on Day 3 of the World Test Championship Final against South Africa. From having the game in their hands after Mitchell Starc’s heroic effort with the bat, the defending champions let it slip away after failing to pick up a single wicket in the final session of play.
Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram dominated the proceedings with a 143-run partnership, bringing South Africa on the cusp of history. The unbeaten partnership helped South Africa reach within 69 runs of the winning total, which stood at a massive 282 runs at the start of the final innings.
Twenty-eight wickets fell on the first two days of the Test match at Lord’s. Australia were able to dismiss opener Ryan Rickelton on Friday and then were able to brave a short Wiaan Mulder storm at No. 3. However, after the dismissal of Mulder, Australia went back into their shell and waited for either Bavuma or Markram to make a mistake. There were two catching opportunities against Bavuma on Friday, but Australia were not able to grab hold of a single one of them.
WTC Final, SA vs AUS, Day 3: Match Report | Highlights
Once Bavuma and Markram started hitting runs, Cummins pulled back his fielders from catching positions and posted several of them in deep areas to stop boundaries. This made life easy for Bavuma and Markram, who ticked away with singles and doubles throughout the day.
“You know, this defensive effort here from Australia, it was all about how they were going to take wickets and how they were going to do that early,” Matthew Hayden said after the day’s play on Friday.
“You know, when they got through to Mulder, they got through Rickelton, and they had to put at that point pressure on Bavuma. They had to put those catching cover areas, had to be less defensive, more attacking. Can you imagine if those first couple of balls had been chipped up? South Africa now it’s three down. Australia got control of the match. So for me, that was a trick,” he added.
“The drifting of the nature of the game just allowed the rotation of strike, allowed that partnership to grow and build in confidence, and it just got away from the Australian bowling lineup. Yes, it’s flat conditions, but you must take 10 wickets to defend the World Test Championship. You must take the top three out of play,” concluded the former Australia opener.
No Catching Fielders
Dale Steyn was also surprised with Australia’s tactics, and said that they should have had catching positions on a pitch where the ball was not even travelling to the slips.
“Yeah, a little bit surprised, I think. You know, you have to adapt with the flow of the game, and obviously today, we’ve seen the ball has been keeping really low, it hasn’t really managed to make it to the slips, even from yesterday. And, you know, whenever we used to play, I would play a place like India, your short cover, short midwicket, it doesn’t matter. They’re as good as cordon slips in South Africa or Australia or something like that. So on days like this, when the ball is not travelling and it’s not making its way to the slips, you have to have those guys in those kinds of catching positions,” Steyn added to Hayden’s point.
Australia will come out on Day 4 of the Test match with 69 runs in hand. Assistant coach Daniel Vettori roared at the end of the day, stating that it was just a matter of one wicket for the side to make inroads into the Protean batting line-up.
