SA Test tour of Oz, Dec 17 - Jan 8

[GarlicJam]

Unless he claims one of the final two wickets, Maharaj has the worst figures of any bowler at the MCG.

obviously he didn't, so he has.

That is really surprising to me. none for 135, off 42 overs. I would've thought that there would have been worse, over the years. Not a great stat to own.

Nortje bowled very well. Better than his figures suggest. He really troubled Warner yesterday - and then got him this morning with no effort at all.

After bowling so well in Brisbane, Rabada has been a bit of a let-down in this one. Nowhere near tight enough, and not as threatening.

[Arthur Crabtree]

It's not like SA don't have history of batting for three days for a draw in Australia.

[Durhamfootman]

Is Cam Green going to have one of those injury blighted international careers? Broken finger this time. Straight after taking 5fer, he won't now bowl again in this match and will miss the rest of the series. Still managed a hit a 50 though, to his great credit

[GarlicJam]

3 of SA's first 7 wickets have been to run outs. That's very poor. Sure, they are under extreme pressure, but wow.

[bigfluffylemon]

This is very poor from South Africa. Run outs, slog sweeps skied, dismal dismissals.

[mikesiva]

South Africa 204 all out

Bavuma 65
Verreyne 33

Lyon 3-58

Australia win by an innings and 158 runs.

[alfie]

This is very poor from South Africa. Run outs, slog sweeps skied, dismal dismissals.

Most of them appear to be mentally on the plane home already...Doesn't bode well for the Sydney Test as a spectacle.

I guess they got cooked on Tuesday at 37C...and further rubbed in the dirt yesterday ; which doesn't do much for morale. But with Australia down a bowler and with Starc - despite his injury meaning he will miss Sydney - bowling somewhat handicapped (not that it showed !) ; they might have thought to make the hosts really work ahead of the short break to the next match. Didn't happen...

Bavuma played quite well this time - apart from running out two partners. And Verreynne , even if he is less than a superstar with the gloves , continues to impress with bat in hand : both solid and not afraid to play his strokes. But the less said about the rest of the batting the better.

They surely can't continue to play with five bowlers ; but not sure they have much in the way of batting options in the squad ?

[Durhamfootman]

This is very poor from South Africa. Run outs, slog sweeps skied, dismal dismissals.

Sounds like England under Root.

[bigfluffylemon]

Australia racking up the runs again. Khawaja loves batting at Sydney. Another player with a ridiculous average at home and a fairly modest overseas record (although he has scored a lot away v Pakistan).

Looks pretty unlikely to be play before lunch - raining hard at Sydney today. Australia might need to declare pretty soon given how much time has been lost in this game.

[alfie]

Doesn't look as if we are going to get much play after lunch either...might be a total washout ; which really would give Cummins a problem in getting twenty wickets over two days with just four real bowlers...

[bigfluffylemon]

There's a lot of griping on cricinfo about the Sydney weather, but looking at it, new year seems to be a pretty bad time for weather in Sydney. 5 rain-affected draws in the last 8 matches played here, and reasonable chance of this becoming 6 in 9. I could only find two matches in the last 10 years that weren't rain-affected, even the Australian wins.

Looking at the long term weather data it appears to just be bad luck, rather than a propensity to be wetter in January than other times of the year (unlike Brisbane, where the first test is held there early in the season deliberately because summers tend to be wetter than spring due to the subtropical climate).

Still, while everyone makes fun of the English weather, it rains less in London than it does in Sydney.

[GarlicJam]

assuming this picture works, it shows why the rest of the country are whinging about Sydney's weather.

But, it IS less than 5% of the possible days.

Similar thing about Melbourne's weather to Sydney's, Fluffy. Everyone bags Melbourne, but Sydney get about twice as much rain.

[bigfluffylemon]

Not boding well for SA to even make the follow-on target.

[alfie]

Can't see them saving the follow on. But if (IF !) Jansen and his bowler mates can string it out for say twenty overs , the Australian bowlers might be a little low on time and energy to knock them over a second time.

SA would still need better resistance second time around. Wonder if they have it in them ?

[mikesiva]

Australia 475-4 declared

Khawaja 195*
Smith 104
Labuschagne 79
Head 70

Nortje 2-55