South Africa have had to put up with a fair few grumbles about their place in this World Test Championship final and grew tired of the topic during the buildup. Other than pointing folks in the direction of the International Cricket Council, the teams who can afford to arrange more fixtures and the league table they topped, the only response they could really give was to compete out on the field.
It was a case of mission accomplished with the ball, at least, even if a topsy-turvy opening day that witnessed 14 wickets ended with Australia in the ascendancy. Led by Kagiso Rabada, a player dogged by headlines about his recent ban for cocaine use, the Proteas had razed the defending champions for 212 in two and a bit sessions, only to close on a troubling 43 for four in reply.
A penny for the thoughts of Temba Bavuma. Other than missing the chance to review what would have been a three-red lbw against Beau Webster on eight – the giant all-rounder top scored on 72 – South Africa’s captain had enjoyed a pretty faultless day in the field. It helps to have a bowler with the qualities of Rabada, who claimed five for 51, but Bavuma still shuffled his pack shrewdly.
And yet by the close Bavuma found himself clinging on for dear life amid a clatter of wickets, reaching three not out after taking 31 balls to simply get off the mark. It was tough going out there, Mitchell Starc wiping out both openers, Pat Cummins castling the makeshift No 3 Wiaan Mulder and Josh Hazlewood doing the same to Tristan Stubbs. Bavuma will resume alongside David Bedingham on day two, the pair tasked with chiselling away at what is now a daunting 169-run deficit.
Fair play to Australia, Bavuma might be forgiven for thinking, they just keep coming. Even with Rabada in such a rich groove, and the wiry Marco Jansen providing a left-arm counterpoint for figures of three for 49, a competitive total was still somehow achieved. There is a reason this lot keep winning trophies.
Here it owed plenty to 6ft 6in Webster, who rode his luck at times, plus the latest chapter in Steve Smith’s love affair with Lord’s. Making 66, and supporting the notion his mojo has very much returned, Australia’s master moved to 591 career runs at the ground – the most by any visitor in Test history and having gone past Don Bradman (551), Garry Sobers (571) and Warren Bardsley (575) en oute.
Rabada has a penchant for the place too, this his second appearance on the honours boards. Despite hailing from Johannesburg, 8,000 miles south of St John’s Wood, he almost feels born to bowl from the Nursery End. And once the smoke cleared from the pre-match pyrotechnics, the 30-year-old set about showing this with a probing burst of wobble-seam that reduced Australia to 67 for four by lunch.
There was plenty in South Africa’s favour when Bavuma won the toss, be it the blanket of cloud cover, the floodlights at full beam or the 10.30am start to suit overseas audiences. But all this still needed harnessing and Bavuma also knew that the sun would eventually break through as the ball got older.
It also helped that Australia’s top order had been reshuffled to accommodate Cameron Green and is still yet to replace the aggression of the retired David Warner. Usman Khawaja fell for a painstaking duck that lasted 20 balls, while Green’s first foray at No 3 came and went in the very same over. Rabada was the man to strike twice courtesy of some sublime catching in the cordon.
Marnus Labuschagne was watching all this unfold from the other end, with his first stab at opening not exactly exuding permanence either. In the end, having chiselled his way to 17, Labuschagne was the first of two wickets for Jansen that made it South Africa’s morning. He nibbled at one outside off stump, before Travis Head, man of the final two years ago, was strangled down leg for 11.
This brought the first of Australia’s fightbacks on the day, Webster joining the already encamped Smith after the restart and stitching together a stand worth 79 runs.
In the end it took a stroke of fortune to prise out Smith, Bavuma introducing the part-time spin of Aiden Markram to facilitate a change of ends for the metronomic Mulder and seeing a drive held with juggle at slip by Jansen.
It was the one wicket to fall in a session that suggested runs were in fact on offer out there. But after Australia resumed on 190 for five, a collapse of five for 20 followed. Though sparked by Alex Carey missing a reverse sweep to Keshav Maharaj on 23, it was Rabada who took centre stage. A high-speed seamer did for Cummins, swing did for Webster. And after Jansen knocked over Nathan Lyon, the rearrangement of Starc’s stumps wrapped things up.
But as Rabada basked in the afterglow of his feat and the turning of the page in his personal story, his colleagues wilted in reply. As well as a lack of aggression, full and straight was their undoing. Oh, and a trio of fast bowlers who have delivered a fair haul of silverware in their time and are seemingly not sated.
