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Port Elizabeth: The hugely-anticipated Test series between Australia and South Africa will be decided at Cape Town next week after the home team squared the battle with a memorable, drama-packed 231-run win in the second game at Port Elizabeth on Sunday.
After setting Australia an unprecedented 448 for victory with a fourth-day declaration that was criticised as being too late and too conservative, South Africa’s bowlers ran rampant in an extended final session to claim the tourists’ final nine wickets for just 75 runs amid failing light and controversy.
While the decision to grant additional playing time – in the knowledge that heavy rain is forecast for tomorrow – as well as several line-ball umpiring calls that made the third umpire the evening’s most influential player, the fact that the Proteas deserved their win cannot be disputed.
The last of those dramas came around 6.30pm when last man Nathan Lyon – who with partner Peter Siddle was hoping to guide Australia to the safety of stumps and possibly the deluge – was adjudged lbw to spinner Dean Elgar who had been thrown the ball because it was deemed too dark for the quicks to operate.
Replays showed that Lyon had edged the ball on to his pad, but the Australians had used their available reviews in a frantic final half hour that saw disputed catches overturned, lbw calls upheld and a needless line-ball run out that cost Australia their last recognised batsman and sole century maker, Chris Rogers.
Rogers, who scored a defiant, assured 107 had not long earlier been adjudged caught behind to a diving, one-handed take by AB de Villiers off Morne Morkel.
Rogers immediately challenged the decision, with the video suggesting the ball had bounced fractionally before nestling in the ‘keeper’s right glove.
But the time taken to review the outcome and the fact the light remained consistent if fading appeared to convince the officials that a result could potentially be reached before tomorrow, and an additional eight overs of play was granted.
That was assured of being a major post-match talking point in the next over when Ryan Harris was – eventually – judged to be lbw to Dale Steyn and his hopeful call for the decision to be overturned was dismissed by the video umpire.
That drama then became in danger of being overshadowed by high farce when Rogers – having batted five and half hours and less than five overs from the sanctuary of stumps – called for a needless single from the first ball of spinner JP Duminy’s over and was run out.
The direct hit at the bowlers end from substitute fielder Alviro Petersen saw the opener a couple of hair’s breadth short of his ground and left final pair Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon 4.4 overs to survive – of which they held out for just nine deliveries.
Prior to the dramatic final two hours, Rogers and David Warner had created the faint hope that Australia might not only survive to take their one-nil series lead to the final match in Cape Town but even float the prospect of an improbable win if the forecast rain stayed away.
In the early stages of his innings, Rogers – who had failed to reach double figures in his three previous knocks of the series but was assured and composed from the outset today – outscored his more flamboyant partner until Warner peeled off four consecutive boundaries from Morne Morkel.
But that all changed in a dramatic hour midway between tea and stumps when the argument as to which team boasts the better fast bowling outfit veered emphatically back South Africa’s way.
In scenes reminiscent of the low moments of the 2013 Ashes series that were thought to have been consigned to the PM (pre-Mitch) era, Australia imploded against aggressive, skilful pace bowling to lose 5-16 in a potentially series defining 10-over spell that began half an hour after tea.
Once Alex Doolan’s wicket was followed by Shaun Marsh’s – completing an unwanted pair for the Western Australia in the match after he returned to Test cricket with a century – the innings went into free-fall at the right hand of Dale Steyn.
Steyn, who was laid low with illness but still his team’s best bowler in the opening Test of the series at Centurion, produced the sort of spell with an old ball that justified his return to the top of the world’s Test bowler rankings last week.
With the fourth ball of his new spell he claimed the valuable – although, of late, not especially rare – wicket of Australian captain Michael Clarke and then followed with the scalps of Steve Smith (next ball) and Brad Haddin (13 balls later).
Following the last of that trio, a maniacally pumped-up Steyn charged down the pitch, hurdled the broken wicket and bellowed at Haddin’s middle stump – which lay prostrate on the ground near where it had been flattened – and bellowed at it as if it were a black mamba successfully scotched as it threatened to nip his ankle.
Brief scores
South Africa 423 (Duminy 123, de Villiers 116, Lyon 5-130) & 270/5d (Amla 127*)
Australia 246 (Warner 70, Morkel 3-63, Philander 3-68) & 216 (Rogers 107, Warner 66, Steyn 4-55)
Result South Africa won by 231 runs
MOM JP Duminy (South Africa)
