New look attack lets loose on Proteas
The tears wiped from their cheeks, Australia’s farewelling of Ricky Ponting could hardly have begun better.
Emotional wrecks a day earlier, having been herded into a hotel meeting room and told by the veteran of his impending retirement, Michael Clarke’s new-look attack put sentiment aside to leave South Africa with heads in hands on day one of the third Test.
The contentious decision to replace the energy-sapped Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus, as well as the injured James Pattinson, with a new pace unit was, on the evidence produced at the WACA Ground on Friday, a masterstroke. Somewhere at the ground where his name adorns a grandstand, John Inverarity, the national selector, would have been smiling, even just faintly. Whether it was a gamble or a very educated guess, it paid off immediately, as the Proteas collapsed, rudderless, in a disastrous period either side of lunch.
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In a frenetic half-hour either side of the break, they lost 4-6, then 5-14, slumping to 6-75 as their aspirations to retain the Test world No.1 ranking, at the expense of resurgent Australia, took a nosedive.
The only resistance was provided by their Adelaide hero Faf du Plessis, who was unbeaten on 39 at tea, with the score at 7-141.
Clarke’s bowlers, none of them bar the off-spinner Nathan Lyon seen in Adelaide, starred. Mitchell Johnson, in his first Test in a year, softened up Graeme Smith, Mitchell Starc shook up stumps, and John Hastings, on debut, enticed more edges than a U2 tribute band convention. Shane Watson, meanwhile, shared the load into the wind and in his first Test at home in nearly two years showed just why he refuses to give up bowling.
It was the all-rounder’s precise, nagging output that led to the key top-order wicket of Smith. Johnson did the groundwork, thumping painfully into his gloves in his first over, almost resulting in a catch at gully to Mike Hussey. It was Watson, though, who finished him off. Showing no sign of the calf strain that had proved the latest stumbling block for him this summer, the vice-captain rumbled in, as the first change, and outsmarted Smith on 16, drawing him forward and into an edge that careered into Clarke’s hands.
If Smith was not yet regretting his decision to bat – he had earlier won the toss – he might well have been an hour or so later. As Australia’s quartet found their lengths in Perth, the Proteas foundered. As batsman after batsman exited in quick succession the only company for the lonely man remaining in the middle was the low-hovering Spidercam.
Johnson, justifying claims that he is a smarter bowler than the hit-or-miss previous incarnation, posed a perpetual danger to Smith’s opening partner, Alviro Petersen, and the new man, Hashim Amla, no mean feat given that Amla is rarely given the jitters by anyone. He beat the bat repeatedly, and kept the gift balls, in the past often an unfortunate feature, to a minimum.
The floodgates were broken, however, by the 31-year-old’s left-arm colleague. Starc, playing only his second Test since Australia’s rout of India at the same ground in January, unleashed just before lunch, with a pair of exquisite sandshoe crushers that posed the question: what were Australia missing, in Brisbane and Adelaide, when Starc’s duties were limited to carting drink bottles?
His clean bowling of Petersen for 30 was mirrored soon after by his crucial removal of Jacques Kallis for two.
After lunch, South Africa sailed into even more troubled waters. In the first over, Amla should have been out, but his drive off Hastings was spilt by Ed Cowan at short mid-wicket. He was still counting his lucky stars when A.B.de Villiers, in the very next over, called for a dicey run. Amla was caught centimetres short thanks to David Warner’s excellent direct hit, wandering off for 11 to the Australian opener’s excitement and his partner Cowan’s relief.
Hastings, denied a maiden Test wicket, did not have to wait long either. In the third over after the intermission, his outswinger took care of de Villiers for four, with Clarke handling safely again at first slip. Johnson had a deserved wicket when his short ball proved too tempting for debutant Dean Elgar, and Lyon chimed in before tea, with Matthew Wade’s sharp catch giving him Robin Peterson’s scalp for 31.
He saved the match for South Africa in Adelaide, but du Plessis’s task was simply to save face here.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/new-look-attack-lets-loose-on-proteas-20121130-2al8f.html#ixzz2DhMR5k1z
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