Diagnosing the Australia South Africa 2 tests give a picture that SA have dominated the poor Aussies in both the tests. However the closer look doesn’t reveal the same impression. First Test @ Perth, Aussies had a lead of close to 100. Target of 414 is usually a winning target or at the max a safe one. Australian batting collapsed in 2nd innings, however Brad Haddin continued his form to score 90 to take lead past 400. Reason for loss : 2nd innings failure and lack of depth in the bowling.
In MCG, the Aussies had SA on matt at the end of day 2 with score being 7/198. Steyn, Harris and Morkel aren’t very good tail enders to bat well. Yet Duminy took along this guys to score 459 runs in the end and gain a slender margin of 66 runs. Not big lead I presume. But again the Aussies collapsed in 2nd innings. 181 is a decent score to chase. Australians had that attack in the past to defend the target. But again the lack of bowling depth did them in.
Two reasons come to the picture :
· Very ordinary 2nd innings batting
· Very ordinary bowling attack
Australians haven’t been able to take 20 wickets this entire season barring Kiwis. And that has gone back to hurt them. They have lost 4 of those 6 Tests badly. 320 runs, 174 runs in India, 6 wkts and 9 wkts in Australia to South Africa aint miniscule defeats. More to do with the quality of pacers, injuries and the quality of spinners. Cameron White, Krejza and Hauritz have been the spinners who combined fall short of Warne . Clark(e) and Lee along with Symonds are injured. Johnson is fiercely one dimensional, much different than when he broke on the international scenario in 2006. Siddle, Boulinger are rookies. Bracken doesn’t find a favor in Tests. Gillespie is gone.
Add the form of the Aussie batters to the woes. Hayden is long been persisted with and unless he doesn’t score a big 100 in SCG, he should be gone next. Hussey has had a torrid year. Ponting managed 200 in MCG, but he is not in the runs as he always has been in 2000s. Clark has been slow and sluggish. Katich doesn’t instill fear in opposition like Langer did. Jacques should come back from the injury break. Not so long ago in West Indies, Aussies were spoilt for choice between Katich and Jacques for the opener’s slot.
South Africans have won all for one man – Dale Steyn in bowling and Graeme Smith in batting. Besides that, Kallis, Amla – the terrorist (Dean Jones quote), AB and McKenzie haven’t actually fired. Duminy is a revelation, but soon he would be fixed.
I would still bet Aussies to come back hard , win the Sydney test with fair and spirited game of cricket and then thump SAfs in their own backyard in Feb – Mar 09.
