The changes Henriques would make to Australian batting order

Australia’s 214 run victory over South Africa was highlighted by career best bowling figures of 6/49 for Josh Hazlewood.

It comes at an important time for the 35-year-old who has dealt with a number of injuries in recent years.

Needing to take six wickets on the final day of play in Durban, the South Africans offered a solid resistance in the first session.

“They sort of dug in and fought hard,” Hazlewood told SEN Cricket.

“Aiden Markram batted beautifully again, we got things moving in the second session, and then that new rock just started to work its magic.”

Hazlewood delivered an absolute peach to dismiss Marco Jansen before following up three balls later with a virtually unplayable ball that had Simon Harmer gone for a duck.

It saw him overtake Brett Lee in Australian Test wicket rankings with 311 Test wickets, which has him sitting eighth.

Despite his individual brilliance, the New South Welshman was full of praise for the work of his teammates and fellow bowling attack.

“I think we had a really good block before that Darwin test, got things all in order and ticked a few boxes there and I guess that's showing now,” Hazlewood said.

“I think we've had a great lead in, our one-day series looked all different, whatever we felt like I guess we needed.

“‘Paddy’ (Cummins) is good from ball one and (Mitch) ‘Starcy’ and I might need a bit more to get going, but I feel like those one-day (matches) were a real solid hit out.”

Following the first Test triumph, former Australian cricketer Moises Henriques joined SEN’s Front Office with Vossy and threw his support behind the Test side.

He focused in on the batting lineup, particularly the efforts of Matt Renshaw who made scores of 190 and 82 while also contributing with the ball.

“We won by a fair chunk, and at the end of the day you can't expect two of your top six or three of your top six to all score hundreds,” Henriques said.

“You're not going to have six or seven batters performing well in every single game, especially in conditions like they faced over there (in Durban).

“It wasn't an easy batting track.

“I think there's maybe some kudos there to the selectors for moving Renshaw down to five, rather than opening."

With Renshaw dominating at five, it’s left a conundrum for Aussie selectors in determining the order for the second Test with Cam Green set to be fit, whilst Steve Smith is under an injury cloud after copping a hit to the head.

Nic Maddinson also rallied in the second innings with an enterprising knock of 48 that kicked off an aggressive run rate for Australia.

“It's a good conundrum for the Australian team,” Henriques said.

“There was a lot of criticism of (Maddinson) after the first innings, but I'd loved how he came out in the second innings.

“He was able to still come out in with a really positive mindset. (The Aussies were) probably still in a bit of a tough situation when they first came out, and going into stumps that night at 0/30.

“And then the next day, all of a sudden we're sort of 1/80 or 1/70 from 10 overs and South Africa are almost out of the game at that point unless there's a huge batting order collapse.

“It was only 48, but it really put South Africa on the back foot early in that second innings."

As for the lineup for the second Test, Henriques believes that the victorious lineup doesn’t need much adjusting, although there is one change he’d like to see in the future.

“You could almost keep it the same and keep Renshaw at five, and have the openers stay the same with Head and Maddinson as well,” Henriques said.

“Personally, I love having Steve Smith and Travis Head at four and five.

“If you're an opposition captain and you take two early wickets, sometimes you can sort of think, ‘oh, we're into it, we've got their best players out.’

“But having Steve and Trav there still to come…they can take the game away from you so quickly, especially Travis, so I really like having Travis at five."

The second Test between South Africa and Australia kicks off this Sunday with every ball live across the SEN network.