Starc saves blushes after “grim” start and questionable Cummins calls

• South Africa all out 329 – having been 0/158
• Openers Marques Ackerman made 95, and Aiden Markram made 78
• Mitch Starc took 6/72 – including 4 wickets in 6 balls with the new ball late in the day

An absolute rollercoaster of a day in Cape Town in the deciding Test.

Australia won the toss and elected to bowl and it looked like a horrible move when the South African openers Marques Ackerman and Aiden Markram put on 158.

The Aussies made four changes, bringing in Cooper Connolly (for Beau Webster), Cam Green (for Nic Maddinson), Josh Inglis (for the injured Steve Smith) and the most contentious change was Nathan Lyon (for Scott Boland).

It all looked disastrous until some late intervention from Mitchell Starc who put Australia back in contention.

Did Australia win the day?

It was one of the more brutal starts to a Test match for Australia in recent history – sending South Africa in to bat and being 0/140 at lunch, cueing mass outrage from Australian cricket fans everywhere (more on that below).

Enter Starc, who took two crucial wickets in the second session to remove David Bedingham (50) and Wiaan Mulder (0) and give Australia some momentum, before taking the new ball in the 81st over and absolutely destroying the South African resistance.

Under cloudy skies at Newlands he removed Ryan Rickelton LBW (42), Marco Jansen bowled (52), Gerald Coetzee bowled (0) and Kagiso Rabada LBW (0) in the space of six balls, bringing up his 20th five-wicket haul in the process and somehow keeping Australia in the game.

South Africa lost 9/171 having been cruising at 0/158 and the game is still wide open. Did Australia win the day in the end given how bad things could have been?

Simon Katich would still rather have been South Africa at stumps for “runs on the board”, despite not taking advantage of their early ascendency.

Was this Pat Cummins’ 'Nasser moment'?

Australia won the toss and BOWLED first - which many questioned - and South Africa inflicted pain in two big matches.

With four changes made to the line-up including dropping pace star Boland for spinner Lyon, Australia won the toss and captain Pat Cummins elected to bowl first.

What unfolded from there just might give the Australian captain nightmares, as Markram and Ackerman bullied Australia’s bowlers with a brutal opening session with the bat. It was 0/140 at lunch as the openers batted in ODI style, with the partnership eventually ending in the second session at 158 with Ackerman stumped on 95.

Gerard Whateley mused: “Out of the side of people’s mouths, they’re starting to go ‘Nasser at the Gabba, anyone?’ It’s got a bit of a grim feel to it.”

Katich couldn’t believe the decision to bowl first: “I’m stunned by this decision.”

Vernon Philander was equally surprised, believing the late withdrawal of Smith would have impacted the decision. “I was very surprised when he opted to bowl first, but it probably highlights the problems that he has been facing in that batting order, and with Steve Smith unavailable for this Test match he’s gone with his strongest suit in the bowling.”

Whateley also agreed that the decision on Smith may have seen a “deviation” from plans on a bat-first pitch to protect a weakened batting line-up, but Katich wasn’t buying that. “At some point in Test cricket you have to face the music. You can run but you can’t hide in this game, you can bowl first and hope that decision becomes the right one, but if it’s not it’ll put this batting line-up under even more pressure. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I’m stunned they’ve gone down this path.”

In the third session the pain resumed with Jansen and Rickelton putting on a 95-run partnership before the new ball was taken and Starc removed both with absolute peaches. Despite the resurgence from Australia, Katich maintained it was the incorrect decision: “Australia made the blue, but now people will say they actually made the right decision, but it’s not.”

Aussie fightback, “dumb” South African cricket

After regrouping at lunch, Lyon lured Ackerman out of his crease as he had eyes on a century to have him stumped for 95. It opened the door as Markram miscued a short ball off Hazlewood to be caught by Starc in the deep. Temba Bavuma then came to the crease and was bowled by a Lyon beauty for a duck, and then Cooper Connolly was thrown the ball late in the session, removing Matthew Breetzke with a successful LBW review to jag his maiden Test wicket.

Four wickets fell for 81 runs in the session, with South Africa’s batters not maintaining the composure they showed to start the day. “What a turnaround this has been!”, Bharat Sundaresan said after Connolly’s wicket.

After tea, a short ball tactic was implemented and Starc removed Bedingham and Mulder within three balls to suddenly have South Africa 6/232, having been 0/158. Cue Katich’s pointed assessment: “The biggest danger after an opening partnership is that the rest of the batters think it’s easy out there. Australia are clawing their way back into this Test match after some soft dismissals. They had a position of strength and they’ve just gifted it to Australia. I’m sorry but that’s dumb cricket. They are letting slip a golden opportunity in a massive Test match. They could have put Australia to bed today.”

It highlighted the flighty nature of both batting line-ups, who can have exhilarating patches of batting coupled with the ability to lose wickets in quick succession when momentum goes against them. “A genuinely intriguing day’s cricket,” Whateley reflected.

Smith withdrawal highlights batting squad deficiencies

Whilst it didn’t come as a total surprise, Smith withdrew from the XI after a final net on Tuesday morning, unable to shake off a lingering neck injury.

Inglis came into the side to bat at five, and Australia lost its best batter for what might be a legacy-defining Test match. Tom Morris believes Smith’s injury has prevented a moment of closure from 2018. “This was going to be the sandpaper bow – the end of this eight-year block where Steve Smith would get back to Cape Town, and if the cricket gods had their way he would be the hero, and it won’t take place. It feels like if they lose, we’ll look back and go ‘this might change the course of this team’s legacy’.”

For Katich, it highlighted a bigger picture issue around why in his opinion the batting stocks in the squad could have been managed better. “If you’re concerned about the batting line-up, could you have not picked a different batting line-up? If they thought this was going to be the case, you fly guys over. It highlights the decision around Maddinson at the start of the series. People made the comments that it was like throwing a dart at a dartboard and hoping one stuck to the bullseye. It didn’t work and now they’ve regressed to what they all thought would happen at the start of the series which is Renshaw opening. The concern I have is there’s three of the players in this batting line-up that haven’t played a lot of cricket of late. It’s one thing spending time in the nets, but you can’t replicate time in the middle.”

With South Africa all out, the Aussie batters will face their first test of this match against Kagiso Rabada and co. on Wednesday morning.

Do we need to talk about Pat?

After 0/96 in Gqeberha, things didn’t get much better for the Aussie skipper, despite telling Whateley on Monday that he was feeling good about his bowling.

He went wicketless again for the day with 0/73 from 18 overs, his longest stretch in Test cricket without a wicket. With Starc’s heroics the spotlight isn’t as obvious but Captain Pat will want to impact in South Africa’s second innings.

Symbolic of the first session, Trav drops a “sitter”

Whilst South Africa was cruising and everything was going their way at 0/102, Markram spooned one straight to Travis Head off a miscue, only for the Australian opener to fumble it straight out.

Adam Collins called the moment. “As messy as it gets and symbolises the hour and a half that’s been here at Newlands.” “That is a sitter” was Sundaresan’s assessment.

It was the only real moment of hope for Australia in the opening session as the pile-on continued, and was emblematic of the struggles of Australia in the field as nothing went their way. Katich joked that it was a moment of “cricket karma” as Head’s fielding position was where Cameron Bancroft was when captured on the big screen in 2018. Luckily for Australia things turned around from there in the field as Starc and Josh Hazlewood pulled off brilliant outfield catches to wrestle some momentum back Australia’s way.

The Boland decision

The decision to omit Scott Boland still had many scratching their heads. Whilst the decision to bring in Lyon looks to have been correct, should Boland have been the one to make way?

Katich was blunt: “Scott Boland is probably the unluckiest player in Australian cricket history given what he did last week with the ball and bat.” Vernon Philander said South Africa would be happy that Boland was left out given the conditions. “I’m very surprised they left out Scott Boland. That’s almost a no-go on this surface.”

After a fascinating first day, the action resumes across SEN Cricket and the SEN network from 7:30pm AEDT on Wednesday night.