Australia might not have walked as disappointed as they would have been maybe an hour ago before the stumps, as the reigning champions recovered the lost ground with an invaluable 61-run partnership between Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc for the eighth wicket in their second innings against South Africa in the World Test Championship (WTC). Australia were tottering at 73/7 before a few near-misses and some erratic bowling from the Proteas pacers meant that the holders' tail wagged a bit to take the lead past 200.
Australia were effectively 218/8 by the end of the second day's play as South Africa, even though would be positive about chasing anything below 230-235 but inside, would be feeling that they missed a chance of bundling Pat Cummins and Co under a total lead of 200. The eighth wicket partnership and that counter-attacking knock by Carey of 43 off just 50 balls probably put Australia back into the thick of things after Lungi Ngidi was all over the Aussie middle-order.
After taking a 74-run lead, thanks to skipper Pat Cummins' record-breaking six-fer, Australia were all over South Africa like a rash and would have fancied themselves to bat them out of the game. Still, the pitch continued to assist the bowlers and Ngidi, who had a poor outing on Day 1, decided to amend things for his team and himself, keeping in that uncertainty channel while bowling on the seam.
Ngidi shines but Carey doesn't give up
Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja were cautious to start with and forced South Africa to go on the backfoot as Australia were 100 for no loss, cumulatively. But it was Kagiso Rabada yet again for the Proteas to get Khawaja and Cameron Green in the same over once again and the floodgates opened. There wasn't a whole lot of swing but the ball was still moving off the seam and Ngidi exploited it perfectly to get three massive wickets in his marathon nine-over spell.
Wiaan Mulder got one to move in and accounted for a massive wicket of Travis Head and at 73/7, it seemed like South Africa were in the driver's seat not for the first time in the match but Carey and Mitchell Starc with that dogged stand managed to snatch and pull the rug in time to help Australia cross the 200-run mark. Skipper Pat Cummins mentioned that at the fall of his wicket, he was hoping for his side to cross that 200 mark, when they were 53 runs away and didn't mind 20-30 more now that Australia are inching towards the 250 mark.
For South Africa, taking those two wickets as quickly as possible will be key before the batters' test begins again. Earlier, the day started on a good note for the Proteas, scoring 78 runs in the first session, losing just one wicket. However, Cummins ran riot after lunch as South Africa went from 126/5 to 138 all out. It could have been the decisive moment of the game but because of the bowlers, the Proteas are still hanging around like a bad smell.