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Awesome Abbott leaves Aussies gasping

South Africa completed an innings and 80-runs thrashing of Australia in Hobart to seal the series after another abject batting display

The scorecard: Australia 85 & 161 (Khawaja 64, Abbott 6-77) lost to South Africa 326 by an innings and 80 runs.

The day in a tweet: SOUTH AFRICA TAKE THE SERIES! Australia crumble on day four, losing 8-32 to hand SA an unassailable 2-0 series lead


The over: In one brilliant over, Kyle Abbott vindicated his selection and landed a haymaker on Australia’s chances of winning the second Test and levelling the series. The 41st over started with Abbott bowling to No.3 batsman Usman Khawaja, who had added two runs to his overnight score of 56. Two more runs came from the first ball when the left-hander played with soft hands to dab a good length delivery between point and gully. Ball two went for a four – a thick outside edge past gully that raced to the rope. The next two balls whizzed past the batsman’s blade; a full-blooded drive and defensive push unable to make contact with leather. A watchful leave defused the penultimate delivery of the over, with each ball before it followed by the incredulous gasps of the hungry slip cordon. Abbott stopped the fight with his last delivery of the over, landing the knock-out blow with a ball that nipped away, clipped the edge of Khawaja’s back-foot cut stroke and was gleefully held by wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock.

Abbott grabs key scalp for Proteas

The final nail: Steve Smith had been Australia’s rock in the first innings and in the second dig he looked the most comfortable, the most resilient, the most adaptable. He defied the probing of Abbott and Vernon Philander, barely playing and missing during his 82-ball stay at the crease. To emphasise just how obdurate he was, Smith was at the non-striker’s end for 13 of the 17 Australian dismissals. But what makes this South Africa pace attack so lethal is its balance. Philander is the swinger, Abbott the seamer, Rabada the speedster. When the first two don’t work, captain Faf du Plessis can call on his x-factor, Rabada, to shake things up. That’s just what the 21-year-old did to the world’s premier batsman. A barrage of short balls ruffled the feathers of the Australia skipper, who had to repeatedly fend savage bouncers of his nose. When Rabada pulled back his length, Smith’s feet were cautious and unassured, failing to get his body and head in line as the ball nipped the outside edge through to the ‘keeper de Kock. Any hope Australia had of setting a total for South Africa to chase walked off with Smith, and with him, the series.

The super six: Abbott’s display of seam bowling was as good as it gets. Even with a ball 40, 50 even 60 overs old, the 29-year-old found regular sideways movement and beat the bat with what felt like every other ball. While his first wicket – Burns caught down the leg-side – was perhaps more luck than design, the next five were brought about by persistence, pressure and precision. Warner, while unfortunate to be bowled, was restricted by a tight line that allowed no freedom for the free-flowing stroke-maker. Khawaja was worked over in a brilliant over before the final blow was landed. Voges was caught between play or leave, attack or defend, thrive or survive. Starc was sucked in by a full ball that nipped away, and Lyon lifted a ball on middle – perhaps Abbott’s worst of the day – to mid-on to be the last man out.

 

Man-of-the-Match Abbott's super six

The bad leave: When it’s going against you, it’s going against you. Adam Voges was under immense pressure heading into the second Test. That pressure intensified to seismic proportions when he was dismissed for a golden duck in the first innings. Entering at 3-129 at the fall of Khawaja, Voges avoided a dreaded King Pair (a first-ball duck in each innings) and got off the mark from the fourth ball he faced. The 37-year-old added another run before his innings was terminated in gut-wrenching fashion. Caught in two minds whether to leave or pull a Kagiso Rabada short ball, Voges was stuck in between and ultimately guided a catch off the face of his bat to JP Duminy at gully. Voges just stood there in disbelief as the Proteas celebrated their luck.

Bizarre dismissals halt Australia’s charge

The other bad leave: Callum Ferguson had a difficult debut to say the least. Run out in the first innings by substitute wicketkeeper Dane Vilas, Ferguson was then out to a short ball that jagged back, stayed low and cannoned into his gloves on its way to Duminy at gully. Like many of the balls the Proteas delivered throughout the second innings, it was simply unplayable. The right-hander did everything technically correct, but at 140kph, the slightest movement can undo the best batsmen, let alone a Test debutant. Fergsuon kept his eyes on the ball, lowered his hands and swayed away, but as luck would have it, the projectile followed him and ended his innings.

The stat: Only once in the past 112 years have Australia lost 20 wickets for less than 250 runs … and that was on a minefield in the Caribbean against Curtly and Courtney. After that Test in 1995, against the West Indies in Port of Spain, Australia rebounded to begin a 10-year dominance of Test cricket and become the unofficial world champions.

Watch all 10 Australian wickets as Proteas win

The wash-up: Take out the first day in Perth, South Africa have completely outplayed Australia in this series. The tourists have had all the answers with the bat, ball and in the field, all without perhaps two of their greatest players in Dale Steyn and AB de Villiers. Where Australia go to from here, well, it can only be up. Changes for the third Test in Adelaide are a given, and with the unpredictable day-night Test to come, Australia are now a real chance of being whitewashed on home soil for the first time in Test history.

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