Johnson destroys top order

Full scorecard here

The verbal war that raged in the lead-up to the first Test as to who’s attack was bigger and nastier than the other’s was settled in the space of 100 minutes of relentless bombardment at aptly-named Centurion today.

Until the Australians took the new ball shortly after lunch on day two of the opening Test, South Africa could justifiably point to the fact their opening bowlers are formally rated best and next-best in the world on the ICC’s Test player rankings.

If further empirical evidence needed tendering, they could add that said duo were a sizeable reason why their team remains the world’s number one in Test rankings, a position they’ve held since usurping England in August 2012.

But the ceremonial mace that’s presented to the team that sits atop the ICC’s rankings table come April 1 each year – and is thus deemed to be the champion for that year – isn’t a lot of help when you’re trying to combat Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle on a fast pitch.

Unless you deploy it to clock one or all of them on the scone.

Which might represent the only way South Africa’s highly-fancied top-order will be able to counter the seemingly irresistible Australian pace battery that struck several crucial psychological blows in putting their team squarely in charge at the start of the three-Test series.

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Once again it was Johnson who triggered and perpetuated the carnage, claiming four of the first six wickets to fall and landing a crashing blow on the right forearm of AB de Villiers (52no) that gave every indication it had left the world’s top-ranked batsman with a fracture.

After the tourists lost their final six wickets today for the addition of 100 more runs this morning – with Steve Smith completing an even hundred and Shaun Marsh pushing on to a career-best 148 – the Australians knew they had to make early inroads with the new ball.

Even though the Centurion pitch continues to offer good pace and bounce – at times, almost super ball bounce – it also sports a series of cracks along its granite-like surface, from which the ball is more likely to misbehave when it is shiny new and rock hard.

However, not even the most optimistic blueprint scratched out by the Australian strategists prior to Ryan Harris beginning his team’s defence of 397 would have suggested having South Africa’s first four batters – including two of the world’s top 10 – back in the hutch inside 15 overs.

The most pivotal and clinical of those rapid-fire blows was struck on Proteas’ captain Graeme Smith, who must continue to curse whoever pointed out the historical advantage handed to skippers who win the toss and opt to field at SuperSport Park.

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Not only is his team on the brink of falling irredeemably out of the game at 6-140 – when a typically spectacular Highveld thunderstorm forced an end to play with more than 12 overs to bowl – which still leaves them 257 runs adrift.

But he must quickly work out a way of covering over the mental scars that Johnson again inflicted on his rivals, and none more deeply than that worn by Smith himself.

The most capped Test captain in the game’s history, and a man who embodies as well as inspires his nation’s cricketing pride, was very publicly humbled by Johnson in the time it takes to face two balls from the Australian speedster.

The first of those reared uncomfortably on Smith and crashed into his thigh, the second was even more brutal and left the normally unruffled opener fending for his life and looping a catch that Marsh accepted doubling back behind the slips cordon.

From there, Johnson resumed the fearsome persona that led to David Warner accusing England of showing ‘scared eyes’ during the Brisbane Ashes Test and set about instilling some justifiable fear in South Africa’s top order.

Certainly Smith’s opening partner Alviro Petersen wasn’t about to hang around and flashed meekly at a delivery from Johnson that began wide of – and tracked further away from – the right-hander who did well to get a touch and doubtless would have called for a review if the umpire hadn’t heard it.

By that time, Johnson had 2-3 and a full head of steam that he unleashed on Faf du Plessis – fast and aimed at his throat – who could do little more than shrug his shoulders when it flew from bat handle to second slip.

True to Australian bowling coach Craig McDermott’s pre-game playbook reading, Johnson was removed from the attack after just four overs that yielded the figures of 3-10.

But if the sparse and stunned home crowd thought that strategic withdrawal would signal a cavalry-led counter-charge, Siddle initiated a telling incursion when he nipped one past Hashim Amla’s bat that left South Africa’s most accomplished batsman on the crease and palpably lbw.

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The only person at Centurion not to think so was umpire Aleem Dar, but fortunately the DRS process was employed for the very reason it was designed – to eradicate the howlingly bad decisions.

That left South Africa on their knees at 4-43 with last recognised batting pair de Villiers and JP Duminy to find a way through the mire Alastair Cook’s England so regularly failed to negotiate during the Ashes.

They chose enterprising stroke play as the best method, and each managed to clear the fence in the course of their 67-run partnership until Duminy attempted to launch once too often against Nathan Lyon and was taken care of by a remarkable running catch at mid-off.

The fact that fielder was Johnson surprised nobody who had seen him pull off a similar stunt to get rid of Kevin Pietersen in Perth, though its unlikely Duminy’s career will head the same way as England’s problem child who has since been left whistling in the wind.

At 5-110 the follow-on threshold of 197 loomed uncomfortably large for the South Africans, though it’s unlikely Clarke would have seriously considered bowling again even if it meant a chance to put his foot on the top team’s throat at the outset of the series.

That’s because, as the Australians’ showed with their batting in the morning session, shot making is becoming increasingly problematic as the pitch dries out and the prospect of batting last on this surface is decidedly unpalatable.

Such was the difficulty to get going and find timing, Smith – who batted so fluently on day one – took 33 balls and almost an hour to gather the nine runs he needed upon resumption to reach his third Test century in four matches.

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Having done so, he survived just two more balls before Ryan McLaren’s exemplary seam bowling was rewarded with an edge to second slip.

From there, Australia’s wickets tumbled with regularity including that of Ashes saviour Brad Haddin, so disbelieving that his prolific form with the bat could end with a third-ball duck that he opted to burn a review on an lbw that was so clearly out that even umpire Dar had given it.

After Marsh’s memorable innings had ended in similar fashion to Smith’s, the bowlers were unable to lift Australia’s total to 400 with all three of the quicks dragging deliveries back on to their stumps – an indicator of the movement the pitch offers – to leave Lyon once again undefeated.

Unlike the Ashes, the end came at something of a gallop with the tourists losing 6-66 in less than 20 overs either side of lunch. 

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First Test - day two