AB guides Proteas to first-innings lead

Session times: 7pm - 9pm | 9.40pm - 11.40pm | 12am - 2am (all times AEDT)

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It was a day of ups and downs for South Africa on Saturday in Port Elizabeth that began with the news their ace fast bowler is likely to be suspended for the rest of the series and ended with a first-innings lead.

Rabada was reported by the on-field umpires for committing a Level 2 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct that brings with it a minimum three demerit point penalty, which would be enough to have the quick banned for the rest of the series.

The 22-year-old will appeal the severity of the charge tomorrow evening, arguing he did not intentionally brush shoulders with Australia captain Steve Smith when he dismissed him on day one.

Losing Rabada would be a seismic blow for the Proteas, who find themselves 7-263 at stumps on day two, holding a lead of 20 with an imperious AB de Villiers at the crease on 74 not out.

It was a long old slog for the hosts on a day that only came alive in the final session when the ball started to reverse swing and the Australians made inroads into the Proteas batting order.

Mitchell Marsh was the pick of the tourists; the ill allrounder who battled a gastro bug on day one snared 2-26 from nine overs at St George’s Park on Saturday, while Pat Cummins ran in hard all day to collect 2-55 from 20.

Australia’s first task of the morning involved Rabada, but it wasn’t facing the electric quick - it was dismissing him as South Africa’s designated nightwatchman.

He moved his score from its overnight total of 17 to 29 before he dragged on a Cummins short ball that ricocheted from bat to body to the base of off-stump.

That would be Australia’s only wicket until after tea as Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla played the long game on a wicket which had its spice rating downgraded from hot on Friday to mild a day later as the sun baked St George’s Park.

The Australians thought they had Amla out twice lbw but the veteran first-drop used the Decision Review System wisely and reversed two poor umpiring decisions.

The first came shortly after he arrived to the crease, when Cummins nipped a ball back off the seam flush into the right-hander’s front pad, but Amla had shuffled just far enough across his stumps for ball tracking to predict the impact outside the line of off stump.

The second chance came almost 30 overs later, this time when he was on 40 and the bowler was his arch nemesis Josh Hazlewood.

Hazlewood’s bellowing lbw appeal was granted by umpire Kumar Dharmasena, but Amla immediately reviewed, with replays confirming a thick inside edge.

In the 88-run third-wicket stand, Amla was the aggressor but only just, as he and Elgar poked, prodded, nudged and only occasionally banished a rare bad ball.

The second session yielded just 43 runs from 27 overs in what was the definition of attritional cricket, but while there was little action in the middle there was plenty of commotion on the other side of the boundary rope that kept those in attendance engaged.

The St George’s Park Brass Band  is an institution in Port Elizabeth since 1995, a vibrant group playing a mixture of classics, perhaps most famously Stand by Me and South Africa’s national anthem.

By the 61st over of the Proteas’ innings the band had already been roaring for more half the day, but that’s when the on-field umpires deemed the music too loud and asked them to pipe down, so to speak.

That request did not sit well with the ensemble, who protested by leaving the western grandstand to the boos and hisses of their supporters directed at the standing officials, one of which was S Ravi, who had been subbed in for Chris Gaffaney after the Kiwi succumbed to gastro.

It wasn’t the first time the band had been asked to turn the volume down. In 2016, Australian match referee David Boon asked for the music to be turned down in a Test between South Africa and Sri Lanka.

But after cooling their jets, the band regrouped and retuned after tea.

And with them, they brought wickets.

Amla had his off-stump uprooted by a searing reverse-swinging yorker by Starc from round the wicket to go for 56 before Elgar followed minutes later, caught behind off Hazlewood for a gritty 57 that took more than five hours to accumulate.

Two reviews followed in the space six balls; Australia referred a catch off de Villiers that was all forearm and no bat, while Faf du Plessis wasted a review when he challenged his lbw dismissal from the bowling of Marsh that was as plumb as jam.

Marsh put in a gutsy display having battled gastro in the past 48 hours to get the big wicket of du Plessis and then No.7 Theunis de Bruyn, both with deliveries that unconventionally hooped back in to take the front pad in front of the stumps.

While the carnage was happening at one end, de Villiers, like he did in the first Test, made batting looking easy, striking 10 boundaries as he reached his half-century in 63 balls.

He lost wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock during his rampage – out bowled by the perfect off-break by Nathan Lyon that pitched on middle and leg, spun past the outside edge of the left-hander’s bat and clipped the top of off-stump.

Smith resisted taking the second new ball until the 90th overand his call was justified somewhat by its failure to bring about a breakthrough, as has been the case throughout this contest to date.

The Australians will hope that trend does not continue on Sunday as they hunt for the final three Proteas wickets.

Australia XI: David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith (c), Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

South Africa XI: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis (c), Theunis de Bruyn, Quinton de Kock (wk), Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi

Qantas tour of South Africa

South Africa squad: Faf du Plessis (c), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada.

Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Cameron Bancroft, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Jhye Richardson, Chadd Sayers, Mitchell Starc.

Warm-up match: Australia beat South Africa A by five wickets. Report, highlights

First Test Australia won by 118 runs. Scorecard

Second Test St George's Park, Port Elizabeth, March 9-13. Live coverage

Third Test Newlands, Cape Town, March 22-26. Live coverage

Fourth Test Wanderers, Johannesburg, March 30-April 3. Live coverage