Australia seal two-day Gabba win despite shaky chase

For the first time in more than 90 years, Australia have completed a home Test win inside two days after the killer combination of a ruthless pace outfit and an irascible Gabba pitch saw South Africa humbled by six wickets in a furious opening to the NRMA Insurance Series.

As had been foreshadowed before the true nature of the pitch was revealed, the match proved a shoot-out between bowling attacks of rare quality with the outcome decided by Australia's marginally superior batting output.

But having been set a notional victory target of 34, Australia stumbled to the point of almost face-planting as Usman Khawaja (2), David Warner (3), Steve Smith (6) and Travis Head (0) succumbed to a fast but ultimately futile opening spell from Kagiso Rabada (4-13) and Anrich Nortje.

It was left to Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green to see Australia home, which meant that after 15 wickets fell for 299 runs yesterday, a further 19 tumbled for the addition of 207 today to set the scene for resumed hostilities at the MCG starting Boxing Day.

The last time Australia won a Test so efficaciously was their 2002 win against Pakistan at Sharjah, on a dry, dead surface that was the very antithesis of the bright green batting graveyard served up at the Gabba this weekend.

The only other Test match completed inside two days in Australia came during the West Indies first visit here in 1930-31, when they were dismissed for 99 on day one before overnight rain in Melbourne made batting tricky enough for the home team to declare at 8-328 before rolling the visitors again for 107.

But never before has Australia hosted a Test in which four innings were compressed into six sessions.

While today's demolition was led by skipper Pat Cummins' 5-42, during which he found himself on a hat-trick, it will likely be best remembered for the moment hours earlier when Mitchell Starc became the seventh Australia bowler to reach 300 Test wickets.

Starc finished with 2-26 from 11 hostile overs, and Scott Boland chipped in with his now familiar double-strike in a single over and the only reason Australia had to raise a sweat and collective pulse rates was a feisty final-wicket stand of 30 between Khaya Zondo and Lungi Ngidi.

Zondo showed some of his more experienced and better credentialled teammates how such a tough assignment might be tackled by surviving more than two hours after a scare first ball, but when Ngidi fell at 4pm in bright sunshine, Australia faced a seemingly straightforward path to victory.

It proved anything but for the 35 minutes they endured this evening, before the end came in suitably fitting circumstances when a thunderous bouncer from Nortje soared above batter and keeper for four wides to install sundries as top scorer in Australia's second innings.

For all the obvious issues batters faced on a pitch that started a startling shade of green and became increasingly pockmarked and bowler friendly as the Test progressed at pace, Australia's bowlers were as unerringly relentless as South Africa's batting was undeniably impotent.

Starc ended the historic day as the headline act after completing his 300th Test dismissal in trademark style by spreadeagling the stumps for the 46th time in his Test career, but a more considered assessment might find Travis Head's 92 (off 96 balls) the game-changer.

If Starc could have pre-ordered a delivery to crown his milestone, knowing it will be replayed ad infinitum across the inevitable tributes that will deservedly come his way, it's doubtful he would have dared been so ambitious as to ask for the one that knocked over Rassie van der Dussen.

Having started its familiar trajectory across the right-handed batter, it hit the seam and cut back so pronouncedly that van der Dussen had left a minimal gap between bat and pad in attempting to cover his off stump through which the ball snuck to hit middle.

The 32-year-old reached the rare benchmark in his 74th Test, meaning he's got to 300 in fewer games than fast-bowling contemporaries from New Zealand Trent Boult (75) and Tim Southee (76), and England's ageless pair James Anderson (81) and Stuart Broad (83).

But in a game that's already produced more than a match worth of highlights across just two days, Starc's clinical strike was almost overshadowed within half an hour as Green hauled in a stunning catch at gully immediately after lunch.

South Africa opener Sarel Erwee had seen his skipper Dean Elgar pinned lbw by Cummins in the innings' second over before van der Dussen was castled, and looked the most solid of the Proteas top-order solely by dint of surviving more than 20 balls.

But that occupation ended when the left-hander attempted one of the few attacking shots of his 40-minute stay, and flayed an attempted square drive scorching over Green's head only for the most imposing fielding presence in Test cricket to haul in the chance at full stretch.

At 3-5 in the eighth over, South Africa found themselves suddenly staring at a Sydney Thunder-esque score.

That ignominy was avoided courtesy of a 42-run stand for the fourth wicket between Temba Bavuma and Zondo who was lucky not to bag a pair of ducks when the first ball he faced took the edge and fell agonisingly short of the ever-ready Green.

But just as South Africa fans dared to dream of their team taking the lead and maybe even pushing on to a surplus of 100 or so, which could feasibly have been enough to force a win on such an ornery pitch, another collapse arrived.

It was triggered by Nathan Lyon's removal of Bavuma, with another of the increasingly potent deliveries that slide on at pace.

Bavuma was undone by the degree of turn and, while he pinned his hopes of a DRS reprieve on a belief it had spun so far it might miss leg stump, his review proved unsuccessful when it returned an 'umpire's call' verdict.

At that stage the Proteas were 4-47 and still 19 runs shy of making Australia bat again, and an innings defeat suddenly seemed likely as first innings top scorer Kyle Verreynne and notional all-rounder Marco Jansen fell for ducks in the space of a single Boland over.

As has become his way in a career that becomes more memorable with each passing Test, Boland locked into an irresistible length and attacked his rivals' stumps to have Verreynne nicking to slip and Jansen comprehensively cleaned up.

It was only a fleeting flurry of boundaries from Keshav Maharaj that pushed the Proteas to parity, but his dismissal moments before tea meant Australia was left to deliver last rites and celebrate an historic win on a balmy Brisbane Sunday afternoon.

Any early thoughts the game that rattled along at breakneck speed on day one might throttle back on resumption had been dispelled by an even more frantic start to day two.

The tone was set from the final ball of today's opening over, when Green planted his front foot down the still-emerald green pitch and drove Rabada majestically to the long-off rope.

Green then repeated that stroke another two times in each of Rabada's next overs, and helped himself to another boundary off Nortje as runs flowed for Australia at a rate of 33 from 5.5 overs.

Along the way, Head pushed into the nineties for the third time in as many Tests and in doing so reached 2000 runs in his 31st appearance.

While the 28-year-old struggled to cement a permanent berth in Australia's middle-order for the years immediately after debuting in 2018, he has proved more prolific to this stage of his career than greats including India's Sachin Tendulkar (1969 runs after 31 Tests) and New Zealander Kane Williamson (1964).

Rabada's 17 deliveries this morning cost 20 runs which compelled Elgar to relace him with languid left-armer Jansen, with the switch yielding immediate results though they came through more good fortune than great execution.

Jansen's second delivery was a wide half-volley that Green looked to smoke over point but instead presented an edge to Maharaj at third slip, where he spilled the hot chance but watched with relief as it looped over his shoulder and Erwee made amends moving quickly from first slip.

Two balls later, Jansen had another with a short ball that strayed down leg side which umpire Richard Gaffaney adjudged to have made contact with Head's right glove en route to keeper Verreynne.

Head immediately indicated, to his despair, his belief that ball had brushed the wrist band of his gauntlet but after an anguished chat with batting partner Alex Carey he belatedly sent it off-field for review.

Initially it seemed the South Australian might be offered an unlikely reprieve when slow-motion footage showed the ball brushed Head's shirt just above his hip before being caught.

But he was damned by further forensic evidence that confirmed contact with the glove before garment and for the second time this summer he undertook a long, slow walk back to the dressing room with a 90-plus score to his name.

If the fact his 92 was around 50 per cent higher than the next-best effort in the Test to that point – Verreynne's first innings effort of 64 – then events that unfolded across the ensuing hours underscored just how emphatically Head had somehow defied the domination of ball over bat.

Given no batter other than Head reached 65 on a pitch that is likely to attract the keen eye of ICC match referee Sir Richie Richardson and those who sit in judgement of such matters, his audacious knock not only bucked the trend but proved the difference.

South Africa's second innings of 99 is the their lowest Test total in Australia since they were bowled out for 36 and 45 at the MCG in 1930-31.

It also extends a worrying trend for the second-ranked Test team (on the ICC's world championship table) who have been now effectively been beaten inside two days of actual playing time in three consecutive matches.

The Proteas final two outings of this year's England tour only went beyond two days on the calendar because of rain interruptions during the second Test at Manchester, and a delayed start to the third due to the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

They have also now gone six completed innings in Test cricket without reaching 200, with their best effort being 179 in the second innings at Old Trafford.

While questions will be understandably aired about the state of the Gabba pitch which many commentators and former players claimed was greener than any previous Test strip they can recall, the lack of depth in the Proteas' batting – as highlighted before the game – also played a pivotal role.

Men's NRMA Insurance Test Series v South Africa

First Test: Australia won by six wickets

Dec 26-30: Second Test, MCG, 10.30am AEDT

Jan 4-8: Third Test, SCG, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Lance Morris, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner

South Africa squad: Dean Elgar (c), Temba Bavuma, Gerald Coetzee, Theunis de Bruyn, Sarel Eree, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Heinrich Klaasen, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne, Lizaad Williams, Khaya Zondo

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