Starc, Marsh fire as Proteas falter

Nine years ago Mitchell Johnson ripped apart South Africa with violent runs and wickets and now his successor Mitch Starc is following in his footsteps.

On day two in Durban, Starc’s whirlwind 35 from 25 balls snatched the momentum off the Proteas and powered Australia to 351 before he harnessed the mysterious art of reverse swing to take 5-34 and skittle the hosts for 162.

Starc’s blitz with the bat came off the back of Mitch Marsh’s stoic 96, the allrounder who fell one agonising shot away from a third Test century, while Nathan Lyon sparked the rout with the ball when he picked up two South African wickets in the eighth over.

As Starc blew away the home side, AB de Villiers watched motionless at the other end unbeaten on 71, powerless to stop the rot as his team collapsed around him. 

Despite play being cut short by 14 overs on day one due to bad light, play on Friday resumed at the scheduled time of 10am as brilliant sunshine broke through to cover the players as well as the sparse Kingsmead crowd.

After six fruitless overs with the old reverse-swinging ball were negotiated by Marsh and Tim Paine, du Plessis ordered the second new rock and threw it to his young spearhead Kagiso Rabada, who needed only four balls to find the edge and remove the Australian wicketkeeper for 25.

Rabada was expressionless when he captured the wicket of Usman Khawaja almost 24 hours earlier but when Quinton de Kock swallowed Paine the express paceman let out a mighty celebration, flexed his muscles and was rushed by his teammates. 

The next ball, Pat Cummins’ first, left Rabada aghast as the batsman shouldered arms to a delivery that angled in with the seam and missed off-stump by what can only be measured in atoms. 

Cummins, promoted ahead of Starc for the first time in Tests, batted for 51 minutes, soaked up 38 balls and hit one scoring shot for three before he was beaten by a straight-break from Maharaj that uprooted middle stump.

While on the scoresheet it might look like a failure, in truth Cummins ticked off Australia’s Key Performance Indicator for a lower-order batsman of facing at least 30 balls per innings and by doing so help take the shine off the second new ball.

It meant when Starc walked to the crease, he was greeted with a ball that wasn’t swinging and coming nicely on to the bat, and after five balls the left-hander had three boundaries, the last of which a glorious straight drive off Morne Morkel.

Starc next slogged Maharaj to and over the rope in one over and added another six four balls later as the lubricated fans on the beer-sponsored south-western bank strapped themselves in for some catching practice. 

Image Id: AD7D83129B384EBD815A3B32B89E06E0 Image Caption: Starc lines up Maharaj // Getty

Marsh, meanwhile, was slowly ticking over the scoreboard as the innings anchor and hit his only four of the morning to bring up his half-century from 125 balls and almost three-and-a-half hours at the crease.

It was undoubtedly Australia’s session before Starc was castled by Maharaj, beaten on the outside edge, on what was the last ball of the morning to end the entertaining eighth-wicket partnership on 49. 

After lunch it was Marsh’s turn to up the ante as No.10 Lyon proved a reliable rock at the other end.

Cutting with fierce power, Marsh collected a brace of boundaries off seamer Vernon Philander past and through de Villiers stationed at short backward point, before he turned his attention to the left-arm spinner and delivered the same maximum damage Starc inflicted.

He moved to 96 with a streaky edge to third man, and perhaps sensing his innings mortality from his only false stroke of the day, attempted to lift Philander down the ground from the next ball to bring up Test hundred No.3.

Unluckily for Marsh, his miscued lofted drive picked out the tallest man on the field as Morkel jumped skyward, hands high above his head to reel in the catch that would have soared over any other Protea and brought Marsh three-figures.

Image Id: CC4B904E34BA46F2AB0B9FF233FEF7AB Image Caption: Oh no! // Getty

Australia’s innings wrapped up when Lyon skied Maharaj to give his rival spinner five wickets as the tourists posted 351, a score 70 more than they deemed competitive at the start of the day.

Starc took the new ball for Australia and hit speeds of 148kph in his opening over but like their opponents yesterday morning, turned to spin in the early stages once swing or seam movement was not detected.

The move to bring on Lyon was two-fold; first to target left-handed opener Dean Elgar and secondly to act as a catalyst in roughing the ball up.

Steve Smith has spoken in the past how he’s reluctant to bowl his off-spinner when the ball is reversing because he can flatten the rough side of the ball, but when he’s got a pristine pill in his hands that’s not an issue and in fact accelerates the ageing process.

However, that was an afterthought when Lyon held on to a sharp return catch from Elgar’s leading edge, and three balls later Hashim Amla joined his opener back in the dressing room after he squirted a catch to Cameron Bancroft at bat-pad to depart without scoring. 

The Australians captured one more wicket in the session, that of Aiden Markram, who played a Cummins bouncer aimed at the armpit to Bancroft at short-leg to go for 32.

When the teams returned de Villiers and Faf du Plessis were at the crease and represented the danger partnership for Smith’s charges.

Du Plessis took on Lyon and deposited him over cow corner with a skip down the wicket and effortless swing of the bat as he motored along and saw the end of the spinner’s 10-over spell.

Smith needed a killer blow and tossed the ball to Starc, who operated from around the wicket to the right-handers like he would at the death in a limited-overs match.

With a reverse-swinging ball, Starc struck two balls into his first over ball, nipping a high-speed delivery away just enough to take the edge of du Plessis’ forward defence through to Paine with the gloves.

History repeated less than six overs later when Theunis de Bruyn played down the wrong line to Starc and was caught behind by Paine to leave the home side on the back foot and still some 42 runs from avoiding the follow-on.

Image Id: E6D3188D56FA4ED385589D1E6FB51977 Image Caption: Got him! // Cricket Network
Image Id: AA70E9F721A444ACA0CC25F60A9789B7 Image Caption: Gone! // Cricket Network

That milestone was never in danger with de Villiers at the crease, who played a handful of sumptuous straight drives that were a pleasure to watch, which made it even more upsetting there wasn’t a packed crowd in attendance to enjoy the work of one of the modern greats. 

Armed with a new ball after the old Kookaburra was deemed out of shape out of shape by the on-field umpires, Lyon snapped a 42-run sixth-wicket stand when he zipped one past de Kock, whose back foot was rooted to crease as he missed an upright punch aimed for the off-side.

With the day’s play extended an additional half on top of the extra 30 minutes to make up for the overs lost yesterday, Smith recalled Starc for a crack at the Proteas tail and the left-hander delivered.

After Smith lost a review by referring a caught behind appeal that was nowhere near Philander’s bat, the next ball Starc found the edge through to Paine, who took another well-judged low catch. 

Starc then trapped Rabada and bowled Morkel in the space of three searing inswinging deliveries to complete his five-wicket haul and South Africa’s collapse of 5-12 while de Villiers helplessly watched the action unfold from the non-striker’s end.

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

SOUTH AFRICA XI: Aiden Markram, Dean Elgar, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Theunis de Bruyn, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Morne Morkel.

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 Kingsmead, Durban, March 1-5

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

Third Test Newlands, Cape Town, March 22-26

Fourth Test Wanderers, Johannesburg, March 30-April 3