Date-stamped : 08 Mar94 - 10:26 South Africa v Australia Test 1, Johannesburg, March 4-8 ====> Day 1, 4 Mar 94 A thoroughly enjoyable day of test cricket tinged only in a slight dissapointment to me personally as Tim May didn't run through the South Africans as he threatened. The pitch was not the green fast track expected, instead it was a slightly dry, slightly cracked pitch. It offered bounce and pace to a pace bowler willing to put in the effort right up until the end of the day, there was only slight swing and seam but the pitch offered a reasonable dose of turn. All in all a near perfect wicket, the only question being on how the bounce stands up over the 5 days of the test. Kepler Wessels won the toss and decided to bat, this was a slightly strange move. South Africa had chosen a 4 man pace attack, aided by Cronje's medium pace and the Kirsten's bit part offspinners. Surely it would have been preferrable to have used any juice in the pitch first, maybe he was worried about the Australian spinners or perhaps he wants to make Australia chase. Anyways Australia bowled, the only changes to the last test team were Hayden in for the flu struck Taylor, and Hughes in for Reiffel. Both spinners were selected, the preferred option now in the heirachy of Australia. No doubt pleased to see drier pitch, meaning the decision on the third seamer was unnecessary. Inspite of the unlike Perth like pitch (we were lead to expect a group of fast hard pitches in South Africa), the outfield was Perth like, very fast and combined with a smallish ground (larger it would seem than the one day grounds but definately not MCG size as suggested to Neville Oliver). This saw a free scoring start to the match, as with the attacking fields set most balls either ran to the boundary or ran far enough for runs. South Africa had 103 up at lunch, however this was offset by the loss of three wickets. The Australian's bowled well whilst South Africa batted well, however Australia didn't miss a chance and that was why South Africa were three down. McDermott got a lifter to surprise Andrew Hudson and it hit his bat/glove on the way through to Healy. With Cronje at the crease Gary Kirsten who had previously been quite came to life. It was 1 for 56 after 14 overs, leaving Border in sticking position of free scoring batsman and no recognized first change paceman. Of course Steve Waugh filled this slot and luckily for him Hansi Cronje had got a bit over confidence, his dimissal was a very poor effort. Basically he guided Waugh straight to Border in slip. It was startling reminiscent of the slip catching practice footage shown on the news the previous night. This was probably a bit of a bonus, Kirsten and Wessels took them through to near lunch when Hughes got a Hughes wicket as Gary Kirsten played wide at a ball and edged it on to his stumps. Not the most professional piece of play. So South Africa enter lunch at 3 for 103. After lunch things turned sour for South Africa, Wessels guided a ball to third man only to see Matthew Hayden get his hand under it. Ten runs later Kirsten played back to a Tim May delivery that turned sharply and knocked down the stumps. That made it 5 for 126, 2 balls later Brian McMillan dissappeared courtesy of an iffy umpiring decision. The ball from May struck the pad, it was clearly nowhere near the bat, it was however very close to the glove. Wether it touch the glove I don't know. That made it 6 for 126. At this stage it looked like South Africa might dissappear into a hole, a very big hole. However Rhodes and Richardson decided to take the attack to the bowling. The pair put on a fifty run partnership at a run a ball Richardson had 28 from 27 balls. The highlight was Rhodes sweeping May (I think) over the fence, otherwise they played with little real aggression. Driving the full ball, where no fielders resided forward of halfway getting easy runs. In fact the only other forced shot was a Richardson late cut to May. Strangely it suddenly stopped, the tempo changed and runs dried up. Of course this signalled the approachment of a wicket. It was Richardson who fell victim to Warne's flipper. He pushed forward played along the line of a legspinner, it did not spin, struck him low down, pitched in line with middle and was not turning. The umpire raised his finger. The umpire raised the ire of the crowd. Craig Matthews came to the crease, he played Warne better than in Australia but never looked likely to score like Richardson. It was a bit of a surprise when he fell to a very good catch by Boon at short leg, sticking his right hand out low down catching the ball cleanly and then rolling onto his back to ensure the ball did not touch the ground. Practice they say makes perfect and Boon has had plenty of practice at these. de Villiers arrived and refused to leave whilst with Rhodes, entirely inelegant he scored most of his runs with inside edges to fine leg. But Rhodes was still scoring well and the pair put on 46 in a frustrating, to the Australians, partnership. McDermott started testing Rhodes out with some short stuff, for the most part Rhodes had nothing to do with it, but one time got too much for Rhodes and he tried another pull. This time however he achieved a top edge down to fine leg. Merv Hughes would most probably not have got there, but unfortunately for South Africa, Mark Waugh of the injured finger was being hidden in the outfield. He did get there and comfortable wrapped his big hands round the ball. Not unsurprisingly the innings wrapped up quickly, de Villiers seemed to have lost interest in this batting caper. He played one ball from McDermott almost as an after thought and was bowled net ball. South Africa made 251 in 80.2 overs. Good scoring, good bowling, but mixed batting. The ball never really consistently beat the bat, just the South Africans made mistakes that were usually fatal. Slater and Hayden faced seven overs. Slater attacked 26 runs off 26 balls. Hayden got little struck, but received a rip snorter of a short ball first up that had him defending his face, then next ball moved away from the outside edge. Otherwise little seemed to worry the batsmen. Probably Australia should reached 350 by the end of tommorrow. Will they? I don't know. Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 1, MORE South Africa seemed to approach the game as if it was a one- dayer and raced to 103 at lunch. However, they lost Andrew Hudson, Hansie Cronje and Gary Kirsten in the process. 103/3 at lunch quickly became 126/6 as the Australian bowlers took a firm grip on the match. Kepler Wessels was caught in the slips, Peter Kirsten didn't use his feet to Tim May and was bowled, and Brian McMillan was unlucky to be given out caught at short leg to a ball which didn't seem to come anywhere near the bat. This brought Dave Richardson to the wicket to join Jonty Rhodes and together they put on 68 runs to lend some respectability to the South African score. Dave Richardson was aggressive in scoring 31 before being given out to a somewhat dubious lbw decision. Tea was taken with South Africa at 200/7. After tea Fanie de Villiers stuck around long enough for Rhodes to reach 69 and take the score to the 250 mark. For the Australians Merv Hughes bowled well considering his long absence from test cricket and Tim May also looked more penetrative than in any of the other matches he has played against South Africa. In the field Australia performed well and held onto every catch which came their way. With 30 minutes left in the day, Australia raced to 34/0 at the close with Michael Slater scoring 26 at a run a ball. A good day for Australia and they must be looking to build a big score on the second day. Contributed by Frank.Sokolic (sokolic@*.und.ac.za) ====> Day 2, 5 Mar 94 South Africa ended the second day on top after Australia managed just 248 in their first innings. Two run outs broke the back of Australia's reply to the home side's first innings 251, with Mark Waugh and Allan Border the unfortunate duo. Australia's batsmen failed to carve out any significant partnerships despite looking well placed at 123-3 at lunch. South Africa safely reached 42-0 at close. Contributed by goo-chie (jdw5@*.ukc.ac.uk) ====> Day 2, MORE Well anther day dominated by the bowlers played on a minefield of a pitch. Or was it? In fact I think this seems to be a near perfect pitch, there is no uneven bounce on the main section, to- wards the edges some balls seem to keep low but that is inciden- tal. As Craig McDermott found to his delight the bounce is good, the pace fair and the batting easy. Were it not for both teams ability to not bat well this match could be headed for a draw. In short Australia stuff things up today. Neither side has bowled particularly well in this match they just haven`t bowled badly and the batsman have done the rest. Such is the way it was today when from the first over batsman got themselves out. Slater chased a wide ball and lifted it to third man, Hayden after receiving some good balls finally chased one and edged to the keeper, good bowler and bad batting. Boon second innings in a row out hooking, it was a blatant trap, yet Boon went for it again. Boon I forgive you, be dour. This brought it to 3 for 70, a big collapse threatened but Border and Mark Waugh stopped it. For a while at least. After lunch the batting suicide reached a crescendo, Mark Waugh played a ball on the off side, set off for a run, Border did likewise, then Border decides maybe not. Mark Waugh is hence left at halfway down the pitch, ends up run out by miles. It was strange by Border because I`ve seen him take some really crazy singles in the last couple of years, in fact they`ve been hamstring breakers literally. Shortly after Border him- self was run out. Things had gone from Australia in control at lunch (3-130) to basically even. This changed when Healy was bowled by Matthews, Matthews seemed to be the only bowler for whom the ball kept low. Wessels brought back McMillan, he took up the attack to Hughes that so caused outcry in the West Indies. Hughes pushed and prodded, eventually he sent one straight to Kirsten at short leg. McMillan kept up the same attack to Warne, Warne though plays with a straight bat and unlike Hughes was able to keep the ball down straight. Steve Waugh was keeping his end up well but lost Warne at 201 when Matthews followed a short ball with a full ball and caught Warne on the back foot in front of the stumps. The in- nings was near the end but McDermott was about to show the bats- men up. Willing to pull the short ball playing from the back foot McDermott scored 31 runs in 23 balls. The highlight a pulled six from Fannie de Villiers, he also scored several pulled fours from Donald. Waugh was willing to keep taking the single to give McDermott strike. Donald eventually, sick of the punishment the short ball was receiving, pitch one up and struck McDermott pret- ty guiltily in front. McDermott had shown how easy the pitch was, playing easily off the back foot and driving the very rare full ball. Tim May came and went quickly, somebody needs to talk to him. He has a first class century to his name and I`m sure he didn`t do that by just putting the pad out with the bat behind it. He was again out lbw, almost forward but not really interested in get- ting the bat to ball. Australia made 248 in 67.3 overs, that 3.67 runs per over, a very out of character innings for Australia. That figure shows up my opinion of the pitch, the West Indies would be taking closer to 400 than 300 runs in a day. South Africa batted for 19 overs in their second innings, the scoring was slower than previous. There was however as previously very few deliveries that beat the bat. Kirsten may or may not have been lucky to survive an lbw, it may have been pitched out- side leg stump. I wasn`t there so I can`t tell. He was however lucky to survive a stumping chance, it may also have been a catch chance too. In the second last over he tried to sweep May (there a short fine leg/ backward square? and a fine leg so there was no real worth in the shot) and missed the ball (or so I thought commentators suggest he may have hit it). He had come down the wicket, the ball meantime cannoned into Healy`s chest and bounced back. A stumping chance definitely, a catch possibly. Hudson looked pretty secure, Kirsten a bit less so. Where will it go? I think even for these two defensive captains a draw is not likely, otherwise a lot depends on the pitch. It still has plenty of bounce, should keep that for at least the next two days. That means it will be good for batting, there is little movement from the pitch, a small bit in the air, and it is turning. That suggests Australia would win if they were bowling fourth. It really depends on how South Africa bat, the match is even after first innings. 200 could be hard to get, but then the pitch isn`t difficult and it could be simple. One thing I will say is it should be good. Contributed by Phil.Shead (drinnen@deakin.edu.au) ====> Day 2, MORE The second day was remarkably like the first day. Australia scored at well over 3 runs an over throughout their innings but kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. Nine of the eleven batsmen reached double figures but no-one scored more than 50. As on the first day 3 wickets fell in the morning session and there was a minor collapse after lunch which was taken at 123/3. Australia were rocked back on their heels just after lunch when Mark Waugh and Allan Border were both run out within 10 balls of each other. The Australian innings never really got going again and they struggled to 206/8 at tea. It was only a bright 31 from 23 balls by Craig McDermott that got them to within 3 runs of South Africa's score. Allan Donald picked up three wickets and Fanie de Villiers and Craig Matthews got two apiece. South Africa saw out the remaining 19 overs without losing a wicket and at the end of the 2nd day held a 45 run lead with all second innings wickets intact. So, South Africa gained a psychological advantage by bowling Australia out for 248 and taking a small 3 run lead on the first innings. An evenly poised match leaning ever-so slightly towards South Africa on the end of the second day. Contributed by Frank.Sokolic (sokolic@*.und.ac.za) ====> Day 3, 6 Mar 94 Hansie Cronje plundered a century on the third day as Australian duo Merv Hughes and Shane Warne were fined for using abusive language. Hughes was reported for sledging Gary Kirsten while Warne was earlier in trouble for an exchange with Andrew Hudson. The pair were fined $277 each and severely reprimanded for violating the ICC's Code of Conduct. Cronje took full advantage of the Aussies' frustration hammering 12 fours and a six as South Africa carved out a 338 run lead. Contributed by goo-chie (jdw5@*.ukc.ac.uk) ====> Day 3, MORE South Africa took control of the match on the third day scoring 293 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. Hansie Cronje dominated the proceedings scoring a valuable century on a pitch which is starting to give some variable bounce. Honours were shared in the first session with Australia dismissing both openers and South Africa scoring 88 runs. Hudson was bowled round the legs by Warne and Gary Kirsten miss-hit a Tim May delivery for Merv Hughes to take a fairly comfortable running catch behind the bowler. After the lunch break it was all Cronje and Kepler Wessels. Cronje scored his runs off all the bowlers and at one stage in his innings hit 26 runs off 11 balls. South Africa batted through the session without losing a wicket and scored 119 runs in the process. With a teatime score of 249/2 Australia must have been wondering what they could do to break the Cronje/Wessels partnership. The man who finally broke through was Shane Warne. He had Wessels caught bat/pad for a well played 50, the partnership realising 135 runs. A fast tiring Hansie Cronje was eventually caught at point for an excellent 122. In his last 8 innings against Australia he has now scored 742 runs at an average of 106. At the fall of Cronje's wicket the players left the field for about 20 minutes because of bad light. The 20 minutes were made up at the end of the day as the light brightened considerably. Meanwhile Steve Waugh was starting to swing the ball and induced Rhodes to snick one to Healy. Rhodes lived dangerously while he was there and miscued two hooks both of which eluded the fielders. Fanie de Villiers came in as night watchman and saw South Africa to the close. South Africa have an overall lead of 338 runs with 5 wickets in hand and 2 whole days left to play. Australia won't want to conceed too many runs tomorrow because only 5 sides have ever scored more than 340 in the 4th innings to win a test match. Contributed by Frank.Sokolic (sokolic@*.und.ac.za) ====> Day 4. 7th Mar, 1994 Australia ended the fourth day on 123 2 after being left to make the highest fourth innings score in Test history to beat South Africa. The home side declared their second innings on 450 9 to set Aus- tralia a near impossible 454 for victory. Fanie de Villiers quickly removed Matthew Hayden but Michael Slater and David Boon batted fluently in a 77 run second wicket stand. Slater finally played on to another de Villiers off cutter but Boon battled his way to 56 not out from 98 balls by the close. Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) =====> Day 4, MORE Day 4: South Africa continued batting until about an hour after the lunch interval and then declared at 450/9 setting Australia a target of 454 for victory in about 133 overs. Night watchman Fanie de Villiers didn't add to his overnight score and was bowled by Craig McDermott after earlier being dropped by Allan Border at slip. The South African tail built a series of partner- ships which must have frustrated Australia no end. Peter Kirsten scored a half century and Brian McMillan then helped hold the tail together while Richardson, Matthews and Donald added the runs South Africa wanted before they declared. Matthews equalled his previous highest test score while Donald set a new personal best. Donald has finally scored more runs than he has taken wick- ets in test cricket! Shane Warne was the most successful Aus- tralian bowler while Merv Hughes must have been happy with his first test back from injury. Australia adopted a positive ap- proach when they came out to bat but must have been disappointed to lose Matthew Hayden early on. He was bowled off an inside edge by de Villiers. Allan Donald had a fairly wild first spell but came back well in his second spell. Michael Slater was looking solid but on 41 got one from de Villiers that kept a bit low, hit the inside edge and deflected onto the stumps. David Boon reached his half century shortly before the close and will continue to- morrow with Mark Waugh. So, Australia have to set a new world record if they want to win this test and South Africa need to take a further 8 wickets. The pitch is holding up remarkably well and Australia will be hoping for a good morning session. To put things in perspective, Australia have never scored more than 405 runs in the 4th innings of a test match (according to my somewhat out of date copy of Wisden). The 1st day of this test produced 285 runs, the 2nd 256, the 3rd 293 and the 4th day 238 runs. Aus- tralia have to score 331 runs to win on the last day. My predic- tion: looks like ending up a draw. Contributed by Frank Sokolic (sokolic@*.und.ac.za) =====> Day 5, 8th Mar, 1994 Day 5: South Africa achieved a very good victory just before tea on the final day with dark clouds overhead and a light rain fal- ling. Australia needed a good first session if they wanted to win and they didn't get it. They lost 4 wickets before lunch and from then on it was fairly obvious there would be only one result. Mark Waugh went early on and was followed soon after by Allan Border and Steve Waugh for a first baller. The final nail in the Australian coffin was probably the wicket of David Boon. He was bowled just before the lunch interval for a good 83. After lunch three more wickets fell very quickly and with South Africa need- ing only one wicket for victory and the thunderclouds building Merv Hughes and Tim May tried desperately to stave off defeat. Hughes and May frustrated the South Africans for over an hour and then ten minutes before the scheduled tea break the rain came and the players started leaving the field. Fortunately for South Africa the rain eased off almost immediately and the umpires called the players back onto the field. Hansie Cronje needed two balls to claim the last wicket and South Africa had won by 197 runs. Cronje was named man of the match for his scores of 21 and 122 and his 1 wicket. As I see it, the turning point in the match came in the Australi- an 1st innings when Allan Border and Mark Waugh were run out within a few balls of each other. South Africa took the initia- tive from then onwards and ground Australia out of the game with a big 2nd innings total. The 2nd test starts in 10 days time in Cape Town. Contributed by Frank Sokolic (sokolic@*.und.ac.za)