Sydney Test, Day 3, Close
Friday, January 4, 2002

That was another excellent session for South Africa. They know they can play like that all the time, and that type of batting was long overdue.

Both Dippenaar and Kirsten really plateaued in the middle of that session. Put that down to the spinners. Warne and MacGill really tightened things up when they bowled in tandem - both batsmen mishit a few, and the bowlers started to land them in the right place.

It didn't worry me so much with Kirsten - he's fine with that sort of batting. But Dippenaar really got himself in a hole, and that lifted the bowlers. He hadn't played an attacking shot for ages, then he tried to hit one in the air. After being so defensive, he really needed to keep the ball on the ground. Just a bit of inexperience there, but he'll learn a lot from that innings.

I'm really pleased for Kirsten. He works very hard at his batting. Everyone's been saying he's had a bad series, but I think he's only really had one bad Test, at Melbourne.

He and Kallis are the key to this team. If they can weather the storm and still be there at lunchtime tomorrow, then maybe the South Africans can start thinking about getting some sort of lead.

If they could get 100 or so ahead it could be interesting. But this Australian team doesn't have the same fears of chasing small second-innings totals as some of their teams from the early '90s.

That scenario is a long, long way off though - and I half-suspect that what happened this morning could happen again tomorrow. Maybe not six wickets - but three or four certainly. I think Australia would be happy even just to break this partnership in the first session and get among the middle order in the afternoon.

Ian Healy made a record 395 dismissals in 119 Tests for Australia. His comments will be appearing exclusively on Wisden.com after each session in this series. He was talking to Tim Stoney.

More Ian Healy
Day 3, Tea: At last, they have relaxed
Day 3, Lunch: McGrath back to his best

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