Bowlers, Warner Helps Australia Takes Honours on Day 1
Jan 31, 2019 at 1:59 PM
It was a blistering start to the first day of the much-awaited Test match at Perth with the Australian team after invited to bowl first, got the first leap in the first over of the day in the form of Stephen Cook who was caught by a crackerjack from Mitchell Marsh. A great start to the Australian summer but not for the visitors who had already set standards quite far in comparison to the actual presentation on the field.
A flurry of wickets followed the first one with reliable Amla bidding adieu to the crease on a duck, two down on a score of 5 before Dean Elgar tried to show a fake image of his form before he also followed Amla. 4 down with a score of 32, Faf du plus and Temba Bavuma provided some sense of rejuvenation to the Proteas putting up 49 runs for the fifth wicket before Starc cropped with the wicket of captain just after the Lunch break.
The velocity of the continues blow was somewhat controlled by the two shotguns, Temba Bavuma and Q De Kock who scored 71 runs amongst themselves, first crossing the short target of crossing the 100 run mark followed by eclipsing a score of 150.
Just when it seemed like both the shotguns are moving towards a good total, Nathan Lyon, the only spinner in the team got Bavuma’s wicket.
Despite fall of 6 wickets on a score of 152, the tail was able to stretch the total to 242. Q de Kock was in contention of scoring his century but a misconnected shot off Josh Hazelwood marked the end of his innings and 15 runs later, the batting team was back on the ground to face Warner blitz.
High were the hopes on the experienced bowler Dale Steyn, who hurled a comment at Australian players before the start of the game but a T20 show from Warner, especially against Steyn, put all the efforts in vain in the final season of the day. Facing Warner’s wrath, Steyn leaked 23 runs against him open in 11 balls he sent towards him.
In no time he reached his half century compiling a total of 121 runs along with Shaun Marsh in 21 overs bowled in the day.
Once whilst the South Africa bowling, they had a moment when it could have been a moment of joy for the bowlers but a no-ball from Philander prevented hat moment from happening.
Same can be the atmosphere of ground, run charts and bowling charts tomorrow if South Africa continues to ball like this. However, a turnaround on papers cannot be fully written off but will be a difficult level of task for bowlers tomorrow.