When Dale Steyn walked off the field clutching his broken right shoulder one would have thought the Test would be a cake-walk for the hosts who were then in a commanding position at 166/1 in pursuit of South Africa’s first innings total of 242.
The Proteas had also come into the tour without their talismanic batsman AB De Villiers who missed out with an injury. Dented, South Africa looked down and out.
But that’s what everyone thought. They battled the odds to first dismiss Australia for 244 in the first innings and then rode on the knocks of JP Duminy and Dean Elgar to amass 540 and set Australia a mammoth target of 539 runs.
On a pitch that was offering quite a bit for the pacers, Kagiso Rabada delivered the goods picking up figures of 5-92 for the visitors to set up their 177-run victory.Now South Africa played brilliant cricket throughout the game to seal the deal but Australia too made a lot of mistakes.
In this article, we look at five weaknesses of the Australian’s that South Africa exploited to claim a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
#1 Over dependence on Mitchell Starc
After the retirement of Mitchell Johnson, it was Starc who took over the huge burden off carrying the Australian bowling unit on his young shoulders. Though he has had a lot of injury problems lately, Australia have always looked up to him to deliver when it requires.
But now it seems like, there’s an over dependence on him to deliver every time, which in cricket is so not possible.In the last Test that Starc played before this was in Sri Lanka, where to he had grabbed a five-for but then again it was not enough to save his side from a defeat.
At Perth too, he started off brilliantly by getting rid of Stephen Cook for 0 in the first innings and went on to bag figures of 4-71 as South Africa were bowled out for 242.
Now in the second innings, Dean Elgar and JP Duminy took the left-armer to the cleaners, smashing him to all parts of the ground. He picked up just one wicket giving away 114 runs as South Africa got to a massive 540. The over dependence showed as no other bowler could step up to curtail the flow of runs.
#2 Misfiring Nathan Lyon
What would a captain expect from his premier spinner? Surely not match figures of 2/184. Yes! Those were the figures of off-spinner Nathan Lyon who looked out of sorts on the WACA strip.
In the first innings, he got some turn and bounce and accounted for Temba Bavuma and Keshav Maharaj as he settled for 2/38. But he wasn’t quite lucky the second time around as that same turn and bounce deserted him. His deliveries were like easy meat for the South African batters who treated him with disdain.
He went wicketless in the second innings giving away 146 runs from his 34 overs at a high economy rate of 4.29. This was also his worst bowling figures in his 58-Test career. With no other spinner in the squad for the second Test, if Lyon’s off-form continues it would surely affect the team and add to their suffering.
#3 Steve Smith letting South Africa off the hook in the second innings
After dismissing the tourists for 242 and grabbing a lead of 2 runs, Australia started off well again making early inroads into the South African batting line-up.
First, it was Peter Siddle who sent back Stephen Cook and then Josh Hazlewood cleaned up Hashim Amla to have them struggling at 45/2. But then when Australia should have tried to strangle them more Smith let them go off the hook.
Not much pressure was applied and JP Duminy and Dean Elgar ran away with the show. When finally the 3rd wicket fell for 295, Australia still had a ray of hope. The ray glowed brighter when they sent back Faf du Plessis with the score reading 352/6 but they let the pressure go off again.
South Africa finally declared their innings at 540/8, setting a target of 539 which was just too much to chase down for the Australians.
#4 Lack of healthy contributions from the Australian middle and lower order
0,27,0,23,0, 18! These were the contributions made by the Australian middle order in the first innings where their openers—Shaun Marsh and David Warner had set up a platform with 158 runs on the scoreboard. From being 158 for no loss they were bundled out for 244.
Before the game, Dale Steyn had said that they would try and grab the snake by its head, meaning they would target rival captain Steve Smith and that is what precisely they did. And without Smith performing the inexperienced middle order crumbled under pressure.
The same middle and lower order tried to put up some resistance in the second innings with Peter Neville getting to a well fought 60 but contributions such as 34, 26, 13 were never going to get them across the line.
#5 Australian batsmen found wanting against quality swing bowling
In the first innings it was Vernon Philander, in the second it was Kagiso Rabada. Two South African seamers and both of them had the Australian batters on the run. Philander started off by picking up the likes of Shaun and Mitchell Marsh in the first innings with his probing line and length. In all Dale Steyn, Philander and Rabada picked up seven wickets the first time around.
The second innings was all about the Rabada show as the 21-year-old ran through the Australian batting line-up pocketing figures of 5-92. For his efforts, the youngster also received the man-of-the-match. In the whole game, South African pacers accounted for 14 Australian wickets which suggest that on a bouncy and pacy wicket at Perth the Australian batter were found wanting.
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