5 Australian weaknesses that South Africa exploited in the Perth Test

#3 Steve Smith letting South Africa off the hook in the second innings

Smith let the South Africans off the hook often in the game

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 3^rd 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.