South Africa beat Australia by an innings and 31 runs in Gqeberha on Thursday to level the series 1-1, bowling the tourists out for 295 an hour after tea. Travis Head’s 121 and Scott Boland’s 166-ball 40 delayed the result after rain washed out the first session.
Gqeberha, South Africa: Australia asked for 81 overs of resistance and gave South Africa a long afternoon before the end came. Marco Jansen took the last wicket, Josh Hazlewood edging to slip, and the second Test was over with Australia on 99 and 295 against South Africa’s 425 for 9 declared.
Head holds the line
Rain wiped out the first session, and Australia resumed on 156 for 4, still 170 runs behind and following on. Travis Head began on 87 and reached his 13th Test century, finally falling for 121 off 190 balls, with 15 fours, when he chopped a short ball from Wiaan Mulder onto his stumps with Australia on 209 for 5. The Jansen-led demolition of day four had set the task; Head made South Africa work for it.
Boland’s 166-ball stand
Scott Boland walked in as nightwatchman at 150 for 4 and resumed on 2. He faced 166 balls, more than 27 overs, and reached tea on 40 alongside Alex Carey, almost doubling his previous Test-best of 21. He shared stands of 59 with Head, 16 with Steve Smith and 31 with Carey, three partnerships that kept Australia in the match well into the final session.
It was not an innings of strokes: 40 runs from 166 deliveries is a run every four balls or so. It was the kind of innings a Test draw demands, where time at the crease is the only currency and every ball survived makes an innings defeat a little harder to deliver. For a fast bowler who had already taken two wickets in two balls on day one, it was a second job done well. It was also not enough. Soon after the restart Mulder sent a ball through the gap between bat and pad, and Boland became Australia’s seventh wicket.
South Africa without Nortje
South Africa did the job a bowler short. Anrich Nortje left the field with a suspected groin injury on the morning of day four, three balls into his fourth over during Australia’s first innings, and Cricket South Africa said he would undergo further assessment. He did not bowl again in Australia’s second innings, so the load fell to Kagiso Rabada, Mulder, Jansen and spinner Simon Harmer, who took 2 for 93. Rabada finished with 4 for 77, Mulder with 3 for 64 and Jansen with six wickets in the match.
The tail goes quickly
Smith, playing with a neck problem picked up in the first innings, had gone for 3 off 20 balls, skying a pull off Rabada and caught at midwicket by Matthew Breetzke after a juggle, to leave Australia on 225 for 6. After tea Mulder bowled Boland and then Pat Cummins, who fell shortly after hitting a boundary, for 262 for 8. Rabada bowled Mitchell Starc, ending a 28-run stand with Carey, and Jansen had Hazlewood caught at slip by Aiden Markram for a duck. Carey was left unbeaten on 37.
Cape Town decides it
Australia had won the opening Test in Durban by 214 runs, so the series now stands 1-1 and the decider begins at Newlands in Cape Town on Tuesday 27 October. South Africa’s captain Temba Bavuma acknowledged that Australia had made his side work hard for the final six wickets. The innings win owed much to Bavuma’s 179 and Jansen’s 85, and the contrast with Australia’s first-innings 99 will weigh on the tourists.
Result summary: South Africa beat Australia by an innings and 31 runs in the second Test at St George’s Park, Gqeberha. Series 1-1.
South Africa 425 for 9 declared (Temba Bavuma 179, Marco Jansen 85). Australia 99 (Marco Jansen 5/33) and 295 (Travis Head 121, Scott Boland 40, Alex Carey 37 not out; Kagiso Rabada 4/77, Wiaan Mulder 3/64, Simon Harmer 2/93).
