Australia v South Africa, 1st Test Day 4 Review: Australia on the backfoot in mammoth chase

Australia, from being on a verge of complete control till day two, now see themselves on the brink of a heavy defeat after South Africa reduced them to 169/4 after setting a giant target of 539 runs at the WACA, Perth. It was a highly eventful day for the Proteas which could be highlighted by Philander’s batting efforts, Rabada’s fast bowling and Temba Bavuma’s blink and miss fielding effort. The Australians, in contrast, had very little to cheer.

As the session progressed, Faf du Plessis received a lot of flak for delaying the declaration after having built a very comfortable amount of lead. The skipper, however, didn’t have any immediate thought of calling of the innings as he let overnight batsmen Quinton de Kock and Vernon Philander pile on the runs.

The visitors had a firm grip on the proceedings today and added 150 runs to their overnight score of 390/6 to declare on 540/8 by the Tea session with De Kock (64) and Philander (73) hitting fifties. Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, the surprise package in this Test, also contributed later in the innings with his attacking 41 runs knock.

Australia’s chase started off quite convincingly before they lost their steam. The first wicket fell as a result of superhuman fielding effort from Temba Bavuma in the point region. In the 13th over, Warner nudged Kagiso Rabada to point off the back foot and set off for a single. The agile Bavuma reached for the ball in no time and dived in, turned his body to the right and perfectly aimed at the stumps to catch Warner short of the crease and bring the wicket for the Proteas.

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The fascinating part was that Bavuma carried out the whole act while being air-borne. By the time, he fell on the ground, the stumps were shattered and the players had surrounded him. Warner wasn’t convinced initially but the replays showed that he was well outside the crease.

The last ball of the same over, South Africa added another crucial wicket to their tally – Shaun Marsh. The left-hander nicked a good-length delivery from Rababa and handed Faf du Plessis a comfortable catch at second slip. Australia, from being 48 for none went down to 52 for 2 at the end of the over.

Smith and Khawaja strived hard in the middle for a 92 runs stand for the 3rd wicket before Rabada intervened again and forced Smith to nick one back to De Kock. Adam Voges also couldn’t do much and lost his wicket to Rabada. Voges dropped the hints that he wasn’t comfortable at all and could survive only 12 balls before edging one back off Rabada.

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Salvage came in the form of Khawaja who stood firm and batted well to finish unbeaten at 58 along. Mitchell Marsh, batting on 15, will be their for company at the other end on the final day.

A loss looks inevitable for the visitors. The record for the highest target chased by a team in Tests remains with West Indies who chased 480 against Australia in 2003 while the highest target Australia managed to mow down in their history is 406 runs way back in 1948 against England. After looking at the position the team is in at the moment, it doesn’t seem that there would be any valiant turnaround in the game.