SA vs AUS, 2nd Test, Review: South Africa level the series courtesy Rabada and De Villiers

South Africa have defeated Australia in the second Test match by 6 wickets in Port Elizabeth and have levelled the four-match series. It was not all too easy for the hosts in their second innings as they lost four wickets while chasing a small total of 101 runs. Though the Aussie bowlers tried their best, they didn’t have runs in their kitty to unsettle the nerves of the Proteas. The chase was once again shepherded by AB de Villiers and made sure that there were no hiccups. However, Australia were beaten by a better side in the game and the series is setup nicely now.

South Africa lost their openers Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram in the pursuit of a small score of 101 in their second innings. While the former was scalped by Nathan Lyon on 5, Josh Hazlewood dismissed his partner Markram to leave South Africa worried at 34/2. But the arrival of AB de Villiers calmed the nerves as he counter-attacked perfectly to make sure that the visitors don’t get any chance to make a comeback in the game.

However, Australia kept coming at them and picked the wickets of De Villiers and Hashim Amla with 20 runs still to get. In the end, it was the duo of Faf du Plessis and Theunis de Bruyn who won the game for the home side and helped them level the series.

What happened in the morning?

Earlier in the morning, the overnight pair of Mitchell Marsh and Tim Paine walked out to the middle in order to extend their lead somehow. But their ambitions were blown away by Kagiso Rabada who castled the former with a fiery and pacy delivery in the very first over of the day. Soon, he sent back Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc to take his tally of wickets in the game to 11. He reverse swung the ball impeccably well as the tailenders of the Aussies had no idea whatsoever.

Lungi Ngidi scalped Nathan Lyon as the last wicket stand frustrated South Africa again. They added 28 runs to take the lead into three figures as Paine played well with Hazlewood who played his shots against the left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj. Eventually, he only took the final wicket as the latter holed out in the deep in pursuit of quick runs. Australia were bowled out for 239 runs in their second innings with a lead exactly of 100.

Rabada was the best bowler of the lot as he returned with the figures of 6/54 to go with 5/96 in the first innings. The other bowlers supported him well in both the innings. The required runs were gunned down by the hosts with utter ease even though they lost 3 wickets in the end.

Kagiso Rabada deservedly won the Man of the Match award for his 11-wicket haul in the match.

Brief Scores

Australia 243 after 71.3 overs (D Warner 63; K Rabada 5/96, L Ngidi 3/51) & 239 after 79 overs (U Khawaja 75, M Marsh 45; K Rabada 6/54)

South Africa 382 after 118.4 overs (De Villiers 126*, D Elgar 57, H Amla 56; M Marsh 2/26, P Cummins 3/79) & 101/4 after 22.5 overs (De Villiers 28; N Lyon 2/44)

Result: South Africa won by 4 wickets

Man of the Match: Kagiso Rabada