Twitter Reactions: Australia stare down the barrel, Proteas eye victory

Australia fought back with determination on the third day of the final Test at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Tim Paine and Patrick Cummins dished out a couple of gutsy half-centuries and the bowlers bowled their hearts out. However, it was never going to be enough bearing in mind the dominance South Africa had over the visitors for the first couple of days.

Du Plessis masterful ton propels lead

The fourth day turned out to be synonymous to a nightmare for Paine’s ‘already demoralized’ bunch of boys. Meanwhile, the Proteas left no stone unturned in order to further pile on the agony for the Aussies. Dean Elgar and Faf du Plessis carried on with their overnight partnership and racked 170 runs. Elgar showed tremendous amount of resilience and took the sting out of the Aussie bowlers.

On the other hand, du Plessis played some aggressive strokes to get the scoreboard moving. The skipper was struck by a bouncer on the fingers after which he flung his right hand in pain. However, he didn’t allow the injury to unnerve him. He carried on and raced away to his eighth century in Test cricket. Following the partnership, the hosts lost the wickets of du Plessis, Elgar and Quinton de Kock in quick succession.

Australia strain but Proteas in command  

Nevertheless, Temba Bavuma and Vernon Philander dished out some lusty blows after which South Africa declared at tea with a gigantic target of 612 for Australia to chase. During the run chase, Matt Renshaw had a painful vigil of 42 balls for five runs and was eventually trapped in front by Morne Morkel. Usman Khawaja played a brilliant hand in the first innings, however, he couldn’t repeat the same.

The Islamabad-born cricketer was nipped out by Keshav Maharaj when the left-hander didn’t offer a stroke. The batsman took the Decision Review System (DRS), however, the decision was upheld. Peter Handscomb found the boundaries on three occasions, however, became Morkel’s second victim. Bad light eventually stopped play with Australia requiring 524 runs to win or rather a day to save the game.

Here’s how Twitter reacted following another South Africa-dominated day