The destiny of the mace may still be in the balance but David Bedingham admitted Australia’s bowlers had already “shown they’re the best in the world” in bowling South Africa out for 138 on the second day of the World Test Championship final. Pat Cummins claimed six wickets to put his team in the ascendancy but on a whirligig day of constantly oscillating fortunes, the Proteas promptly bowled themselves back into contention, with Australia reaching stumps on 144 for eight, nursing a lead of 218.
“It’s an amazing chance, and we’re all excited about the opportunity to win,” said Bedingham. “It could go either way but us as a team are very, very excited and there’s a lot of belief in the dressing room. We’re very confident. When they started batting in their second innings we would definitely have taken this score. So very confident, there’s massive belief in this team.”
But Australia will feel equally optimistic after their second innings was rescued from impending disaster by Alex Carey, who towards the day’s end dominated the scoring in a 61- run partnership with Mitchell Starc after Australia had fallen to 73 for seven. “Kez has been brilliant, he’s dragged us out of that,” Cummins said. “The mood in the changing room was pretty positive towards the end there. It was a great partnership. It was almost like a run chase, with each four getting loud claps. It was a pretty good way to end the day.”
A total of 14 wickets fell across the second day, precisely as many as in the first. It started with South Africa losing their last six wickets in adding just 95 runs to their overnight total, 51 of them provided by the partnership between Bedingham – who top-scored with 45 – and Temba Bavuma. “I don’t think Australia gave us any bad balls. That’s why they’re the best in the world,” Bedingham said. “Hopefully going forward we can counteract that and win the title. I don’t think Cummins ever misses. There’s always energy on the ball. He bowled 18-odd overs and the energy from his first over to his 18th was exactly the same. He’s world class.
“There are six quality seamers out there, I think that makes batting tough. The bowlers have the ability to take it in with the slope, which means the ball moves more, and they also have the ability to take it away. Just having world-class bowlers on a pitch that can move both ways makes it quite tricky.”
Lungi Ngidi, the least successful of South Africa’s bowlers in Australia’s first innings, made amends in their second by taking three key wickets across what became the second-longest spell of his Test career. “I was struggling a bit from one side, but I swapped ends and I felt a lot better,” he said. “Once you get a moment like that you don’t want to let it go because it could change the game. I just kept going until my legs told me, ‘That’s enough.’
“Once we started bowling we realised there was still enough in the wicket to make it closer, to bring that margin down. Just finding a bit of rhythm, that’s all I was looking to do. If you’d told me this was the position we’d be in at the end of the day I’d definitely have taken it. I guess that’s what a Test championship final should bring. A lot of guys have put their hands up. It’s been very exciting, very tough cricket out there.”
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Ngidi’s earlier rustiness was perhaps understandable given that he has not played a Test match – or any first-class cricket at all – for 10 months, before being surprisingly preferred to Dane Paterson for this match. “It’s a long time since I’ve played Test cricket, and that’s OK with me,” he said. “I obviously know why I was selected. It doesn’t make a difference to me, opinions or whatever it is.”
Earlier Cummins had taken five of the last six South African wickets to fall – the other was a run-out – to end the day with 300 Test scalps, becoming the 40th man, and the eighth Australian, to reach the mark. “As a fast bowler, 300 is something I always kind of thought about as a pretty good sign of durability and resilience and longevity, so I feel pretty proud to join that group,” he said. “I still feel like I’ve got lots of miles in the legs. I don’t feel like I’m going to end any time soon.”
