Gqeberha: Mitchell Starc says Josh Hazlewood’s stomach bug left the Australians pining for another bowler at times as South Africa took control of the second Test, while insisting Nathan Lyon has put a brave face on his latest omission from the team.
While Hazlewood returned to the team on day three, Starc said he was still feeling the effects of the illness that confined him to the team hotel the previous day, and that his absence had a cumulative effect on the rest of the attack.
Beau Webster took up much of the slack with his seamers, but like skipper Pat Cummins finished wicketless, as did Durban surprise packet Matt Renshaw.
“Coming into the game, you don’t know you’re going to be a man down there,” Starc said. “So Beau bowled a lot more than he probably expected to, and I thought he bowled quite nicely. Beat the bat a lot, so he probably played that role, that holding role a bit more, and came from both ends.
“We saw him there at the end, bowling with the part-timers a little bit as well. If you know you could be a man down from the start, you’re probably playing a different make-up, aren’t you? But yeah, unfortunately, Josh has had a dodgy prawn or something, and he’ll be fresh legs for the second innings.”
Starc and Lyon have long been close, and the fast bowlers referenced his teammate’s emotional boundary side interview during the Gabba Ashes Test, when he said he was “filthy” to be left out.
“Not sure he was doing his sideline reporting today,” Starc said. “Yeah, everyone wants to play every game. You’re naturally going to be disappointed when you don’t get put in the 11.
“He’s been around long enough to put his shoes back on and be the team man that he is, he’s been on the boundary most of the day today, whether it’s down at fine leg running drinks or just a little tap on the back.
“I think I’ve been left out plenty of times, and naturally disappointed that you don’t get to play. He’ll get another opportunity. We know his experience around the group.”
Asked about bowling plans, Starc suggested that the changing nature of the surface had presented a few questions for Cummins.
“Josh did pretty well to get through the overs he did with the way he was feeling,” Starc said. “There’s not as much lateral movement as it was on that first stint on day one. Once the ball got a bit older and softer, it was quite a true surface.
“We changed a few different plans there. At times we went full and short, and other times we hung it out there and they played pretty well. So, yeah, credit where it’s due. It’s a nice wicket, but they played pretty well.”
Proteas captain Temba Bavuma noted that Cummins had favoured the short ball attack for much of the day, on a slower surface than Durban, and that he was expecting more of the same.
“He has been quite aggressive, Pat, in terms of his plans,” Bavuma said. “So I think I wasn’t I wasn’t surprised from that point of view. I mean, we were expecting it. Marco was expecting it, but I guess it’s one thing expecting it. You still have to be able to play it, right?
“But yeah, I think the way he, I guess, complements his bowling attack, all the other guys, and all of them have different challenges, if I could call it that way. Yeah, but definitely not surprised that he used that. He used that tactic in Kingsmead. He did the same thing here. Probably Cape Town, if he’s still feeling good, he’ll probably do the same.”
Some eyebrows were raised when Kagiso Rabada bowled the first over of Australia’s innings in conditions where the floodlights had completely taken over. Nic Maddinson was dismissed fourth ball before the umpires decided it was too dark for anything but spin to be used.
Bavuma admitted he had delayed his declaration because he was concerned the light would be too dim for the start of Australia’s innings.
“I was a bit hesitant to be honest, but that was because of the light,” he said. “ … the sun went into the deep clouds, we weren’t able to bowl the seam, so I was happy to come tomorrow, give the guys as much break as they can, the bowlers at least. But in saying that, we made the decision, and we made some ground tonight.”
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