After already having sealed the series 2-0, South Africa once again imposed its dominance over the struggling Australian team on the opening day of third Test at Sydney.The Proteas restricted the home side to 267/6 at stumps on day 1 with Michael Clarke offering strong resistance with an unbeaten 73 and Mitchell Johnson on 17 at the crease. The home team took field with two debutants - medium paced Doug Bollinger and all rounder Andrew McDonald. Australia was without the services of the injured Symonds, Brett Lee and Shane Watson. They began the opening day on a positive by winning the toss and electing to bat first. Openers Mathew Hayden and Simon Katich started off cautiously, adding 62 for the first wicket before Katich, fell 3 short of his fifty, edging a Kallis out-swinger to the second slip. Ponting, one of the very few in form men in the Australian unit went first ball without disturbing the scorers. The terribly out of touch Hayden followed soon after getting a start of 31. When tottering at 130/4, Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke attempted a consolidation act but the hopes of a resolute comeback ended when Haddin (38) was cleaned up by a gem of a delivery from Dale Steyn. South Africa’s bowling department boasted of a total team effort as no bowler went wicket-less. The pick of the bowlers, though was the ever fiery Dale Steyn, who sent down 21 overs in the day, picking up 2 wickets for 71 runs.
No comments:
Post a Comment