I'm not sure you can sit there and say, hey, the pitch fell apart and the spinner went through us.

No, you can't.

It certainly would have made life easier if they had batted first.

But you can't say that that was the whole reason why they lost the game.

That's just not the case.

It never bodes well when you lose a wicked first ball of your innings.

Matthew Renshaw chasing one wide down leg side, gets a little tickle on it.

and they haven't delivered so australia will still start a prohibited favorite in home conditions but then it's india and then after that it's obviously the sesquicentennial test and the ashes away from home how do they move this group forward to put themselves in a position to be successful particularly against india away and england away

the whole day.

And that kind of paints a picture to what this surface was like as well.

To the pace bowlers in particular, it was flat.

Really hard to get wickets on.

Australia toiled all day.

You cannot fault their effort.

Their effort in the field especially, but also the quicks.

What is it about this team that this is now becoming a trend, that they have long periods on wickets that they don't necessarily get much out of, that they struggle to make things happen?

Makes him pretty hard to leave out, doesn't it, going forward, Phil Jaques? Oh,

absolutely he does.

That was a fantastic Test 100.

And he's shown his class again, Josh Inglis.

He's been around this squad for a long time.

He's been the perennial drinks waiter.

Yeah.

Yeah, I completely

And then Inglis and Carey really able to build in innings, firstly against the old ball, and then able to withstand the surge late in the day with the second newie as light faded.

Yeah, their partnership really settled the nerves of the Australian dressing room, didn't it? It was a period of time where if you lose another wicket there, it could have got a few little nerves in that change room.

Yeah.

And there might have been a few people, especially with Cooper Connolly coming in in only his second game, there could have been a few nerves fighting around, but they showed all their international experience, didn't they, Inglis and Carey? Inglis is pretty fresh at this level in test cricket, but...

He's been around the shop for a while, and it showed in the way he went about it today.

He looked assured at the crease.

He played with good freedom and good stroke play.

He looked really confident and really calm

And what a great sport this is that by the close of play, we got a test match, all right, South Africa all out for 329.

Absolutely.

We've spoken about, you know, this being a decider and an era-defining series for this cricket team, for this Australian cricket team, but also South Africa as well.

They're the world chess champions and they want to beat the best.

They want to knock Australia and, you know, they want to knock them off their perch.

South Africa and Australia, one versus two.

We've got a decider that's won for the ages so far.

I felt like for Australia, that's what the lunch break was for them.

A dramatic turnaround from day three onwards and dramatic turnaround in the series when it looked like Australia were having

it all their own way.

It certainly was.

And the first morning, Australia were outstanding.

Scotty Boland bowled beautifully on the first morning.

But it just shows you, doesn't it, when someone puts their head down and you get a couple of partnerships together... how games can turn in test match cricket.

And South Africa just stuck with their guns.

Is it a lack of skill, or is it lack of temperament? Like, which one would you be leaning into more in what we witnessed here across the last couple of days?

99 all out at St. George's Park.

Normally when you have a side bolt out for under 100, it's either... turning like a top or green-seaming and starting wet, and it was neither of those two things.

It was a little bit of extra balance from Mark A. Jansen, but the whole way through the innings, Australia just played away from their body with a vertical bat.

And whenever the ball's bouncing...

You've got to either play with a cross bat and wait for the width, or you've got to get right in behind it and play straight.

And Australia didn't either.

You're going to leave the ball.

And it looks like it's a level above where his game's at at the moment.

And as well as Bavuma batted, it was the performance from Marco Jansen that really changed the dynamic in this test match.

It certainly was.

And Australia didn't really have many answers, did they? They tried to go short to him and he...

He handled that really well.

In fact, he hit it further and really got on top of Australia's bowling.

He rode his luck a little bit.

There was a few balls that landed in gaps and things like that, but it was the intent that he showed that kind of spread the field, and it spread the field for both batters because, you know, Bavuma really wasn't scoring many runs at all.

That's his high score in test cricket.

And yeah, we played right through till after six o'clock and 30 overs of cricket, which gave us, um, plenty to talk about, and certainly moved the game forward a lot more than what we thought it would be at, uh, at Stumps on day two.

Yeah, a very frustrating day, wasn't it? Um, you know, like, in, in most, most grounds around Australia, and, uh, you know, most parts of the world, you would've been on within an hour of, of it stopping raining, even, even when it's heavy rain.

But the drainage in parts here just sort of held the, held the ground.

And coming off a big, long drought, and I think the hardness of the ground, and apparently it's a very clay undersoil, uh, from what Manners was saying as well, um, on air.

It's a really hard ground, and it...

The, the water just didn't get through, and it sat on the top.

And, um, thankfully the sun came out, and the wind was howling in the afternoon and, um, and we got some cricket.

Uh, yes, he was, he was given a life at one point from, um, from Marnus Labuschagne, but the pair of them put on, uh, 50 plus for that, that fifth wicket.

And the fact that Scott Boland is just making an irresistible case to be picked, that's kind of the overall feelings I have, Corb.

Yeah.

Yeah, there's a couple of points, I suppose, to think about with regards to Nathan Lyon in that Bolin's made an irresistible case, but also the make-up of the Australian side have a lot of part-time spin options.

So they obviously felt like they were the best bowlers to get 20 wickets needed to win the game on this particular service.

Test match cricket, very rarely you can get a job done with a part-time spinner as your frontliner.

But in a shortened game, you can definitely do a role.

You know, this ground, like Nathan Lyon is on the honour board at this ground as well.

They are the toughest bowlers, aren't they, when they just don't let up.

[laughs]

And would've been right behind the, uh, the eight ball.

But, you know, some guts, some fight, some patience, some discipline, and, and a lot of grind, and Australia worked their way back into it to be, to get 390 in that first innings, which is...

You don't too, lose too many games when you get 390 first innings runs.

And, um, Australia certainly led, led the charge from that point on.

Um, and then, you know, they just didn't go away in that second inning, did they? South Africa tried their hardest.

You know, they were batting with discipline as well.

No.

Was, was prepared to get hit through the offside, um, and chuck it out into the rough and, and he got his reward today with that wicket of Bavuma at the end.

Actually, we, we saw at the end, end there, it's, it's quite a contrast, with Nathan Lyon probably bowled a bit more overspin and, and looking to get more bounce, whereas Matt Renshaw was getting quite a bit of sidespin, um, on the ball, and good shape through the air.

But look, I, I was impressed with the Australian seamers, uh, as well.

I, I thought Hazlewood was excellent.

Um, that wicket of Bedingham, LBW, you touched on it.

There was a bit of reverse swing, wasn't there? And it was just the...

It just appeared, I, I, I think I was o- on comms a couple overs before, sort of questioning whether they could go a little bit straighter.

But talk us through what you saw in that, that short ball.

Two of those players.

Yeah, I don't disagree with you, Diz.

Um, that many starts, it, it's a common thread, isn't it? And, um, uh, and you spoke about key moments, and key moments are, are what get you through those periods.

They're, it's...

You have your key moments up front.

You have your key moments when the scoreboard slows down a little bit.

You have your key moments when they change plan to you.

Mm

Um, here he is at 30 years of age, and he looks like he's got his game pretty well figured out.

Yeah, he has, and he's matured immensely as a human being as well.

And, you know, he's a, he's now a father.

Um, he's been through the ups and downs, so he's experienced the highs and the lows already, um, at this level.

He's been in and out of the team.

Um, and he's had to go back and he's had to work hard to get back into this team.

Um, and, you know, full credit to him.

He sort of warned against thinking that the draw's very live in play here, didn't he? He certainly seemed to think that, hey, even though we're starting day three and there's only 11 wickets to fall in the test match, that there's still a huge chance of a result here.

Mm

... on the, in the squad, on a spinning wicket, where Connolly would've been more than useful.

Um, and then he's opening the batting as well.

It was a, it was a, it was probably a three-pronged shock to this comms box, and I think most of, most of the people in the ground, um, that, that Nick Maddinson played in.

That's no disrespect to Nick Maddinson, but he just hasn't played first class cricket for, for nearly 19 months.

And, um, to come and open the batting, I, I don't think I've seen anybody set up more to fail than, um, than this selection really.

And, and that, and that's, that might sound harsh, but, um, to open the batting in test cricket when you haven't played first class cricket for a long, long time, it's, it's a big ask.

I'm glad Todd, Todd Greenberg said that, because I think it is everyone's responsibility

What do you, what do you make of, uh, what we've seen here across the weekend, as it's turned out to be, Saturday and Sunday fixture here in Mackay?

Well, it's amazing that it's inside two days, isn't it? It's been a test match that's been completely dominated by the ball over bat.

Um, there's been some pretty ordinary batting, it must be said.

Um, little bit of a lack of application, uh, from both teams, really.

And, um, yeah, you're, you're gonna see a lot more games finishing quickly if, uh, the test matches, uh, uh, continue to be played in this manner.

And, you know, there needs to be something done, um, as far as how, how the batters go about things a little bit.

Um, look at, looking at a pass a little bit to, to work out how, how this game needs to be played on these sort of surfaces.

I asked a question pre-play about where does it leave Josh Inglis? Uh, he's been the reserve bat that's been traveling around as part of this group, and yet it, it feels like whatever combination you come up with, very few people have him in the top six.

What happened, uh, Jacques, here in that, that final session? It looked like the Aussies were just bossing the game, with Smith and Green looking comfortable, and here we are at, at stumps with, uh, a whole lot of questions over the, the Australian batting line-up.

Yeah, great partnership between, um, Smith and Green.

They, they looked like they were playing on a different surface.

And the, the wicket was certainly starting to settle down, and we've seen here in the, in the games that have been played in Sheffield Shield here as well, that once you get to the 30 over mark, it starts to settle down.

Unfortunately, both teams hardly got there.

Um, you know, Australia have only batted 40 overs, and they're eight wickets down already.

Um, but yeah, it just, it was, it was a, a, a bit more of a momentum shift, I think.

What does that tell us about, uh, how Travis Head's going at the moment?

We'll recover from it, and we'll come back strong next week.

From a batting perspective, Smudge, obviously not enough runs first innings from a team perspective.

Um, as, I guess, the leader of our batting unit, um, and, and you scored some runs out there in that first innings and did quite well, what does this Australian team need to do in Mackay in that first innings to set the game up that little bit better? Obviously, runs are important, but is there, is there something you need to do, um, to change the method about how, how you guys went about things in this first innings?

Um, what a, what a professional victory from, uh, from, from Bangladesh.

Yeah, well summed up, Corbi.

Uh, uh, it was a, a well-planned, a well-led, and a well-executed, um, game plan from the Bangladeshis.

They, they stuck to their plan the entire game, uh, with bat and ball, and, and executed better than Australia did.

It's as simple as that.

What were the biggest talking points do you think that came out of the, the Australian innings with the bat?

Well, I think the fact that no batters really stood up and, and took the game by the scruff of the neck.

Steve Smith almost did, um, and then got let down with lack of partners.

Um, but I think the big, the big talking point will be just that little bit of lack of patience.

I think y- you win the toss on a wicket that, that d- that it has a little bit in it, and you have to be prepared to ride those little bits if there's a bit of sideways movement.

And feel like there was a lot of driving on the up.

Um, a few loose shots in there.

Yep.