De Kock, who will resume on 81, and Morne Morkel survived some nine overs as Smith and Nathan Lyon unsuccessfully attempted to end the final partnership in gloomy conditions.
Advertisement
South Africa may be doomed to defeat in the first Test against Australia but opening batsman Aiden Markram said after a career-defining century that his team’s hopes had been raised for the rest of the four-match series.
In reality, Australia have been clearly superior in the first four days of the contest, starting when they made 351 in their first innings and rolled South Africa out for 162 for a 189-run first-innings lead.
“It was good fun, but this bowling unit has confidence in each other and we all complement each other really well”, Starc said after grabbing five wickets in South Africa’s first innings.
AB de Villiers was run out after facing a single ball and then captain Faf du Plessis scored only four before having his stumps knocked out of the ground by Pat Cummins.
With Markram’s dismissal began South Africa’s collapse.
Warner’s behaviour came under the spotlight earlier on the fourth day when he ran out AB de Villiers after a mix-up with Markram with him then yelling in Markram’s direction during the celebration. De Kock reviewed the verdict but it only delayed the inevitable.
“The biggest character of this team is we’ll never go down without a fight”.
Michell Starc edged Mitch Marsh to earn man of-the-match honours.
The left-armer’s scintillating over would be the last bowed by a paceman as the final nine overs were sent down by spin twins Nathan Lyon and Steve Smith, who couldn’t capture the last wicket needed for victory and a day off before the umpires deemed it too dark to continue.
While on-field comments meant to unsettle the opposition are common in test cricket, and even has a term dedicated to it – “sledging” – the exchange between Warner and de Kock appears to have got personal, with family members brought into it.
“There was a real difference in skill with the reverse swing”, said Du Plessis, who said Starc and South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada were the two stand-outs.
Coach Ottis Gibson has added to the feeling by questioning the strength of the domestic game after the T20 series against India.”The gulf between domestic cricket and global cricket is still quite a wide one”, he said.
But the incoming De Kock saw off his bad form and hung in there with the steady Markram and took South Africa to tea with the score at 167/5 at tea. Australia has not lost a series in South Africa since the end of apartheid, winning five and drawing two.
Maharaj looks like a world-class spinner with his match haul of 9-225 and out-bowled his counterpart Lyon in the battle of the tweakers.
Lyon started the slide for the hosts and finished with three for 50 before the tall left-armer Starc gave a magnificent display of fast, reverse swing bowling to take five for 34. If a player accrues four demerit points within 24 months, he receives a one-Test or two-limited-over game ban.
Advertisement
The rivalry has featured no shortage of incredible finishes, with South Africa’s three highest fourth-innings chases all coming against Australia. It was just reminding him of what he had just done, trying to get him off his game, the same as they do to us.
