Marnus Labuschagne made 79 on the opening day of the New Year’s Test in Sydney before scoring 135 for the second wicket against Usman Khawaja (54*) before being sent off in the final session. After some time, the referee again dismissed the player from the field, this time due to persistent drizzle.
The year’s traditional start, the ‘Pink Test’, began under cloudy skies, but both captains managed to keep the SCG surface clear, as evidenced by each captain opting for an extra spinner in his XI. expected to play like the subcontinental track. Pat Cummins, who welcomed Ashton Agar, Matt Renshaw and Josh Hazlewood to the XI, based his decision to bat based on what he saw on the ground below rather than in the air. Despite the tie advantage, the hosts had some setbacks early on. First, just before Anthem, a returning Renshaw returned a positive Covid RAT test. David his Warner, who served as a double centurion in the last Test, was dismissed cheaply because Henrich hit his shot wide from Norce and slipped.
Labuschagne was dragged into the kink in four overs, swinging the ball to both Nortje and Kagiso Rabada. Labuschagne was unusually cautious early in the innings and just off his 39 balls in the first they faced he scored eight runs before taking full advantage of South Africa’s misplaced lengths. With his short arm he drew a ball from Nortje and knocked out another from Rabada. Short he threw the ball clearly he did not work on the surface and the visitors pitched for the stumps in his 22nd over in the first he pitched only five times.
Spin showed up late in the session, with Khawaja getting a freebie off his Keshav Maharaj, but Simon Harmer proved he could be a good handful with his two overs sent before the break. Did. He spun one sharply over his left-handed bat and found an edge on the next over, but it went past a placed slip fielder.
But any notion that Australia was dominated by spin was blown away during the after-lunch hour. After a cautious start, Labuschagne put in two spinners and hit up to six borders in the first eight overs after the break. The sweep was the most productive of his shots, and Maharaj in particular took the brunt despite being off the center line. Opposite Khawaja was a hard worker, if not as adventurous as his partner, who replaced Hamer just after half-time when he was ruled LBW, but kept the gloves on and put the ball to his feet. When he found out he had put it down, he reversed the decision. He may have only hit 4 of his 6 against his 13 in Labuschagne, but Spin played a big role in wiping out any small advantage he might have had on the pitch. I was. Elgar was forced to summon Quick, but in all fairness that would most likely give him a breakthrough. Rabada threw a fastball to Labuschagne’s chest, and Marco his Jansen seemed to slide his opponent around the stumps first. However, South Africa were denied breakthrough by the televised referee. The referee believed they had conclusive evidence to overrule the soft signal and send Labuschagne on April 70.
Brief scores: Australia 147/2 (Marnus Labuschagne 79, Usman Khawaja 54*; Anrich Nortje 2-26) vs South Africa