3rd Orange Test: Australia v South Africa at Sydney, 2-6 Jan 2002 CricInfo Live Report

3rd Orange Test: Australia v South Africa at Sydney, 2-6 Jan 2002
John Polack

Australia 1st innings: Lunch - Day 2, Tea - Day 2,
South Africa 1st innings: Stumps - Day 2,
Live Reports from previous days

COMEBACK KIDS STAND TALL AS PROTEAS WITHER AGAIN

Like Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer before him, Australia’s Damien Martyn knows the experience of having plumbed the depths of an international cricket career. Quite fitting toward the end of this world championship battle, then, that it should be those three players who have again helped Australia to stand tall by the end of the second day of the Third Test against South Africa in Sydney.

After the twin left handers had held court yesterday, it was the turn of right handed batsman Martyn (117) to dominate today in seamlessly transforming a vigilant innings into a flashy century. With South Africa reduced to 4/93 by stumps as it pursues Australia’s monstrous first innings total of 554, the effect of his fourth Test ton is already manifest.

Hayden, Langer and Martyn have all been left to fight their way back into this side after incurring the wrath of the national selection panel at various stages of their careers. And yet, after Martyn’s clinical disassembly of the South African attack today, few players in the world are closer to the top of the game right now.

Laced by ongoing controversy about the inclusion of Justin Ontong in its eleven, it was meanwhile a cheerless day for the Proteas.

Martyn started nervously as Australia resumed at 5/308, playing and missing a number of times and also skying a pull off the bowling of Shaun Pollock (3/109). Further difficulties were posed by the thought that this ground had previously yielded only two half-centuries for him in 11 years of first-class cricket, and the notion that he was burdened with the responsibility of rebuilding Australia’s innings after a mini-collapse.

Not to mention the fact that his previous Test innings at the SCG – also against South Africa – was his last at the level for six years.

But none of it mattered.

He was initially slow to accumulate runs and not all of his strokes were cultured, yet his batting was so controlled that the match became a net session. Confidence translated itself into an exotic mix of attacking shots. Serial use of the reverse sweep even featured – the shot played impulsively at first but then expertly as the South African spinners insisted on bowling to vacant acreage behind point.

His cutting was deft and his cover driving was also outstanding in the face of both slow and fast bowling. To loud acclamation from a good-natured (though far from overflowing) crowd, it was fitting that his century was raised with a neat late cut. It was as if revenge, the exorcism of a past demon, and mastery of the attack was bound together in every stroke.

On an truly-paced pitch, the bowling meanwhile reverted to generous instead of perilous. There were no easy ways through as Shane Warne (37), Adam Gilchrist (34), Brett Lee (29) and Stuart MacGill (20) all added further weight to Martyn’s runs. Albeit that there was appropriate reward for Nicky Boje (4/63), four of the five Australian wickets to fall - eventually - were the result of miscued attacking strokes rather than outright victories for the bowlers.

The same could not be said when the South African upper order arrived.

Openers Herschelle Gibbs (32) and Gary Kirsten (18) tried to inject conviction with a stand that generated 37 stubborn runs. It wasn’t too long, though, before Glenn McGrath (2/25) maintained his excellent record against the latter by forcing the ball to spear high to third slip off the shoulder of the bat.

Captain Steve Waugh delayed the introduction of Warne (0/18) into the attack, pairing McGrath with the team’s other leg break bowler in MacGill (2/30) on a pitch suddenly looking far more receptive to spin.

It proved a masterstroke.

Boeta Dippenaar (3) wisely elected not to hit a single shot in the air but continued his horror series anyway, playing all around a seaming ball from McGrath to be bowled.

Then MacGill gained not only his first Test scalp in 12 months but also the one that the Australian side as a whole has struggled to collect for the entirety of the series. Jacques Kallis (4) was confronted by a wicked delivery, stabbing indecisively at a perfectly-pitched and menacingly-ripping leg break to thin edge to Gilchrist behind the stumps.

When Gibbs drove extravagantly at MacGill to send a comfortable catch to slip, the scoreline had plunged to a disastrous 4/77. It was looking like the series could end tomorrow.

Just as well that Ontong (8*) – with men clustered around the bat – showed more starch than many of his teammates, joining with Neil McKenzie (20*) in a survival act in the shadows of stumps.

In extreme heat, the South Africans were under extreme pressure. Again.

MARTYN CENTURY LEAVES PROTEAS WITH MORE PROBLEMS

South Africa’s cricketers face yet another daunting task to salvage a Test against Australia in this series – this time consigned to a long fight by the home team's progression to the massive first innings total of 554 on the second day of the Third Test in Sydney.

Australia’s ascent to that score, before the final dismissal sent the players to an early tea, was founded largely on a third century in this innings – and another at this level for number six batsman Damien Martyn (117).

Martyn had started nervously this morning, playing and missing a number of times and also skying a pull off the bowling of Shaun Pollock (3/109). He had also come to the crease in the midst of a mini-collapse in the middle stages of Australia’s innings, and was plying his trade on a ground that has only yielded two half-centuries for him in the course of his first-class career.

But his increasing assurance belied the various difficulties confronting him.

Batting with such ease that he looked like he was in the midst of a net session, Martyn toyed with the attack – even to the point of repeatedly reverse sweeping as the South Africans opted to leave the region behind point vacant to the spinners.

His cover driving was also outstanding, and his cutting deft against both the slower and the quicker bowlers. Against the backdrop of loud acclamation from a good-natured though not overflowing crowd, it was fitting that his century was raised with a neat late shot behind point.

The South Africans slowly brought the innings to a merciful end as Brett Lee (29) was bowled between his legs by spinner Nicky Boje (4/63); a hard-hitting Stuart MacGill (20) skied a Boje delivery over mid wicket to offer Claude Henderson the chance to take a fine running catch; and Martyn slammed a catch to square leg off the same bowler.

But, by then, far too many runs had been conceded.

The sunny, warm weather is not encouraging much in the way of seam movement, and the pitch is similarly offering little in the way of life.

As controversy continues to rage over the selection of Justin Ontong in their eleven and as the prospect of fronting a well-rested attack that contains two aggressive pacemen and two world class leg spinners looms, though, there are not many other positives for the Proteas.

AUSTRALIANS RE-ASSERT AUTHORITY

Australia is continuing its progress toward a big first innings total on the second day of the Third Test against South Africa at the Sydney Cricket Ground today. After incurring a series of late setbacks yesterday, the Australians have steadied well this morning on their course to a scoreline of 7/439 by lunch.

Under an immensity of blue sky, the South Africans began the day looking determined to feed on the sense of discomfort that they had created in the Australian dressing room in claiming 5/93 in yesterday's final session.

And pacemen Shaun Pollock (3/91) and Allan Donald (1/96) bowled in kind, operating with great control and persistence through the first half-hour. Pollock, in particular, raised the hopes of wicketkeeper Mark Boucher and the slips cordon more than once as his nagging line and length convinced Damien Martyn (57*) to play and miss.

An ugly top-edged pull at Pollock confirmed Martyn's early sense of frustration, the ball spilling just out of the reach of a pursuing Boeta Dippenaar from mid wicket.

The Western Australian settled himself, though, by gloriously driving a Donald half-volley to the cover boundary after 25 minutes. This was shortly after Adam Gilchrist (34) had seized murderously on two short deliveries from the same bowler in the fifth over of the day, slashing the first through point and hammering the second high over square leg.

The accuracy of the bowling continued in the main, though, to restrain the two players' dominating instincts. Instead, the Australians were left to regather their sense of authority through force of will.

It wasn't until after the drinks break that a much-needed sixth wicket eventually came. Fast medium bowler Jacques Kallis (1/129) countered an exploding economy rate by adding an entry to his wickets column with the prized scalp of Gilchrist - when the wicketkeeper-batsman top-edged a cut as the ball slanted away from him.

South Africa's struggle to find a way through the Australian lower order wasn't over, though. Test cricket's most in-form number eight, Shane Warne (37), proceeded to hammer the attack with a series of clubbing strokes, even outscoring Martyn for a time as shots flourished in the second-best partnership of the innings. A total of 79 runs were belted from just 12 overs at one point before Warne finally under-edged into his stumps with an attempted pull at Pollock.

Australia was decisively forcing home the advantage that it had prised from the South Africans at the equivalent time yesterday.