Adelaide Test, Day 2, Tea
Saturday, December 15, 2001

The South Africans must come to terms with Shane Warne if they are to win this Test. It was a good move by Steve Waugh to bring him on early. It'll get the South Africans thinking. But if Gary Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs can blunt him, that will be a tremendous boost for their side.

Early wickets to Warne will put real pressure on the middle order, and open up all those old scars. If this South African side wants to be different from the others they have to deal with Warne, and also Glenn McGrath. Now's the time they have to stand up against this Australian team. If you look at their averages against Australia they are way way down on their career figures - so there's a bit of work to do.

Australia will have to play pretty ordinary cricket to lose from here. And South Africa will need to get well over 500 to win.

Brett Lee and Damien Martyn continued the good work after lunch. I can't speak highly enough of Martyn's innings - it was a world-class century. Australia's lower order came to the rescue again. They have masked some real problems in a pretty wobbly middle order, which hasn't been able to consistently put it together for some time now.

South Africa will be disappointed with the way the innings dragged on. The dropped catches were very costly. That's where they're supposed to be equal with Australia - and they weren't. Their bowling focus wasn't good, and they were disappointing in the field.

Ian Healy made a record 395 dismissals in 119 Tests for Australia. His comments will be appearing on Wisden.com at the end of every session in the series. He was talking to Tim Stoney.

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Day 1, Lunch: Aussies can't lose from here

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