It was all going South Africa’s way in the first session of the second day at the ICC World Test Championships final at Lord’s, until Marnus Labuschagne dived to his right to pull off a superb catch to dismiss a well-set Temba Bavuma. The South African skipper was batting with a much improved tempo, finding the boundaries regularly, moving to 36 with four fours and a six. And then his Australian counterpart Pat Cummins provided the breakthrough for the defending champions.
The relentless accuracy of the Aussie pace attack meant that, despite better intent on Thursday, South Africa hadn’t really gotten away too far ahead. Bavuma had formed a solid partnership with David Bedingham and in the 40th over, he went for a flamboyant cover drive to a full-ish length delivery. The timing was alright but the placement wasn’t as Labuschagne, a livewire on the field, started moving early to his right from short cover, dived full length and completed a fine catch.
“Key to fielding is anticipation, expecting the ball. Look at the position he is in, not standing up tall, he was crouching down low, expecting the ball at that height, exceptional catch and brilliant technique,” former England captain Nasser Hussain – who often finds himself on air for these blinders at ICC events – said during commentary. “He is so balanced as he dived across, eyes on the ball and got two hands to it,” former India head coach Ravi Shastri added.
After an excruciating wait for getting off the mark in innings on the opening day, Bavuma came out with much better intent on Day 2, driving the Aussie pacers on the up and even pulling Cummins for a smashing six.
On Day 1, Mitchell Starc led an Australia fightback after Kagiso Rabada’s superb five-wicket haul, as bowlers dominated proceedings at Lord’s where 14 wickets fell. Starc took two top order wickets and combined with fellow quicks Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood to reduce South Africa to 43 for four at the close, 169 runs in arrears. Rabada and Marco Jansen (3/49) had earlier come to the fore as the holders collapsed after tea and were bowled out for 212, losing five for 20 after half-centuries from Steve Smith and Beau Webster had helped them steady the ship.
