South Africa 189 (Jansen 59, Verreynne 52, Green 5-27) vs Australia
On a good batting surface, South Africa will be disappointed with another batting failure, especially as they had opportunities to push on. They were in promising positions on 56 for 1 and 179 for 5 but lapses in concentration and soft dismissals saw them sink to another low total.
Dean Elgar and Sarel Erwee started off fairly well against tight Australian lines. Elgar was dropped on 7, when he offered Cummins a return catch, and on 19, when he gave Green a tough chance at point. He played and missed several times but dug in and survived and the stage seemed set for him to grind out a good knock.
But it wasn’t long before familiar batting problems reared their head. Erwee drove loosely against Scott Boland and was caught at third slip to be dismissed in that fashion for the 10th time in 16 innings. New No. 3 Theunis de Bruyn, who replaced Rassie van der Dussen, seemed in good touch and hit Green for two straight drives down the ground but then misjudged Green’s length and top-edged a pull.
That brought South Africa’s two most experienced hands, Elgar and Temba Bavuma, together but they were separated 10 minutes before lunch. Elgar pushed Mitchell Starc to the right of mid-off, where Marnus Labuschagne was quick onto the ball, turned and released in one move and fired in a direct hit to find Elgar short of his ground and run him out for the first time in Test career. The ball after that, Starc found Bavuma’s edge with a ball that tailed away as he prodded at it and had him caught behind.
Both Verreynne and Khaya Zondo were scoreless at the lunch interval but resumed the innings with positive intent. Verreynne got off the mark with a confident square drive off a full, wide Starc ball. He did not score a run for the next eight balls he faced as Australia applied pressure and Zondo succumbed to another moment of Marnus magic. He stepped out to drive Starc past mid-off but found Labuschagne, who took an outstanding leaping catch to end Zondo’s innings.
Undeterred by the severity of the situation, Verreynne and Jansen took the fight to Australia. Verreynne was particularly severe on the short ball while Jansen drove well. He should have been dismissed for 37 when he pulled Cummins to Usman Khawaja at square leg but the chance was spilled.
Jansen went on to his first Test fifty, and sixth first-class half-century, with a lofted drive over long-on. Verreynne followed, with his second milestone of the series after also top-scoring in the first innings in Brisbane and South Africa were set to push past 200 but then Green struck.
Verreynne was drawn forward and edged Green to Steven Smith at slip and in his next over, Jansen went the same way. Rabada played on, Keshav Maharaj hit Nathan Lyon to mid-off and Green took out Lungi Ngidi’s offstump to cap off a stunning Boxing Day for Australia.