Australia v South Africa: third Test, day five – live | Cricket

88th over: South Africa 206-7 (Harmer 39, Maharaj 23) Harmer meanwhile keeps on quietly doing his thing at the other end. Defending Lyon, thick inside edge but with soft hands along the ground. Walking across his stumps. No run from the over.

87th over: South Africa 206-7 (Harmer 39, Maharaj 23) Keeps finding the middle of the bat, even when he doesn’t beat the field. Nice back-foot punch from Maharaj for none, then another pull shot for two. Hazlewood will be getting a bit irritated with this fellow. South Africa have their highest score of the series, for what that’s worth.

86th over: South Africa 204-7 (Harmer 39, Maharaj 21) Lyon replaces Cummins, hitting the pad of Maharaj in front. Probably high and going down leg, fractionally. They don’t review.

85th over: South Africa 202-7 (Harmer 38, Maharaj 20) Another pull shot timed nicely but there’s protection back for Harmer, and Hazlewood concedes only a couple from the over. The new ball hasn’t done much for Australia’s quicks but it has boosted South Africa’s scoring. Maybe Lyon will have more luck with it, some extra bounce.

84th over: South Africa 200-7 (Harmer 37, Maharaj 19) Cracked away by Maharaj! Short ball and he hooks Cummins for four. Got onto it early and got plenty of it. Cummins responds with pace at the top of off stump, then dips shorter and gets clobbered again! Same result. The next short ball is not halfway up and able to be hit, it’s at the throat, and Maharaj leaps to fend it off. Then straying down the leg side and taken for a single. Cummins bowled a fine spell yesterday but hasn’t got his rhythm yet in this spell. 76 from avoiding the follow-on.

83rd over: South Africa 191-7 (Harmer 37, Maharaj 10) South Africa’s lower order going along well now. Less than an hour to lunch. Hazlewood goes full looking for swing. Harmer drives it crisply through mid off for four. Admittedly that was the ball after an outside edge for four, but it was safely along the ground. They’re 85 from the follow-on.

82nd over: South Africa 182-7 (Harmer 29, Maharaj 9) Cummins to Maharaj, who will keep on keeping on: hurls the bat at some width, no control but slices a boundary off the top edge to deep third. Gets a single to follow.

81st over: South Africa 177-7 (Harmer 29, Maharaj 4) New ball arrives, and Hazlewood grabs it immediately. Doesn’t make Harmer play at the first four balls though, outside off stump. Less comfortable with the sixth, pitched short and jumping at him.

80th over: South Africa 177-7 (Harmer 29, Maharaj 4) Travis Head is outbowling almost everyone! Gets a ball to jump from a length right up at the splice. Then he drops a return catch! Maharaj lashes a drive straight back at him, just above his right shoulder, but it’s travelling too quickly for Head to do more than deflect away. Three drops in six balls off his bowling? Maharaj is undeterred and drives a couple of runs down the ground. They’re 99 from the follow-on.

79th over: South Africa 174-7 (Harmer 28, Maharaj 2) Another over with no runs, Agar wheeling away at Maharaj, but his line is errant on occasion.

78th over: South Africa 174-7 (Harmer 28, Maharaj 2) Dropped! Two in two, was it! Both tough ones. Harmer gets a solid edge straight at Marnus Labuschagne at short leg, fast enough that it hits his wrist before he has time to react. Then next ball perhaps a tiny feather of an edge at Carey but it’s in and out. Not sure if that would have been given, there’s the tiniest murmur on the soundwave graph. But Travis Head creating at least one wicket-taking opportunity, if not two.

77th over: South Africa 174-7 (Harmer 28, Maharaj 2) Not sure about Agar and Head in tandem. Lyon looked so good that he should be at one end all day. Harmer cuts Agar with great timing, but Warner at deep cover comes zooming across to dive and save two runs on the boundary.

76th over: South Africa 171-7 (Harmer 25, Maharaj 2) A couple of singles from Travis Head’s over, no more drama yet.

75th over: South Africa 169-7 (Harmer 24, Maharaj 1) In contrast to Jansen, Maharaj wastes no time, taking a leg-side single first ball from Agar. Jansen was out there for an hour but didn’t move them any closer to that follow-on mark. One run in the whole stay.

74th over: South Africa 167-7 (Harmer 23) He took 4 for 10 in Sri Lanka in 2022, Travis Head. That over he’s 1 for 1. Bowled an over yesterday for six runs too.

WICKET! Jansen c Carey b Head 11, South Africa 167-7

73rd over: South Africa 166-6 (Jansen 11, Harmer 22) Ashton Agar gets a bowl. Harmer is happy to go after him, lashing a wide ball through point for a run. Agar does get one to explode out of the rough, though.

72nd over: South Africa 165-6 (Jansen 11, Harmer 21) Big sweep from Jansen, misses the lot. Down on one knee and way over the top of the ball. Instead of going into his shell he tries it again next ball and middles it, but straight at square leg. Lyon darts one through faster but starts it wide, and the shot goes to cover. Jansen starts defending instead, but plays at every ball of the over.

71st over: South Africa 165-6 (Jansen 11, Harmer 21) Turning over the strike nicely now. Harmer keeps playing the pull shot when on offer, taking a run from Hazlewood. The bowler is around the wicket to Jansen, wanting to menace him with the spectre of short bowling, though he mainly bowls full in this over. Finally Jansen joins in the run-scoring caper, swinging through the line to send a single deep on the leg side.

70th over: South Africa 163-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 20) That was nearly the one we were expecting! Lyon gets the turn into the right-hander, the edge towards short leg, and it bounces just short of Head. Then an outside edge past slip that gets Harmer a run.

69th over: South Africa 161-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 19) Hazlewood operating and Harmer is defending when full, trying to score when short. He has done plenty with the bat in county cricket, has a very respectable first-class record. Gets a run off the last ball.

68th over: South Africa 160-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 18) That turn keeps coming for Lyon. Harmer waits right back and hits across the line to deep square leg. Just the one run with a fielder out. Jansen goes the other way, using all of his reach and getting right forward. Could be getting his front foot outside the line of the stumps more. They’re 116 from the follow on.

67th over: South Africa 160-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 17) Josh Hazlewood comes on and bowls short. The Australian quicks just can’t help it when Jansen is on strike. It’s like they look up at his height and have to try to hit it. A couple of good-length balls appear eventually. Surely Jansen is a strong nick candidate, the way his backlift wafts around. No run.

This is true – the thing is that in that situation the lead is necessarily under 200. So say that’s a 180 margin with two sessions to go, South Africa would have a good chance to get a win. I can’t see Australia being that generous.

66th over: South Africa 160-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 17) Lyon keeps working away near those footmarks, getting a lot of turn from them. It really does look like a matter of time until one gets an edge into pad and pops up. Harmer drives a fuller ball for a couple of runs, good that he’s looking to score where he can.

65th over: South Africa 158-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 15) He’s doing a good job with the straighter stuff from Cummins, is Harmer. Knocks away another single off the pads. Jansen is not looking to score at all, just gets behind the ball. The pitch looking more chewed up than you might expect given all the lost sessions. Scott Boland might have been handy…

64th over: South Africa 157-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 14) Spin to Harmer for the first time today, Lyon over the wicket floating them in at Jansen’s footmarks outside the off stump. Far less wear on this wicket than usual. But there is one particular patch, and after a few balls he hits it. The ball spins savagely in at Harmer, who inside edges it past short leg! Gets a run, but could so easily have gone to hand. Two short legs for Jansen, who normally only has long ones. The wicket almost comes on the other side! In about four different methods. Just gets a nick to a ball that might have had him lbw. The edge is heading for his stumps but ricochets off his back pad. The deflection heads for the keeper, but hits his pad rather than his gloves. Then it almost bounces to slip but lands just short. That’s some sequence.

63rd over: South Africa 156-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 13) In the fourth over, Harmer gets the runs part of the scoreboard moving. Knocks a ball off a straight line behind square leg for two. Then decides to tackle the short ball, pulling Cummins airborne to the empty spot behind square leg. Four runs. They drop a deep forward square leg out, because they already have a leg slip and a fine leg behind square. Doesn’t matter, Harmer pulls the next ball anyway, but into the ground and finer to pick up a run.

62nd over: South Africa 149-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 6) Three overs without a run. Jansen does try a big sweep at Lyon but misses and gets nervous after that, defending or driving to mid on.

61st over: South Africa 149-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 6) No run from Cummins to Harmer either. Cummins tries that length at the hip that brought him the wicket of Klaasen yesterday and Elgar earlier in the series. Otherwise he concentrates on off stump.

60th over: South Africa 149-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 6) Lyon in fact will spin us off, the tall figure of Jansen facing him. Lyon lands the first few nicely from over the wicket to the right-hander, drawing an inside edge that lands safely on the leg side. No score from the over.

Nathan Lyon to start off the day with the ball, Marco Jansen with the bat.

We’re about to get underway. Sunshine!

For the full story, I wrote this report about yesterday. Just for you.

What about the match? In one way, simple, Australia need 14 wickets to win. More complicated if the follow-on comes into play, which is 126 runs away. If South Africa’s first innings finishes up short of that follow-on, Australia will make them bat again immediately. If they get past the follow-on, Australia has to decide whether to bat again or declare, which gives South Africa a route to winning the game. Equally, if South Africa bat enough time to get past the follow-on, there probably won’t be enough time left in the match for Australia to bowl them out a second time anyway. So, four wickets remaining in the visitors’ first innings, and they just have to hang around as long as possible. Australia need to get them out of the way quickly.

Preamble

Geoff Lemon