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Du Plessis ton leads South Africa fightback
- Updated: November 24, 2016
Australia Australia 0 for 14 trail South Africa 9 for 259 dec (Du Plessis 118*, Hazlewood 4-68) by 245 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball details
His innings was mint, his declaration sweet. He took the shine off all of Australia’s fine bowling and silenced the lollygagging Australian fans. There, the terrible puns are out of the way early. Now for the substance, and on the first day – and night – at Adelaide Oval, everything Faf du Plessis did was of substance. From the moment he walked to the crease, things were against him. The pink ball was swinging, the Australians were on top, the score was 3 for 44. And du Plessis walked out to the sound of a booing crowd.
But if the spectators remembered du Plessis’ previous visit to the ground, when he blockaded for 376 balls on debut to salvage an unlikely draw, they would have known he is a hard man to perturb. And with his ball-tampering conviction behind him, du Plessis had but one focus: leading his team back into this match. When he ran off late in the evening at 9 for 259, a hundred to his name and an aggressive declaration forcing Australia’s openers to bat for an awkward period under lights, he had done so.
By Test standards it was an exceptionally early declaration, coming after only 76 overs of the first innings of the match. But perhaps he had noted that David Warner had been off the field being treated for a shoulder injury, and thus a declaration would mean Warner was prevented from opening the innings. In any case, although the debutant No.11 Tabraiz Shamsi had fun swinging the bat, there seemed little to be gained from batting on.
If South Africa’s bowlers did not strike, they at leasted tested Australia’s openers. It took 38 balls for Australia to find any runs off the bat, a single through midwicket from Usman Khawaja, sent out to open because Warner could not. Next ball, the debutant Matt Renshaw got off the mark in Tests with a boundary tucked off his hip from his 19th …
