Australia v South Africa: Why a ‘short Test’ might have got shorter

Travis Head doing Travis Head things: it is a growing challenge to write of him without using the word ‘counterpunching’.

This much we knew. The pitch was grassy. The teams were loaded to the gunwales with pace bowlers. The batting, on one side at least, was light on experience and performance. The first day unfolded accordingly: the bowling nasty and brutish, the innings mainly short.

At the end, Australia had their noses ahead: that much we probably envisioned too, given twenty-five wins and a single defeat in their last thirty-four starts at the Gabba. Still, it was red-blooded cricket all right, and Travis Head’s run-a-ball 78 not out was as timely as his 152 in the corresponding Test last year. Travis Head doing Travis Head things: it is a growing challenge to write of him without using the word ‘‘counterpunching’’.

The day’s one slight deviation from expectation and convention, Pat Cummins’ decision to bowl first, made sense in light of the foregoing — and it is strange that there is always more criticism of insertions than there is of captains who, like Joe Root last year, pass the opportunity up, thereby failing in a way that does not offend convention.

The early Australian grip might have been tighter but for some slight waywardness with the new ball. Having missed a Test, Cummins appeared to be missing a beat; Starc struggled at first with his line; the South Africans arguably got a little unlucky. On another day, Elgar might have missed the wayward ball he feathered down the leg side, Van der Dussen left the ball at which he prodded.

It was Scott Boland who, again, proved the toughest match-up. Velocity grooved in the 130kmh lane, he bucks the tyranny of the speed gun. At such speeds, it is less likely his bounce will clear the stumps, more likely that an edge will catch up with his sideways movement. He offered three consecutive deliveries of drivable length to Sarel Erwee, who punched the first down the ground and missed the second; at the last, slightly wider, he drove imprudently and fatefully.

Khayelihle Zondo, here mainly because of injury to Keegan Petersen and the lull in Aiden Markram’s form, then did not last long enough to make an impression. But when a batter aged nearly 33 averages 31 at first-class level, there are grounds to suspect that they have found their ceiling.

Kyle Verreynne’s promotion to number six in this match had looked less a promotion than an aggrandisement. He has made a Test hundred, but in the rest of his career before today averaged 17.86. But he instantly belied the modesty of that record, with a crisp pulled six from Green and a decisive reverse sweep from Lyon’s first delivery. Verreynne was 20 when Travis Head should have thrown him out from side on after he’d fallen over trying to abort a single; otherwise, he and Temba Bavuma ran smartly between wickets, distributing strike and pressure.

The sun peeped out in late morning, drawing some of the moisture, hardening the top so that the pitch quickened up somewhat. Bavuma played the shot of the day through backward point when Starc overpitched his first delivery of the afternoon, but directly afterwards was beaten for pace, ending a partnership with Verreynne of 98 in 141 deliveries, whereupon the Australians coolly docked the overlong tail: six for 27 in 83 balls.

Rabada then reserved for David Warner the day’s most hostile delivery, straight at the clavicle, although did he take his eye off the ball for an instant having decided to ride the bounce rather than duck or sway? On another day, the deflection might have cleared short leg, but Zondo extended an arm like a pupil trying to answer a question; to his delight, his answer was correct also. In his first seven deliveries Labuschagne twice edged sketchily to the boundary then just short of Elgar at second slip. When you’re hot you’re hot, eh? But if you’ve ever been not, you’ll know how Warner feels.

Still, Labuschagne’s luck was, for a change, not to last: his next edge, off Jansen’s first delivery, carried to Elgar from a slightly open bat face. Nortje’s second delivery disturbed Khawaja’s usual serenity as it took his edge, but Smith responded with a powerful pull past a supplicating Zondo and a resounding on-drive.

With Smith providing the ballast, Head went about erecting the superstructure of Australia’s innings, racing to a half century off 48 balls. He likes bat on ball, and cuts some capers, but back in his favoured freestyling mode this summer he has put a distance on his winter setbacks. He brings a sense of expectancy to the wicket, and there were an encouraging 30,000 to sit up and pay him attention.

It was a surprise when Nortje bowled Smith with the end in sight then made short work of the nightwatchman Boland. But it was anticipated that this would be a short Test, and its life expectancy, on a day of 15 wickets, has taken a further cut.

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A new episode of Cricket, Et Cetera: Head Full Of Steam

Peter and Gideon review the first day of the First Test at the Gabba, enjoying a counterpunching innings from Travis Head that has taken Australia to within seven runs of South Africa’s first innings score by stumps, musing on a first ball duck for David Warner. Also: your summer’s pronunciation guide

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