Date-stamped : 28 Dec93 - 09:51 South Africa v Australia, T1, Melbourne, 26-30 Dec 93, Report ====> Day 1, 26 Dec 93 Rain delayed the start of the first Test between Australia and South Africa in 24 years. Play could only start well into the final session. Two hours of play were possible in all. Border won the toss and elected to bat. Play started at 5pm (till 7pm). Taylor and Slater opened. Donald had a really good shout for LBW (2nd ball), but was it was turned down. At 55/0 Australia were looking good. Then Slater was caught at short square leg. He got a nick onto his thigh pad. Shane Warne came in as nightwatchman but lasted a short time, and was absolutely plumb to de Villiers for no score. Boon finally decided to come in, and Australia ended the first day at 71/2. Donald had a (rela- tively) straight forward chance put down at 2nd slip by Cullinan. Not a heck of a lot of movement in the pitch, but just enough. Rhodes's finger is strapped. They made up one hour on the first day (apart from all the hours they lost), so I guess they'll be starting early and playing late the next four days. I think SA can be very happy about the 2 wickets, and Aus have to build a big innings from here. Border and Boon have never scored runs against SA, so they must be itching to get something on the scoreboard. Donald, De Villiers, and Mathews have other ideas. Snell is sitting this one out. Contributed by HillyG (goldstei@*und.ac.za) ====> Day 2, 27 Dec 93 No play possible whatsoever because of persistent rain. ====> Day 3, 28 Dec 93 More play lost to rain. One wicket fell today, Boon played on to a ball from Matthews that cut back. Aus 140/3. Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 4, 29 Dec 93 Had a fair look at the game today on TV, switching between this and one of our Shell Cup games on the other channel. Missed most of the plethora of ads that NZ TV has on all channels. :-) Australia 7-342 (dec). South Africa 1-59. Another interrupted day, but at least a meaningful day. A lot happened that should help set the scene for the future games. Australian innings: It took SA a long while to get wickets, but then four went down pretty quickly. Mark Taylor got 170 (no - he SHOULDN'T be dropped :-) ) and a look at his run chart showed many fours from pulls square, and not a few threes on the off side through extra cover (slow outfield). Mark Waugh got 84 and played pretty well, although he was troubled at times by all the bowlers. His run chart was like a bicycle wheel - shots all round the wicket. With only 3 down for over 300, Australia looked well in command, but in actual fact the play was much more even than the score suggested. Andrew Donald, in particular, and to a lesser extent Matthews and Symcox always looked likely. De Villiers kept it tight. Donald had Danny Morrison luck with slip catches dropped. Poor Darryl Cullinan put down three in the innings (plus another screamer which the commentators, but no-one else, thought catch- able). Donald bowled with pace, fire, and with a very accurate bouncer that is not easy to avoid. He'll bowl worse than that for better reward than one wicket. He gave away too many runs to Tay- lor with short stuff. Chris Matthews seems to have that ability to get the old ball to move off the pitch into the right hander - very valuable at test level. He troubled the batsmen WITH the old ball and consequently got three wickets in the innings. He'll retain his place if/when Schultz is available/selected. The one that had Waugh lbw was a pearler that kept low as well as cut in. Pat Symcox got the other two wickets. He turns it quite a bit, and the wicket of Martyn (8) was from a middled forward defensive stroke which spun BACK to hit the base of his stumps. Martyn seemed mesmerised, and couldn't prevent the roll back. The final total of 7-342 was, after all, a fair reflection of the whole innings. South African innings: This was always going to be the real game. They did well to be 1-59 at the close, but tomorrow is another day. McDermott failed twice to keep his feet in his delivery stride and had to be replaced by Mark Waugh. Guess what? Yes - Waugh got the wicket to fall *with his bouncer again* Gary Kir- sten was caught at slip off his glove (attempted hook). One of these days the opposition batsmen will cotton on to the fact that Mark Waugh is a hell of a lot faster and hostile than he looks. In the meantime - well, he just keeps on getting wickets. Maybe it is just that with a four pace run up, the batsmen have no time to work themselves up into an ideal rhythm for a fast-medium ball. But, at the end, there were eight overs of spin - 5 from May and 3 from Warne. Any South Africans watching! First the GOOD news: During the NZ series neither bowled better than that. Now the BAD news: They keep up that standard until kingdom come - no let up. And don't forget, they had a wet ball to grip. May's best ball is the one that loops away through the air, and then spins back in. He always seems to get MOST turn on the loopy ones too. Warne showed you all his variety. Andrew Hudson must have got the shock of his life when he tried to cut this short one (the flipper of course). It went flying over the slips for a couple. He didn't turn his googly much today, but give him time. Maybe he didn't give it the real works because of the conditions. And he only had the three overs. Tomorrow will be very interesting but, alas, I'll miss it. Looks like I'll be up all night watching videos if Warne and May DO get a long bowl. No chance of a result, but a good chance for both sides to establish dominance. Contributed by Geoff.Bethell (srg3lib@*grace.cri.nz) ====> Day 5 , 30th December, 1993 Overnight: Australia - 7 (dec) for 342. South Africa - 1-59. Today: South Africa - 3 for 258 (Hudson, 64 [ret hurt]. Cronje, 71., Rhodes, 35 no. Wessels, 63 no). Match Drawn. Didn`t see any of the first session when Cronje and Hudson batted well against the Australian spinners. Bob Simpson said later that May had bowled well, but that Warne was a little below par in that morning session. Late in that session, Warne fired in a re- turn to Healy from his own bowling that struck Hudson on the forearm. This was destined to provide South Africa with a major hiccup in what was a good day`s play from their point of view. Early in the middle session, Hudson was unable to continue and had to retire hurt. There was no word that I detected on his con- dition. Presumably no news is good news and there is no break. This brought the hapless Darryl Cullinan to the wicket. He was, almost predicatably, out first ball to a brutish delivery from McDermott that reared up. Playing forward, when he might have gone back, he could only fend it off to gully where Border took an easy catch. Cronje got himself in a tangle to Warne soon afterwards. Com- ing down the track, he edged it into his pads and was caught by Boon on the off side. But he scored 71, by all accounts in good style. He is a very reliable player who seems to be a class above the Cronje who played in the World Cup. But there were no further disasters for South Africa. Rhodes and Wessels, both carrying injuries, put on 100 and batted out time. Those are the bare facts but they really had to struggle in that middle session against some hostile bowling from a fired up McDermott and some clever stuff from Warne. It was only when the new ball was taken in the 3rd session that they were able to give the impression that they were there for the duration. Even then, Paul Reiffel bowled some good ones. The 100 stand took 292 balls. Wessels seems to have changed his stance since his Australia days. He used to stand with his front foot about 6 inches further to the off than his back foot. This gave him very little chance on the leg stump. He still favours the off even now but is much more side on. His run chart today showed ones and twos to leg as well as the usual bulk of off side runs. He really frustrat- ed Warne today. Anything pitched up on off went for runs. Other- wise, it was pad, pad, pad. Not pretty, but effective. Rhodes, too, was not pretty and was able to score at only half the rate of Wessels. However, the good long bat will have given him confidence for the next game. Contributed by Geoff.Bethell (srlnser@lhn.gns.cri.nz)