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The highly-anticipated Gabba Test between Australia and South Africa only lasted two days, and the hosts managed to register a victo🅺ry by six wickets. It was just the second time i🐈n history that a Test match in Australia was finished in the space of two days.
The gree🐟n top surface wreaked havoc on both batting line-ups, as 34 wickets fell in six sessions of the game. After packing South Africa for 99 on Sunday afternoon, Australia had a mere 34-run target to win the conte♎st.
💯The run-chase, which could have been a cakewalk, was nothing but pure chaos as the hosts ended up losing four wickets before eventually reaching the target.
Earlier on the day, Australia resumed their first innings at 5/145, with Travis Head cruising towards another Test century. However, the left-handed batter fell eight runs short of a triple-figure score after being dismissed by Proteas seamer Marco Jansen. The rest of Australia’s lower order couldn’t do much, and the home team only managed t꧟o get a first-innings lead of 66, w൲hich ultimately proved to be more than enough.
Australian skipper Pat Cummins was the chief destroyer in the second innings, bagging his eighth five-wicket haul in the red-ball format and finishing with figures of 5/42 from ൩12.4 overs as the tourists were bundled o🎃ut for 99 – their lowest team total on Australian soil in 90 years.
Brief Scores: Australia 218 (Travis Head 92, Kagiso Rabada 4/76) and 35/4 (Marnus Labuschagne 5*, Rabad🍬a 4/13) beat South Africa 152 (Kyle Verreynne 64, Nathan Lyon 3/14) and 99 (Temba Bavuma 29, Pat Cummins 5/42) by six wickets.
Here is how Twitter reacted:
Au🀅stralia get the job done. But not without a few scares!
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau)
It’s been fun but it’s all happened too quickly.
Pitch too grassy and green especially when 🔯you have two outstanding bowling units who don’t need generous condit♓ions to have an impact.— Tom Moody (@TomMoodyCricket)
Strike rate of less than 50 for 300 Test wickets… the guy has caught a lot of flak for a bloke that has been an absolute weapon. Cꦺongratulations, Mitchell Starc 👏
— Corbin Middlemas (@CorbinMiddlemas)
Cameron Green is a three-metre high, three-mꦺe🌊tre wide wingspan of death in the gully
— Louis Cameron (@LouisDBCameron)
Pat Cummins as Australian captain
13 matches
9 wins
3 draws
1 defeat— Nic Savage (@nic_savage1)
I'll be pleased not to be up at 2am tomorrow but this is comfortably the worst Test I've covered. There's going to be a lot said about the pitch – and yes, it's unfortunate that SA have to bat on surfaces like this a lot – but more should be said about the batting.
— Firdose Moonda (@FirdoseM)
Dean Elgar in Tests in Aus:
0, 0, 12, 127, 17, 5, 0, 3, 2
166 runs @ 18.44
— Adam Burnett (@AdamBurnett09)
Lowest ☂target chase in Tests when a bowler took four-wicket haul:
34 – Kagiso Rabada🇿🇦 v AUS, today
65 – Nick Cook🏴 v PAK, 1984
73 – Manny Martindale🏝️ v ENG, 1935
74 – Sanath Jayasuriya🇱🇰 v ENG, 2001
78 – Muttiah Muralitharan🇱🇰 v ENG, 2006— Kausthub Gudipati (@kaustats)
Mitchell Starc’s 300th Test wicket is outrageously be♕autiful 🤩
— Chloe-Amanda Bailey (@ChloeAmandaB)
Australia vs South A꧑frica first Test 🔥match finished in 144.2 overs.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns)
Maybe it’s because he’🍬s a current player that he’s not spoken of in more reverential tones, but I don’t think Australian fans appreciate enough how good a Test bowler Mitchell Starc has been. 7th Australian to 300, and the best strike rate of them all.
— Andrew Wu (@wutube)
Rabada claimed 4-13 (maybe he was just a little p***ed off at yet ꦫanother failed batt🔥ing effort)
A෴ustralia won by 6 wickets and ⛎go 1-0 up after just 2 days
— ThePoppingCrease (@PoppingCreaseSA)
