SOUTH Africa A have fought back strongly on day two of Australia’s opening warm- up match in Benoni.
The hosts closed their second innings on 0-55, to trail by 54 runs after Australia were bowled out for 329 thanks largely to some lower-order runs from Pat Cummins (59 not out), Nathan Lyon (38) and Josh Hazlewood (26).
The trio put on 104 for the final two wickets after left-arm quick Beuran Hendricks ripped through the Australian middle order as the tourists slumped to 7-178 having resumed on 3-87.
Hendricks dismissed overnight batsmen Cameron Bancroft (45) and Shaun Marsh (25) then trapped Mitch Marsh in front of the stumps for 28 in an inspired spell. Tim Paine was deceived by a ball that kept low from Malusi Siboto to be given out lbw for 22 before Mitchell Starc (18) fell at 7-225.
Lyon and Cummins added 64 for the ninth wicket before the spinner found the hands of Zubayr Hamza at point.
Cummins and Hazlewood then guided Steve Smith’s side past 300 before Hendricks ended the innings when he rearranged Hazlewood’s stumps to finish with figures of 5-83.
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South Africa openers Zubayr (25) and Pieter Malan (27) were largely untroubled as they guided the home side safely to the close.
Bancroft said there was disappointment in the side after allowing the home side to deny them any extended batting time with just one day of the match remaining. “It would’ve been nice as a batting unit to knock that score off and go really big and kill the game completely,” Bancroft told cricket.com.au. “It hasn’t been the case. We’ve had a lot of small contributions from a lot of batters.
“We’re still in a good position in this game and hopefully we can come out tomorrow and play some good cricket to finish the game off.”
