SA vs Australia SCG Day 4 Cricket Highlights 3rd Sydney Test
Cricket highlights: Australia vs South Africa 3rd Sydney (SCG) test, 4th day’s play.
Scoreline: Australia 257/4 declared. South Africa in pursuit of 376: 62/1.
Matthew Hayden played some of his trademark strokes en route to his highest score in recent times (39). Australia through useful knocks by Ricky Ponting (53), Michael Clarke (41) and Mike Hussey (45) pushed the target and then declared – a declaration based on the dicey pitch, Graeme Smith’s unavailability and the safe notion that getting 300 runs on Day 5 is tough – even during the Perth Test Day 5, SA needed only 187 runs on the final day.
Matthew Hayden was given a rousing sendoff after he fell, by the SCG crowd, considering it’s upto the selectors to decide if that was indeed his last knock for Australia. If good sense prevails it shouldn’t be. Especially when you consider the return of Simon Katich to glorious form today – over the last few days, everyone (or at least I) have been stunned by his strokeplay. Today, Katich regained his touch by not scoring a single run for an hour at one stage. The eventual streaky single that ended his supreme form had all his fans disappointed and led to a moment of acrimony between Ntini and Boucher.
Just as Day 3 had a bizarre bunch of moments, Day 4 too had a couple:
- An LBW dismissal (Katich) that the bowler (Steyn) didn’t appeal for
- An oil leak from the roller onto the pitch. Interestingly two captains who were involved the last time this happened – Ian Chappell and Tony Greig – were commentators today. On that occasion (Headingley in the ’70s) however, it was a deliberate overnight attempt by miscreants to disrupt play and call attention to an allegedly unjust police case. The two captains had then agreed to call off the test. It’s a good thing on this occasion, it was a roller in the First World that sprang a leak, or we’d all have had to put up with Matthew Hayden at his talkative best.
Hashim Amla played some stunning drives on his way to 30 not out as South Africa after the fall of Morkel (sent in as opener) felt their way around this chase.
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