Australia and South Africa are facing off in the third Test that kicked off on January 4, Wednesday and on Day 4, Saturday, it was the Australians who came out on top after declaring at 475/4 in their first innings on the back of a 195 from Usman Khawaja and a well-made 104 from Steve Smith. While many opined that the Baggy Greens skipper Pat Cummins should have let the southpaw complete his double century, many claimed that it was a fair decision from the team’s point of view.
While there were many moments to take away during South Africa’s batting on Saturday, Nathan Lyon’s wicket to dismiss Sarel Erwee turned out to be the most exciting one of all. To add more, the southpaw tried to leave the fifth ball of the 18th over from the spinner, only to let the ball dislodge the bails of the off stump.
Watch Nathan Lyon’s magical delivery to dismiss Sarel Erwee here:
A shocker of a leave from Sarel Erwee!
Nathan Lyon can't believe his luck! #OhWhatAFeeling #AUSvSA | @Toyota_Aus pic.twitter.com/twzw5SW2Ty
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 7, 2023
We could go out there and get a few more runs really quickly: Usman Khawaja
Post Tea on Saturday, the Proteas were reeling at 133/5 with Kyle Verreynne unbeaten at 18 and Marco Jansen at 1. Khawaja, at Stumps on Day 3, said that he was hopeful of reaching the 200-run landmark, given that Cummins would not declare the innings overnight. However, on contrary, the Australian skipper declared the innings, in the hope to clinch a win.
“I think it would be pretty harsh if he (Cummins) bowled straight away, I don’t think that’s going to happen. We could go out there and get a few more runs really quickly (tomorrow), or we could declare pretty much straight away. It’s obviously a decision he’ll have to make tomorrow, decide on what the weather’s doing and how he wants to play out this game. I think there will still be an opportunity to try and win this game, so I can’t imagine us just going ‘oh, we’ll bat all day tomorrow’,” Khawaja was quoted as saying after the end of the day’s play on Friday.
