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Australia pacer Mitchell Starc came out to bat at the ninth position with his side reeling 73/7 on the second day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final against South Africa. Though it was expected that the Proteas would wrap up the innings by dismissing Australia's tail-enders on low scores, the lower-order ended up showing brilliant resistance.
A 61-run partnership between Starc and Alex Carey helped in steadying Australia's ship. However, the latter ended up losing his wicket during the second-last over of the second day and Nathan Lyon also got dismissed during the early overs of the third day, leaving Australia on 148/9.
Starc and Hazlewood formed a very important final-wicket partnership
It was the last wicket partnership of 59 runs between Starc and Josh Hazlewood that turned the tides in Australia's favour and incredibly frustrated the South Africa bowling attack. The former went on to score a valuable half-century while the latter also played a decent cameo of 17 runs as the Baggy Greens managed to post a respectable total of 207 runs.
Aiden Markram was the one who brought Hazlewood's innings to an end as Australia got bowled out for 207, setting up a target of 282 for the Proteas. On the other hand, Starc's unbeaten knock of 58 runs from 136 deliveries saw him become the player with the most number of fifties while batting at the number nine spot or lower.
This was the Australia speedster's eighth Test half-century while batting on the ninth position or lower and it saw him overtake several greats like Stuart Broad, Daniel Vettori, Michael Holding, Kiran More, Tim Southee and Graeme Swann. The innings also saw him join Broad as the only player to have five 50-plus scores from No.9 or lower in Test cricket in the same country (England).
Meanwhile, Kagiso Rabada was once again the pick of the bowlers for South Africa, finishing with figures of 4/59. He took the important wickets of Usman Khawaja, Cameron Green and Alex Carey during Australia's second innings and was the catalyst to the Proteas once again restricting the Baggy Greens to a low total.
On the other hand, Lungi Ngidi also picked up three important wickets while both Marco Jansen and Markram chipped in with one scalp each as South Africa capped off another fine bowling display and now will be relying on their batters to take them to glory.
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