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Twitter Reactions: SA vs Aus (2nd Test) – Rabada and de Villiers’ heroics levelled the series
By Sandy - Mar 12, 2018 5:08 pm
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After winning the first Test by 118 runs, Australia suffered a 6-wicket defeat in the second Test against the hosts South Africa at Port Elizabeth. With the help of Kagiso Rabada and AB de Villiers’ heroic performances, South Africa secured a crucial victory and levelled the four-match Test series by the 1-1 margin after the second encounter.

Day 1

 

South African cricket team

Australia decided to bat first after winning the toss. Australian openers provided a very good start as Cameron Bancroft and David Warner put 98-runs partnership for that wicket.

Since that opening wicket fell just before the lunch, Australian team failed to make any big partnerships as their wickets were falling in regular interval. While Warner and Bancroft scored 63 and 38 runs respectively, middle-order wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Paine (36) was the only other batsman to cross the 30-runs mark.

The Australian team was bundled out for 243 runs.

Among the South African bowlers, pacer Kagiso Rabada (5/96) picked up five wickets while the other pacers Vernon Philander (2/25) and Lungi Ngidi (3/51) took two and three wickets respectively.

At the end of the day, South Africa was batting on 39/1. While the opener Eiden Markram lost his wicket on 11 runs, another opener Dean Elger (11) and nightwatchman Rabada (17) were staying in the crease.

Also read: An Astrologer Predicts Virat Kohli’s Near Future In Cricket

Day 2

Australian cricket team

 

After Rabada was dismissed for 29 runs, Elger and Hasim Amla put 88-runs partnership for the third wicket before losing their back-to-back wickets.

Since then, AB de Villiers took the charge of that innings while the other middle order batsmen failed to provide support in that innings.

However, the lower-orders provided the important support to AB de Villiers.

At the end of the day, South Africa was batting on 263/7 while de Villiers (74) and Vernon Philander (14) were batting. South Africa was leading by 20 runs at that period.

 

Day 3

AB de Villiers scored a brilliant century

AB de Villiers continued his counter-attacking batting as he completed his century and remained unbeaten on 126 runs off 146 balls.

On the other hand, after Philander’s (36) dismissal, Keshav Maharaj continued the supporting role with 30 runs knock.

As a result, South Africa managed to put 382 runs on the board before losing their all wickets. At the end of the first innings fights, South Africa had the 139-runs lead.

Among the Aussie bowlers, Pat Cummins (3/79) picked up three wickets while Josh Hazlewood (2/98) and Mitchell Marsh (2/26) clinched two wickets each. Also, Mitchell Starc (1/110) and Nathan Lyon (1/58) picked up a piece of wicket each.

In the second innings, the top-order Australian batsmen failed to manage big scores. After 86/4, Usman Khawaja and Mitchell Marsh put an important 87-runs partnership for the fifth wicket.

Just before the end of the day, Australia lost Khawaja (79) as they finished the day with 180/5. Marsh was unbeaten on 39 runs along with Tim Paine (5) while Australia had just 41 runs lead.

Also read: Kagiso Rabada Once Again Reported In The Port Elizabeth Test

Day 4

South Africa cricket team

South Africa did not wait too long for their victory. Australia was bowled out for 239 runs while Paine was not out on 28 runs.

Once again, Rabada (6/54) was the destroyer as he dismissed six batsmen in that innings. Apart from that, Ngidi (2/24) and Maharaj (2/90) got two wickets each.

The hosts had to chase only 101 runs for securing their victory which they got after losing 4 wickets. While de Villiers (28) and Amla (27) were the top two scorers in that innings, Cummins (1/13), Hazlewood (1/26) and Lyon (2/44) were the wicket-takers for Australia in that innings.

South Africa won this match by 6 wickets and levelled the series by the 1-1 margin while Rabada won the Player of the match award.

Now look at some Twitter reactions of the match

On AB de Villiers’ knock

https://twitter.com/Cricketracker/status/972800169166102529

 

https://twitter.com/White_Adam/status/972760046273613824

https://twitter.com/KeyurMestry/status/972489328411553793

 

On Kagiso Rabada’s destroying bowling

 

About this Test match

https://twitter.com/johnyblue77/status/973178005601341441