Pretty good wicket here

its amazing how strong the home ground advantage is in the modern game. People complain about aussies making tons of runs at home but that doesn't mean oz pitches are easy

lyon again showing what makes him good - his ability to do well in unfavourable conditions

if he can do well in favourable conditions he would be a great bowler

Australia has won 2 sessions in a row

Good ticker shown by Bavuma and De Kock to get them back into that.

Warner looking ok but Marsh is struggling

even if we lose a wicket here we have won three sessions

probably our most dominant day in 12 months

SA showing good fight here after Steyn went off. Philander bowling beautifully.

Mitchell Marsh simply isn't a number six test batsman. Wishing it to happen won't make it come true.

impressive fight back from SA

we may struggle to win this series at home

If we get any lead at all we have a good chance in this test since they may be a bowler down

But we are 8 down

I feel like I've said this 100 times now but we would never have even considered playing Johnson or Starc at 6, this Marsh experiment needs to end, it's not like he's doing an amazing job with the ball either. 

Yep. You pick an all-rounder to improve the team balance, but Marsh is actually stuffing up the balance . At the moment he's a useful fourth seamer batting two spots higher than he should. With Nevill not batting well either, the batting order looks incredibly thin. 

Guys like Botham, Flintoff and Kapil Dev didn't have great batting averages either but they opened the bowling for their country, so you could get away with batting them there. 

Given our near constant collapses, we need to be selecting either a batsman or a batting all rounder in that spot. There don't seem to be any batting all rounders bashing down the door to get into the team. So better to pick a specialist batsman like Burns to plug the hole. Or alternatively, find a better wicket-keeper batsman and bat him at 6, and move Marsh down one spot. Nevill has got to start scoring some runs too. 

I thought SA played quite well on the  1st day without a great deal of luck. Shaun Marsh was very lucky to still be there.

Grazor, Lastbroadcast, 11.MVFC.11 or Quickflick can any of you analyse why Vernon Philander is often such a good bowler while bowling only 125 -130 kph?

The left arm finger spinner, Maharaj looks quite decent from SA.

Looks like our batters struggle with quality spin, seam and swing! 

I can see us losing this series at home.

SA and Australia seem to be comfortable with the conditions in each other's country.

It's pretty farcical that we won't select Bird in the squad due to his batting but will happily carry two duds at 6 and 7. 

unfortunately I am missing large parts and only have it on in the back ground

We have had low shield averages for quite a while now, the batting talent pool has been a problem for maybe 5-6 years now and its not obvious that it will get better soon

Something wrong with the development

if shield averages were great but we couldn't perform internationally that would be a different issue

from what I have seen today though I think this has been more skill than luck. Australia have created a normal amount of chances but some days it doesn't go your way. The batting is a much bigger problem. Our bowlers deliver most days

Jake Lehmann scored his fifth first class century today and now has an average over 48. Apparently he is very difficult for fast bowlers to bowl to but, unlike his father, is a bit weak against spin. Still I am guessing he will be someone the selectors will be following with interest for the future. Nick Maddinson also got a century today and he might be an option sooner than Lehmann however his first class average is below 40.

that sounds promising

if we can eek out another few years out of vogues and replace mitch marsh with maxwell we will have a full team with reasonable shield averages (though not spectacular)

Maddinson should be nowhere near the test side, one of the biggest headcases going around. 

It wouldn't surprise me if the look at another stop gap again; Klinger, Bailey or Ferguson. 

Sadly there is too much bullshit when it comes to cricket in this country; we treated Burns & Khawaja horrendously after the summer they've just had, not sure how someone like Burns is meant to excel when he's living test match to test match meanwhile someone like Mitch Marsh has a mortgage on his position regardless of how he plays.

We adopt a horses for courses policy on the run but again that won't apply for all players (*cough* Dave Warner).   

Anyway Lehmann is looking like a real option probably needs a few more Shield games though. 

You obviously have Burns, Lynn (if he ever gets his body right), Handscomb (has a pretty mediocre average but the last two seasons in the Shield he's been great). I don't know much about him but Patterson seems to be doing alright as well. 

Australia with a chance for a draw or even a win if they can drag this out

SA with a bowler down so if they dont take early wickets they should tire

Speechless from that run out by Warner. 

sux a bit If it was 1 for 84 then we could have really started thinking about the bowlers tiring after tea as they might have struggled to take 10 wickets missing a frontline bowler on this pitch

as it stands they only need their bowlers to get 9 on this pitch

That run out from Bavuma was the best piece of fielding in the last five years. Absolutely sensational stuff. The slow motion replays don't even do it justice. 

It makes a massive difference when you've got guys in your team who can field like that. We can't even hang on to the high balls. 

Philander is an exceptional test bowler because does two things so well - accuracy, and seam position at release. If you get those two things right, 130kph is fast enough because he'll get enough seam movement to cause you a big problem. 

If you watch his hand when he releases the ball, his wrist, fingers and release point are just about perfect - 95pc of the time his fingers roll straight back over the ball with high revs and the seam comes out dead straight. It means that he will always get a bit of seam movement on hard pitches, especially with the new ball. 

Guys like him can be a real nightmare to face when he puts the ball in the same place six times an over. One delivery will stay straight and you'll defend it. The next one  will pitch in the same spot, hit the seam and move away slightly, you'll play the same shot and edge it. The next ball could cut back in and knock off the off stump.

If smiths first innings lbw wasn't given out, warner wasn't run out like that or the catches weren't dropped this could have been an interesting finish. Australia just got themselves so far behind in the match despite Steyn's injury

WOW. What an over by Rabada. If you can find the tape of the over he just bowled to Adam Vogeswhen he got him out - stunning piece of bowling. 

Huge fan of Rabada scarily good, makes Starc look like a bum. 

starc did bowl in a heat wave and has probably been the best bowler in the last 12 months

There's a five and a half year age gap between the two and Rabada's performance against England already daunts anything that Starc's done in his test career. 

If Starc is to be considered the best in the world he'll have to do a little more than beating down on the minnows of world cricket. 

Rabada is only 21 and he already has the full package - pace, swing, seam movement, and the brain to know how to use it. Scary stuff. 

breaking a record against sri lanka for a fast bowler doesn't count for much? Hardly minnows

Starcs 4 wickets in the first innings should have set up Australia to win the match but ce la vie our batting is poor