Australia v South Africa: third Test, day five – live

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WICKET! Jansen c Carey b Head 11, South Africa 167-7

The part-timer gets the breakthrough! In his first over! His off-break turns out of the rough, Jansen props on the front foot playing for even more turn, and instead it tickles the outside edge on the way to Carey’s gloves.

73rd over: South Africa 166-6 (Jansen 11, Harmer 21) Ashton Agar gets a bowl. Harmer is happy to go after him, lashing a wide ball through point for a run. Agar does get one to explode out of the rough, though.

72nd over: South Africa 165-6 (Jansen 11, Harmer 20) Big sweep from Jansen, misses the lot. Down on one knee and way over the top of the ball. Instead of going into his shell he tries it again next ball and middles it, but straight at square leg. Lyon darts one through faster but starts it wide, and the shot goes to cover. Jansen starts defending instead, but plays at every ball of the over.

71st over: South Africa 165-6 (Jansen 11, Harmer 20) Turning over the strike nicely now. Harmer keeps playing the pull shot when on offer, taking a run from Hazlewood. The bowler is around the wicket to Jansen, wanting to menace him with the spectre of short bowling, though he mainly bowls full in this over. Finally Jansen joins in the run-scoring caper, swinging through the line to send a single deep on the leg side.

70th over: South Africa 163-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 20) That was nearly the one we were expecting! Lyon gets the turn into the right-hander, the edge towards short leg, and it bounces just short of Head. Then an outside edge past slip that gets Harmer a run.

69th over: South Africa 161-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 19) Hazlewood operating and Harmer is defending when full, trying to score when short. He has done plenty with the bat in county cricket, has a very respectable first-class record. Gets a run off the last ball.

68th over: South Africa 160-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 18) That turn keeps coming for Lyon. Harmer waits right back and hits across the line to deep square leg. Just the one run with a fielder out. Jansen goes the other way, using all of his reach and getting right forward. Could be getting his front foot outside the line of the stumps more. They’re 116 from the follow on.

67th over: South Africa 160-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 17) Josh Hazlewood comes on and bowls short. The Australian quicks just can’t help it when Jansen is on strike. It’s like they look up at his height and have to try to hit it. A couple of good-length balls appear eventually. Surely Jansen is a strong nick candidate, the way his backlift wafts around. No run.

This is true – the thing is that in that situation the lead is necessarily under 200. So say that’s a 180 margin with two sessions to go, South Africa would have a good chance to get a win. I can’t see Australia being that generous.

66th over: South Africa 160-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 17) Lyon keeps working away near those footmarks, getting a lot of turn from them. It really does look like a matter of time until one gets an edge into pad and pops up. Harmer drives a fuller ball for a couple of runs, good that he’s looking to score where he can.

65th over: South Africa 158-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 15) He’s doing a good job with the straighter stuff from Cummins, is Harmer. Knocks away another single off the pads. Jansen is not looking to score at all, just gets behind the ball. The pitch looking more chewed up than you might expect given all the lost sessions. Scott Boland might have been handy…

64th over: South Africa 157-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 14) Spin to Harmer for the first time today, Lyon over the wicket floating them in at Jansen’s footmarks outside the off stump. Far less wear on this wicket than usual. But there is one particular patch, and after a few balls he hits it. The ball spins savagely in at Harmer, who inside edges it past short leg! Gets a run, but could so easily have gone to hand. Two short legs for Jansen, who normally only has long ones. The wicket almost comes on the other side! In about four different methods. Just gets a nick to a ball that might have had him lbw. The edge is heading for his stumps but ricochets off his back pad. The deflection heads for the keeper, but hits his pad rather than his gloves. Then it almost bounces to slip but lands just short. That’s some sequence.

63rd over: South Africa 156-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 13) In the fourth over, Harmer gets the runs part of the scoreboard moving. Knocks a ball off a straight line behind square leg for two. Then decides to tackle the short ball, pulling Cummins airborne to the empty spot behind square leg. Four runs. They drop a deep forward square leg out, because they already have a leg slip and a fine leg behind square. Doesn’t matter, Harmer pulls the next ball anyway, but into the ground and finer to pick up a run.

62nd over: South Africa 149-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 6) Three overs without a run. Jansen does try a big sweep at Lyon but misses and gets nervous after that, defending or driving to mid on.

61st over: South Africa 149-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 6) No run from Cummins to Harmer either. Cummins tries that length at the hip that brought him the wicket of Klaasen yesterday and Elgar earlier in the series. Otherwise he concentrates on off stump.

60th over: South Africa 149-6 (Jansen 10, Harmer 6) Lyon in fact will spin us off, the tall figure of Jansen facing him. Lyon lands the first few nicely from over the wicket to the right-hander, drawing an inside edge that lands safely on the leg side. No score from the over.

Nathan Lyon to start off the day with the ball, Marco Jansen with the bat.

We’re about to get underway. Sunshine!

For the full story, I wrote this report about yesterday. Just for you.

What about the match? In one way, simple, Australia need 14 wickets to win. More complicated if the follow-on comes into play, which is 126 runs away. If South Africa’s first innings finishes up short of that follow-on, Australia will make them bat again immediately. If they get past the follow-on, Australia has to decide whether to bat again or declare, which gives South Africa a route to winning the game. Equally, if South Africa bat enough time to get past the follow-on, there probably won’t be enough time left in the match for Australia to bowl them out a second time anyway. So, four wickets remaining in the visitors’ first innings, and they just have to hang around as long as possible. Australia need to get them out of the way quickly.

Preamble

Hello from Sydney. Something peerlessly strange is happening in this city. It’s as though somebody has crushed a thousand Smurfs and sprayed the paste against the sky. I don’t know how to explain this, but, when you look up, all that you see above you is… blue. The friendly comforting blankets of cloud? Gone. The embrace of the rain? Vanished. It rained last night, but now, on this fifth day of the Test match, on the final day of Australia’s Test summer, everything has changed. I am not sure how to live in this new world. Perhaps if you take my hand we can walk towards it together.