Australian wicketkeeper Matt Wade missed a golden stumping chance on dangerman Graeme Smith, as South Africa made an ideal start to the biggest challenge they’ve faced as the world’s No.1 team.
Bowling conditions continued to prove difficult at Adelaide Oval, with South Africa moving to 0-117 at tea in reply to Australia’s mammoth first innings of 550 all out on day two of the second Test.
After his heroics with the bat, captain Michael Clarke (0-10) should have had the key breakthrough of counterpart Smith – but the chance was fluffed by Wade.
In the 28th over, Clarke’s second, Smith couldn’t resist leaving his crease, but when the ball passed between bat and pad Wade missed the chance.
Smith was 46 at the time and it remains to be seen how costly that will be for Australia, with the South African 57 not out at tea.
His opening partner Alviro Petersen was unbeaten on 47.
The pair weren’t trying to match the explosive speed of Australian opener David Warner (119 from 112) on day one, but did everything required to occupy the crease for the sake of the game – and giving injured allrounder Jacques Kallis more time to rest his hamstring strain.
Australian firebrand James Pattinson went after Smith early, as he looked to replicate his dominance of the Proteas skipper at the Gabba in the first Test.
Smith escaped a couple of near misses, and as a man who has proved a warrior for South Africa on so many occasions, he’s capable of making the home side pay.
Pattinson might have been aggressive, but he was also expensive, going for 33 runs at 5.5 an over.
Predictably, spinner Nathan Lyon was asked to do a lot of bowling early in the South African innings and had 0-21 from 10.
Under-pressure quick Ben Hilfenhaus bowled tightly when thrown the new ball but despite four maidens failed to trouble the batsmen (0-29).
Peter Siddle was kept out of the action early, but perhaps that was a mistake because he looked dangerous in his five overs, going for just eight.
Australia have a chance to usurp the Proteas as the best team in Test cricket if they can win the three-match series – which started with a draw in Brisbane.
Clarke’s side were dismissed shortly before lunch on day two, after another eventful morning that included Morne Morkel taking three wickets to finish with 5-146 and a quick-fire 42-run cameo from Pattinson.
Clarke was bowled by Morkel for 230 – bringing an end to his incredible two-Test streak of being not out for 489 runs.
