Star of Sandpapergate gives Australia a Test batting lesson

The Age

a day ago

The South Africans were badly beaten 2-0, but the jolt appeared to get Markram going again. His returns since then have been sturdy rather than spectacular, and he failed to survive Mitchell Starc's first over on day one. But his combination of power and sound technique always made him among the most threatening members of Temba Bavuma's side, given an opportunity.
The window opened up for Markram when Australia's top six failed to make the most of a first innings lead on day two. By sliding to 7-73, Cummins' team ensured that they could not bat South Africa out of the game, even if Starc, Alex Carey and Josh Hazlewood ensured the chase would be substantial.
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In fact, a target of 282 required South Africa to make more runs in an innings than they had done in any of their past seven against Australia. The last time they had passed that mark – the final game of the 2018 series – was also the last time Markram played them.
But the Lord's pitches on show this summer have demonstrated a tendency to get noticeably friendlier for batting from around day three onwards, resulting in good tidings for teams chasing in the fourth innings. Bowling on consecutive days can also tend to dull Australia's edge in pace.
With no seam movement on offer and swing also harder to find, Markram could play a straightforward game against the same four bowlers he had handled so expertly back in 2018. In some ways, the Lord's conditions had become a reprise of the sorts of pitches that brought a very different style of Test cricket at the time, when dry conditions encouraged the increasingly cavalier search for reverse swing.
Apart from some sharp turn out of the Nursery End footmarks for Nathan Lyon, there wasn't much in the way of variation for Cummins and company to utilise, and Markram was in no mood to make mistakes in the company of his captain Bavuma.
Steve Smith's sickening finger injury from a difficult missed catch was a major blow for the Australians, both here and in advance of the West Indies tour. Cummins lost perhaps his best catcher, and certainly his most frequent source of tactical ideas.
It was also a rare chance offered by either batter. Bavuma's next did not come until the partnership was worth more than 100, as substitute Sam Konstas was unable to latch onto a top edged sweep in front of the Mound Stand.
Bavuma (64 not out) was hobbled by a hamstring strain, but did not let the injury affect his judgment. And apart from a strangled lbw appeal by Josh Hazlewood, Markram was more or less impassable, showing deft hands to find regular gaps in Cummins' increasingly speculative field placings.
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'It was a pretty benign wicket and conditions weren't assisting the ball, but that partnership was exceptional,' said Australian assistant coach Dan Vettori, who was under no illusions about the chances of a collapse on day four. 'With the nature of where the ball's at, and the surface, it's a difficult task.'
For an Australian side that has shown signs of batting decline for some time, this was a sobering lesson in Test match run-making that was both sensible and proactive. By the close, South Africa's first win in a major global cricket final was merely 69 runs away.
Had Australia managed to bowl their way to victory, many of the questions around the batting order may have been dulled by the afterglow of a winning team. As it is, Markram has not just put his own name in lights, but placed a figurative interrogation lamp on a top six now shorn of Smith, its best performer. Cummins will have to talk about that.