Perfect Cummins flattens Proteas

TimesLIVE

a day ago

Kagiso Rabada picked up two wickets minutes before lunch to keep South Africa's hopes aflicker after a devastating spell from Australian captain Pat Cummins put his side in the ascendancy on the second day of the World Test Championship final.
As he did in the first innings, the spearhead of the Proteas attack dismissed Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green in one over to put smiles on his teammates' faces. Australia went to tea on 32/2, a lead of 106 runs, with Marnus Labuschage on 16 and Steve Smith on 4.
South Africa will need a lot more magic in the final session on Thursday if they are to narrow the gap to the Australians, for whom Cummins was magnificent as the spearhead of the effort that saw the Proteas bowled out for a miserable 138.
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He was like a pin that poked the Proteas' lunchtime balloon. The South Africans had felt good about themselves at the interval after scoring 78 runs in the first session and showing greater intent with the bat than they had on the first evening.
Two elegant boundaries from David Bedingham in the final over put smiles on faces, but Cummins turned those to frowns with his burst after the break.
It was the former Australian rugby captain John Eales who was given the moniker 'Nobody' because 'nobody's perfect', and it would have served as an appropriate nickname for Cummins too.
He didn't make a mistake with the ball on Thursday, overwhelming the Proteas, to give his side what looks like a match-winning advantage.
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Cummins trapped Kyle Verreynne lbw for 13, a decision that had to be sent to the TV official, after Chris Gaffney — who's been having a running battle with DRS in this match — kept his hands by his side. The Australian captain had the wherewithal to go to the third umpire even though he was smashed in the back by Verreynne who was trying to pick up a single.
But nothing the South Africans did could keep Cummins down. Marco Jansen lasted three balls and chipped a delivery straight back to the bowler, while Bedingham, who top scored with 45, was the victim of a gem of delivery that was angled into him and then straightened off the surface, the ball glancing the edge of his bat giving Alex Carey a simple catch.
That gave Cummins five for the innings, and his sixth wicket, saw him become the eighth Australian to pick up 300 Test wickets. 'It's way more than I could have asked for,' Cummins told the TV broadcaster. '300 is a big number for any fast bowler, it means you've come through a few things.'
His post-lunch spell read 4.1—1-4-4 and saw him finish with 6/28, the kind of performance that, coupled with his display in the 50-over World Cup final against India two years ago, will only strengthen the argument that he belongs among the greats of the game in his own country.