South Africa vs Australia 1st Test Live Score: Onus on Matt Renshaw to guide AUS past 400 as they lose 9 wickets

South Africa have finally broken the marathon 9th wicket partnership between Nathan Lyon and Matt Renshaw. Marco Jansen gets the breakthrough finally as he takes the wicket of Nathan Lyn who played a gutsy knock of 27. Renshaw is still at the crease.

Matt Renshaw has scored only two tons in Tests in his career, and both times he has gone past 150. Today, he crossed the mark with a reverse sweep of Keshav Maharaj. Shows the kind of control he is in.

Matt Renshaw has marched on, as he is slowly and steadily making the middle-order spot in the playing XI with this match-saving knock. He has now reached 150, as it looks like now that he is toying with the Australian bowlers with a variety of shots, including reverse sweeps. Australia are on the brink of 350, and now it looks like even 450 is on the cards for them.

This has been a game-changing partnership for Australia as Matt Renshaw and Nathan Lyon have stitched 100 runs for the 9th wicket. While Renshaw is racing his way towards 150, Lyon has been the real underrated story at the other end. He has scored only 17 runs, but the real story is that he has faced 72 balls. He has really frustrated the South African bowlers, who have been left shell shocked.

Matt Renshaw and Nathan Lyon are refusing to let their guards down, as they keep ticking things along for the 9th wicket. In fact, the duo have managed to create history. They have smashed the record for the highest 9th wicket partnership in history at Durban. With their 89-run stand, they have beaten the record set by Mark Bouncer and Fanie De Villiers who hit 86 runs in a 1998 Test match against Pakistan.

Ohh that was a nasty blow to Matt Renshaw!! Anrich Nortje hit the ball on the deck with some fierce pace towards the batter. While he has been excellent at dending and leaving the short balls, there was a rare error of judgement from Australia’s hero of the innings. The ball hit the helment and then the elbow as he looked quite hurt. Even the physios rushed to the ground. However, the good thing is that he has not looked rattled by this, as he takes his stance to continue the knock.

When Australia were down 124/6 on Day 1, few would have expected them to go past 200, given that they had lost their top order completely and the quality of bowling on display from the South Africans. However, now they have crossed 300, thanks especially to Matt Renshaw. Can the vistors now go past 350…or even 400?

The Australia tail continues to frustrate the South Africa bowlers. While Matt Renshaw is doing the bulk of the scoring, Nathan Lyon is playing his part perfectly surviving deliveries, and rotating the strike when possible. The duo have stitched a half-century stand for the 9th wicket.

Matt Renshaw completed a fighting hundred, his first after 9 years, and his second ton overall. Here’s the magical moment.

At lunch, Australuia’s incredible fightbacl continues. Matt Renshaw has stood rock solid on his ground, as Australia reach 277/8. Wiaan Mulder picked up the only two wickets of the first session for South Africa. Can Australia continue this fightback in the second session as well. Or will the Proteas finally end the first innings.

What an innings from Matt Renshaw. He stood his ground when the South African bowlers were breathing fire, stitched a fighting partnership with Pat Cummins for the 7th wicket, and then changed gears when Australia lost 8 wickets. The left-hander has now smashed only his second Test century. His knock is the perfect example of how a Test match innings should be built from the ground.

Matt Renshaw has been the hero for Australia in this Test match. He speaks on the difference between opening and batting at no.5.

Matt Renshaw has now looked to step up a gear, as he has gone fro, defending and leaving to now timing the ball and looking to hit in the air as well. He is the set batter, and he will look to hog most of the strike and score the bulk of the runs.

The new ball has done the trick for South Africa, and it is Wiaan Mulder who has once again struck. He removes Pat Cummins, as he gets some out swing movement that troubles the tall Aussie pacer, and thus castles his middle stump. With two more wickets in hand, Australia will desperately hope for Matt Renshaw to hug the bulk of the strike.

The new ball has finally been taken by South Africa. This can be a crucial moment in the game, as the likes of Marco Jansen, Anrich Nortje and Wiaan Mulder might unleash their pace and extract the movement of the new ball. It will be interesting to see how the Australian batters handle this pressure.

South Africa finally strike after Pat Cummins and Matt Renshaw frustrated them for close to 32 overs. Wiaan Mulder is the bowler who had the breakthrough as he took the wicket of the Australian captain Cummins. But what a brilliant knock from him!! The onus now falls on Renshaw as he needs to face the most balls and do the bulk of the scoring.

Pat Cummins and Matt Renshaw are not looking to bow down to the constant barrage of short balls and pacey deliveries by the South African bowlers. They are grinding hard, facing body blows, but still are sticking to the crease to keep Australia in the hunt. They have now gone past 200. However, the thing too see is how the Aussie go about things when the new ball is taken after 11 overs.

It’s the first over of the day, and what a start! Matt Renshaw hits Anrich Nortje for a four. He brings up a much well-deserved half-century. He has persisted on the Durban track and shown the Australian top order exactly what to do to counter the South African attack. This has been a very resilient knock from the left-hander.

After just 65.5 overs bowled on Day 1, the biggest concern is whether will play a spoilsport on Day 2 as well. The good news is that there is no chance of rainfall. However, the bad news is that there will be consistent cloud cover throughout the day. While the match will start with a 46% cloud cover, it increases throughout the day even reaching 71% at one point of time. Hence, visibility and bad light will definitely be an issue if such weather persists.

We didn’t get the full allotted 90 overs on the opening day of the much-awaited series as bad light played spoilsport at the Kingsmead. Only 65.2 overs were possible on Day 1 and the umpires then took the players off due to bad light. Australia ended Day 1 at 187/6 with Renshaw and Cummins unbeaten on 46 and 33, respectively.

The officials will now try to make up the lost time on the second day.

Hi, this is Shaunak Ghosh, and I’ll be taking you through the upcoming Day 2 of the opening Test between South Africa and Australia. The Proteas had the upper hand on the 1st day as the hosts scalped six wickets in no time. However, Pat Cummins and Matt Renshaw led Australia’s fightback and the duo would hope to continue with their resistance on Saturday in Durban.