Durban Test: South Africa's pacers dominate Australia on Day 1
What's the story
South Africa's fast bowlers dominated Australia on the opening day of the first Test at Kingsmead in Durban. The hosts, without their star bowler Kagiso Rabada, took early control over the match. Despite a grassy pitch that is likely to crack later, Australia opted to bat first and brought back Nic Maddinson after a decade-long absence from Test cricket. Here's how the day panned out.
Match dynamics
Maddinson falls to Jansen; Head departs in similar fashion
Maddinson faced Marco Jansen, who swung the ball into both left-handers.
Wiaan Mulder opened the bowling attack instead of Anrich Nortje, who was also making his red-ball comeback in Rabada's absence.
Both bowlers used the early movement and good carry to trouble Australia's batsmen.
Maddinson survived a stone-dead lbw call that was curiously not taken upstairs but couldn't survive for long as Travis Head fell to a leg-side feather edge.
Head scored 9 off 19 balls.
Batting strategies
Labuschagne joins Smith after Maddinson's dismissal
Marnus Labuschagne, who has been out of form, joined Steve Smith after Maddinson's dismissal.
Despite taking a few blows on his chest, Labuschagne tried to stay positive.
Smith was aggressive against spinner Keshav Maharaj, hitting two sixes off his second over.
However, Labuschagne was dismissed by a Mulder nip-backer that was reviewed in vain. He ended up managing 37 off 58 balls.
He has now gone 11 consecutive innings without scoring a 50.
End of innings
Two new batters in the middle for Australia
After lunch, Smith (25) was dismissed by Jansen, who used the round-the-wicket angle to get an edge that went low to gully.
This left Australia with two new batters in the middle with their score being 84/4.
Despite South Africa's probing lines, they lost their second review when a Jansen delivery hit Matt Renshaw's forearm instead of his glove as suspected.
Simon Harmer came into the attack in the 36th over but it was Nortje who struck next.
Bowling breakthroughs
Cummins-Renshaw pair brings stability into Australia's innings
In one over, Nortje dismissed both Alex Carey (14) and Beau Webster (4), getting them to edge behind with his tight off-stump channels.
Renshaw (46*) settled in with Pat Cummins, taking them safely until Tea without any further damage.
The duo brought some stability into the innings despite South Africa's persistent bowling attack.
As clouds gathered over Kingsmead, Cummins remained watchful yet purposeful against spin bowling.
Information
Australia are 187/6 at stumps
Australia were 187/6 after 65.2 overs when bad light stopped play and the day was called off. Cummins has looked good for his unbeaten 33. For the hosts, Jansen managed 2/35 with Mulder (2/31) and Nortje (2/40) chipping in to be amongst the wickets.
Nic
Maddinson bags 33-ball duck on Test return
Maddinson was dismissed for a duck after facing 33 balls, marking his first appearance in the format in a decade.
His long innings ended when he attempted to cut Jansen and ended up chopping on.
The left-handed batsman has now entered the record books for the longest Test duck by an Australian opener in terms of balls faced, where balls faced data is available.
In the overall list of opener's, Maddinson's duck is the third-longest.
Smith
Steve Smith becomes Australia's third-highest scorer in Tests
With his 8th run of the contest, Smith became the third-highest run-scorer for Australia in Test cricket.
He surpassed former legend Steve Waugh, who scored 10,927 runs at 51.06 from 168 matches (100s: 32, 50s: 50).
Smith has raced to 10,945 runs from 126 matches (244 innings) at 55.84 (100s: 37, 50s: 45).
Only Ricky Ponting (13,378) and Allan Border (11,734) are ahead in terms of Test runs for Australia.