Off-spinner removes Head and Labuschagne in first session

Simon Harmer struck twice in his first over, turning what had otherwise been a quiet second morning at Newlands, into a raucous, vibrant arena, leaving Australia on tenterhooks.

Harmer bowled Travis Head off the bottom edge with his first delivery and then amid a cacophony, which built up over the next five balls, found the outside edge of the underfire Marnus Labuschagne’s bat, with Aiden Markram clinging to a good catch at slip.

Australia were 90/2 at lunch with Matt Renshaw, restored to the top of the order after Nic Maddinson, was unceremoniously sent home, on 27 and Cameron Green, playing his first match of the series on 17.

South Africa were bowled out for 329 on the first day, with the home team admitting that they would have taken that score at the start of the day, but given where they were positioned at lunch - 140/0 - they knew that they should still be batting on day two.

On a bright and warmer second day, Australia were aiming to make them pay for the irresponsible way in which so many players lost their wickets.

And for an hour, Head and Renshaw delivered the necessary control. Neither Kagiso Rabada, nor his new ball partner Marco Jansen, bowled badly, with each testing the defences of the Australian opening pair.

But like the tourists discovered on the first morning, this Newlands pitch has little to offer, when the sun shines and besides Renshaw copping a blow on the shoulder from Rabada there was little which caused the batters discomfort.

Only one delivery from Jansen beat the outside edge of Renshaw’s bat, otherwise the opening pair drove and cut well. After an hour they’d reached 51/0 and as was the case on Tuesday, it looked like the fielding team was in for a tough day’s work.

But morning drinks brought a change; Temba Bavuma introduced his off-spinner from the Kelvin Grove End and like his Australian counterpart Nathan Lyon did on the first day, Harmer provided the breakthrough, with Head, who’d struck some wonderful drives off both front and back foot, bowled off the bottom edge for the umpteenth time in the last three months. Head had thrown one of his bats away in Zimbabwe after being dismissed three times in a row in that manner.

He’d suffered the same fate after making a hundred in the second innings in Gqeberha last week and was understandably furious when it happened again.

A classic bit of theatre then unfolded over the course of the next five balls, with Labuschagne being reminded by the Proteas and the crowd about the fact that another failure could make this his last Test. Bavuma, in what can best be described as an attempt at trolling, immediately dropped Jansen back to long-on - where Labuschagne was caught last week.

Amid a din, Labuschagne poked nervously at each delivery - was almost caught at short midwicket second ball - and then a couple of balls later, edged to slip.

Harmer charged off in celebration, Markram flung the ball into the turf and the crowd went nuts. Labuschagne left the scene and unless he can do something spectacular in the second innings, he may not get an opportunity to start Australia’s home summer in two weeks time.