The Australian innings closed at 207 after a display of excellent bowling by the Proteas at Lord’s. Australia’s initial innings was at 212, but their pace bowlers performed exceptionally, limiting South Africa to 138 runs. In the second innings, South Africa’s bowlers continued to dominate, taking crucial wickets. However, Mitchell Starc played a pivotal role, scoring a remarkable half-century that lifted the score to 207, thereby increasing Australia’s lead to 281 runs. South Africa now has a target of 282 to overcome the current world champions.
This isn’t the first instance of Starc taking control and constructing an innings from the number 9 position. He has accomplished this seven times in Test cricket. Stuart Broad of England, who consults for South Africa, has achieved this six times. Only two batsmen have achieved five or more 50-plus scores from the number 9 position or lower in Tests in a single country – Stuart Broad and Mitchell Starc, both in England.
Fast bowlers have been dominant at Lord’s, a known advantage for pace bowling compared to spin bowling, unlike in the subcontinent. Out of the 30 wickets that fell (across the two Australian innings and one South African innings), only one was taken by a spinner, Keshav Maharaj of South Africa. The remaining 29 wickets were taken by fast bowlers, with Australian captain Pat Cummins taking the most wickets in an innings (6).