London [UK], June 14 (ANI): Following a tough day three at field during the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final against South Africa, Australian assistant coach Daniel Vettori hailed Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram for their partnership and acknowledged that getting rest of the wickets for 69 remaining runs would be a “real challenge”.
Markram’s historic Lord’s ton, first-ever by a Proteas player in an ICC tournament final, and his 143-run unbeaten stand with skipper Temba Bavuma have left SA just 69 runs short with eight wickets to go in pursuit of their first-ever world title in the sport.
During the presser, Vettori acknowledged it was a tough day for the team and under the sunshine, bowling became difficult.
“I think there was optimism in the way we started with Starc and Hazlewood (while batting, a 59-run stand). There was a really good partnership to put together a total that obviously, considering the rest of the how the match had played out, was a challenging one. But under those conditions, Markram and Bavuma were exceptional and were able just to, I suppose, navigate their way through any tricky situations and then be able to put pressure back on us when it was opportune time. So it was a pretty benign wicket and obviously conditions were not assisting the ball, but that partnership was exceptional.”
Vettori said that the team is aware of the magnitude of their task and the situation remains tricky for them. He expressed hope that conditions go in their favour.
“But I think with the nature of where the ball is at and the surface, it is a difficult task, but it is a task that the group has probably done at times throughout the last three, four, some of them five, six, even longer years. But I think there is an appreciation of how well Bavuma and Markram batted to put all that pressure back on us. So, to get one of them tonight may have given that optimism. So it is going to be a real challenge tomorrow,” he added.
On Steve Smith’s finger injury after dropping Temba’s catch at slips, Vettori said that the team will “just wait and see what comes back after he gets back from hospital. And then everyone will be able to update from there.”
Speaking on his bowlers and if they could have used more variations, Vettori said that someone like Mitchell Starc does it naturally.
“He does that naturally and his ability to change his length and potentially swing the ball both ways. I think the success that has come from the surface has been that six to eight meter length. That is what South Africa did so well. That is what we did in the first innings. So there is sometimes an appetite for that, but there is also a concern around the score running away from us,” he said.
“And sometimes when you go to that short ball stuff, it is hard to control the scoreboard. And that was probably our fear today, that if we could hang in those areas long enough, something would happen, like it has in the rest of the test match, but it was not to be,” he added.
South Africa has reached 213 runs in 56 overs, led by a century-run partnership between Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma. Despite a hamstring injury, SA captain Bavuma has fought through to register a half-century.
Earlier in the day, A fine half-century partnership between Aiden Markram and Wiaan Mulder put South Africa in a solid spot at the end of the second session during day three of the WTC final at Lord’s on Friday. At the end of the session, SA was 94/2, with skipper Temba Bavuma (11*) and Markram (49*) unbeaten.
Starc played one of the finest innings of his life, which powered Australia to 207/10 from a poor position of 152/9, leading by 281 at lunch. Starc remained not out on 58, leaving Proteas to chase 282 to end their ICC title drought.
Brief Scores: Australia: 212 and 207 (Mitchell Starc 58*, Alex Carey 43, Kagiso Rabada 4/59) against SA: 138 and 213/2 (Aiden Markram 102*, Temba Bavuma 65*, Mitchell Starc 2/37). (ANI)
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