Follow UsThere were good balls, bad shots, drop catches, a dozen near-catches, overturned reviews, no-balls, a horror collapse and then finally an admirable recovery.
An entire Test’s worth action was packed into 28 overs of play after Tea at the Lord’s and after an extraordinary session, the World Test Championship (WTC) Final is right in the balance: Australia lead by 218 runs, but only have two wickets in hand left.
As has been the case throughout this match, it’s the kind of position both teams would be disappointed with, but will still take it.
Two wickets away with a 218-run lead is a fantastic position to be in for South Africa, considering Australia had a 74-run first innings lead. Yet at one point, the Kangaroos had just a 147-run lead with three wickets in hand. From 73/7, Australia went on to add 71 more runs for the loss of a solitary wicket.
South Africa will start day three with the ball tomorrow when they’d feel that they should have had Australia all-out for about 100 or 110, chasing 180-odd.
A 218-run lead looks great for Australia now, considering at one point they did not look like they’ll even set a target of 165, but again, they’ll feel they should be having a lead of 250 or 260 with five or six wickets in hand. At one point today, they were ahead by 118 runs with eight wickets in hand. From that point, they added just 100 more runs for the loss of six wickets.
If you narrow it down, this session was really about two individuals: Lungi Ngidi and Alex Carey.
Ngidi had a horror outing on day one, considering 45 off the 8 overs he bowled - for no wickets - when pretty much every other bowler was on the money. But he put that spell behind him to put in an inspired performance that saw him dismiss all of Steve Smith, Beau Webster and Pat Cummins in a near-perfect burst. The Smith dismissal changed it all; it made South Africa believe, perhaps for the first time since Tea on day one.
If Ngidi’s spell made South Africa believe, the performance that rescued and gave hope for the Aussies came from the bat of their usual crisis man, Carey.
When it looked like no one could put bat to ball on a Lord’s surface that was both doing nothing and everything at the same time, he counterpunched in typical Carey style to drag Australia over the psychological barrier that is 200. It was doom and gloom at 73/7, but he added 61 runs with Mitchell Starc, who is still unbeaten on 16 and will aim to stretch the lead close to 230 on day three.
It’s been only two days, but this is already the closest WTC Final we’ve seen across three editions.
The final hangs in the balance. The trophy is anyone’s for the taking.