Five quick hits: Starc breaks a drought and Smith busts a digit
Steve Smith and Temba Bavuma both end up in the hands of medical staff, as Mitchell Starc scores his first 50 in six years. Here are five quick hits from the third day of the World Test Championship decider.
Steve Smith and Temba Bavuma both end up in the hands of medical staff, as Mitchell Starc scores his first 50 in six years.
Here are five quick hits from the third day of the World Test Championship decider.
Things started well for South Africa on day three.
In perfect June sunshine, the irresistible Kagiso Rabada wound up, steamed in and had Nathan Lyon trapped plumb in front in the day's third over.
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But then, all of a sudden, batting was easy for the Australians, with number 11 Josh Hazlewood defending stoutly and Mitchell Starc flicking and chipping his way to an innings-high 58 not out.
The demons from days one and two were nowhere to be seen, the ball was soft, and the South Africans failed to create even the hint of an opportunity for the better part of two hours.
Starc was determined, brave and took much of the strike during his marathon 136 ball innings, but it was his partner who played the shot of the morning.
With a niggling last wicket-stand quickly becoming a catastrophic one for South Africa, Marco Jansen banged one in wide on a good length.
Hazlewood stood tall and steadied before gliding a perfectly time uppercut over a leaping cordon.
Despite the Bazzing of Balls recently, Starc still has more Test sixes than Joe Root, thanks mostly to his early career as a specialist slog sweeper.
But in recent years, since being moved from number eight to nine in the batting order, Starc has transformed into a less explosive tail-ender.
Mitchell Starc put more miles in the legs of South Africa's bowlers as he shared a 59-run 10th-wicket stand with Josh Hazlewood. (AP: Kirsty Wigglesworth)
It has also made him less prolific, boasting 10 half-centuries from his first 52 Tests and none from the following 44.
But early on day three, former England captain Alastair Cook praised him on BBC Test Match Special for being able to play more innings of consequence with his new approach.
And so it proved at Lord's as he passed 40 in a World Test Championship final for the second straight time, before carrying on to 50 for the first time since 2019.
Steve Smith looked like he wanted to throw up after looking at his injured finger.(AP: Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Starc appeared to have his third wicket of South Africa's run chase when Bavuma edged a shortish ball towards the slips.
It raced towards Smith, but one of Australia's greatest slippers couldn't handle the sharp chance, in large part because he was standing incredibly close to the bat on account of the lack of carry throughout the Test.
He and Beau Webster had worn helmets for slips practice before play because the slow pitch forced fielders behind the bat to step forward to have a chance of an edge being caught.
Unfortunately, when a batter is playing back to someone bowling 140kph, that step forward reduces fielders' reaction time to almost nothing.
This time Smith copped the sharply moving ball on the tip of his right pinky, suffering a compound dislocation so severe that he looked nauseous when he ripped his helmet off to examine the injury before promptly leaving the field with a horribly crooked phalange.
Not long after being put down by Smith, South Africa's captain was cut down out of nowhere.
There was a long delay as Temba Bavuma got some injury treatment. (AP: Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Scurrying through for a quick single, Bavuma pulled up lame and needed a few minutes of treatment on a restrictive hamstring injury.
The diminutive right-hander is no stranger to being hobbled by his hammies, having battled through the 2023 World Cup semifinal and being forced out of a Test against India a few months later.
He struggled through to tea but it was assumed that might be it. Instead, he came out after the break and somehow continued to bat on while backing up Aiden Markram with some laboured but determined running between the wickets.
In England, batting is generally at its best on the third day of a Test match when the pitch flattens out, the ball loses its sting and, if you're lucky, the sun comes out.
With 28 wickets falling over days one and two, and only four falling on the third, rarely has that been proved more true than on day three of the 2025 World Test Championship final.
Unfortunately for Australia, it just didn't have enough wickets left to make the most of it in the morning.
Starc and Hazlewood battled admirably in a 59-run stand for the 10th wicket, but it was the South Africans who were in pole position to make the most of the suddenly slow, sun-drenched Lord's pitch.
And Bavuma and Markram did just that, picking off singles with ease, playing the odd expansive shot and ultimately taking all of the spring from the Australian step.
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