Score: South Africa: 489 all out (Elgar 117, Du Plessis 102, De Kock 99)
South Africa’s leading batsmen once again put in a thorough day’s work in the final warm-up match at Glenelg ahead of the first Test in Perth next week, but there will be a growing concern about the form of opener Stephen Cook.
Cook’s opening partner Dean Elgar enjoyed some good time in the middle with an innings of 117 off 143 balls (12x4; 4x6) before he sought the sanctity of the dressingroom. Captain Faf du Plessis also registered a century (102 from 112) balls after missing out in the day-night fixture last week against a Cricket Australia XI in Adelaide.
Du Plessis was particularly aggressive against left-arm spinner Tom Andrews with the Proteas skipper moving towards his century with two consecutive sixes.
Elgar and Du Plessis combined for a 179-run partnership for the fourth wicket after the Proteas lost three early wickets. Cook was the first to depart when he edged a seaming delivery from opening bowler David Grant behind.
The Proteas opener was visibly disappointed in missing out again after his double failure against the pink ball at the Adelaide Oval last week when he only managed scores of 5 and 12. It follows on from scores of 5, 97*, 31 and 14 in the domestic Sunfoil Series before the 33-year-old departed for the tour of Australia.
Cook, though, was not the only one to fall victim to Grant’s impressive opening spell as the lanky 19-year-old produced a carbon-copy delivery to Hashim Amla (9) with the same result occurring.
However, Rilee Rossouw (22) did his chances of pushing for a place in the starting XI in the series opener at the Waca next week no favours at all through his own poor shot selection. Despite the presence of a healthy slip cordon, the left-hander opened the face of his bat to follow an innocuous delivery slanted across him from medium-pacer Cameron Valente straight into the hands of first slip Sam Raphael.
Fellow southpaw Quinton de Kock, though, is seeing the ball – regardless of it being pink or red because “a ball is just a ball” – as big as watermelon at the moment as he again blitzed 99 off just 94 balls to push South Africa towards a total in the region of 500. The fact the held out to mid-off trying to attack the spinner just one run shy of a three-figure score would not have perturbed the South African wicket-keeper, judging by his comments after his century last week.
“It doesn't bother me whether I score a duck or a hundred. To me a warm-up game and a net is the same thing. When it comes to game time and focus time, I like to contribute where I can,” he said in Adelaide.
There were also starts for Temba Bavuma (43) again and Vernon Philander (41 retired) with the former possibly looking to convert these cameos into something meaningful come Test match time.
“It’s nice to be out there in a game situation, it beats the nets,” Bavuma said after play on Thursday. “Personally, I’ve struggled a little.
“Playing at Adelaide (Oval) and then coming and playing here at a club ground, it’s been contrasting conditions between the two. But for the other guys it’s been quite good and I’m sure as the tour goes on things will get better. We’re not going to take too much out of the scores and the individual performances, it’s more how we want to go about playing our cricket. Not too much complacency will set in from our side based on the high scores."
Teams:
South Africa: Faf du Plessis (capt), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Stephen Cook, Quinton de Kock, Jean-Paul Duminy, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dale Steyn.
South Australian XI: Sam Raphael (capt), Wes Agar, Tom Andrews, Nick Benton, Michael Cormack, John Dalton, Brad Davis, David Grant, Alex Gregory, Tim Ludeman, Harry Nielsen, Patrick Page, Alex Ross, Cameron Valente, Jake Winter
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