Philander destroys Australia on final morning
Standard Bank Protea, Vernon Philander celebrates with teammates
VERNON PHILANDER needed just three overs to complete the double of 200 career Test wickets and 50 wickets against Australia before completing a quick-fire demolition with career-best figures of 6/21 on the final morning of the fourth Sunfoil Test match at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium on Tuesday.
The day’s play lasted little more than an hour as the Standard Bank Proteas achieved the huge winning margin of 492 runs, the biggest ever in South Africa’s history.
It completed a 3-1 series win, giving the Proteas their first home Test series win over Australia.
At one stage Philander had a spell of 6/3 before No. 11 batsman Josh Hazlewood struck two boundaries at the death of the innings. Philander finished with career best match figures of 9/51 which included his 13th five-wicket haul of his career. It earned him the Sunfoil Man of the Match award. Philander’s previous best innings return had been the 6/42 he took against India earlier this year.
Philander and Kagiso Rabada, who was named Sunfoil Man of the Series, are now the two leading wicket-takers in Test cricket this year, having taken 31 wickets at 16 and 38 wickets at 19 respectively, and all their Tests have been played against two of the powerhouses of world cricket, India and Australia.
Keshav Maharaj, who was expected to play the main bowling role on the final day, hardly got to bowl at all as Faf du Plessis brought Morne Morkel back into the attack to give him the opportunity to take a final wicket on his final day of Test cricket. Unfortunately, it was not to be as the last Australian wicket fell to a run out.
Australia thus finished the series without either an individual century or a century partnership.
The Proteas had three of the four leading runs scorers in the series and three of the four leading wicket takers.
The dominance of the South African bowlers was reflected by the fact that Australia only managed to force the Proteas to take the second new ball once in the entire series.
What will be really encouraging for South African cricket was the fact that the two main contenders for the Man of the Series were their two youngest members of the playing XI, Rabada and Aiden Markram. And also the tenacity the squad showed in winning three in a row after being well beaten in the first match of the series.
The Sunfoil Education Trust (SET) has benefited to the tune of R980 000 from the number of fours and sixes hit and wickets taken by the two sides in the series. This followed the R641 000 raised by the three-match series against India and the R417 500 raised by the two-match series against Bangladesh, bringing the grand total for the three Test series to R2 038 500.
SOURCED FROM THE CRICKET SA WEBSITE.
