Key events
Although with the rain delay, maybe the women’s game is genius timing? There’ll be something to watch in a few minutes’ time.
Mark Chaimungkalanont emails in, with an Australia-NZ T20 for the women’s teams to begin in 10 minutes.
“Surely another miss from CA with the Aussie women’s clashing with the men’s on a Sunday? Watching some top class cricket v NZ after being flogged in the rugby surely was better than a full clash tonight. Nothing else on last night and would’ve been three days after Bangladesh.”
Yes, yes, and yes. The Australian women’s team has an appalling schedule this season and next, shoehorned into October and March. CA will give you umpteen justifications around T20 leagues, ground availability, etc, but the overall impression is very much back to the second-class citizen era. Get your house in order, CA.
Aaaaand just as we’re getting ready for a start in a few minutes, the drizzle returns, and the choreography of the covers returns with it.
The big call is once again the fast-bowling selection. Nathan Lyon was never left out of an Australian team when available from August 2013 to July 2025. Played 116 Tests in that span. Today he’s been left out for the third time in the last eight Tests that he’s been fit for. It’s a severe change in approach from the national side.
The big reason is that Scott Boland is so good, and is sitting on the sidelines so much of the time. They love his effectiveness but he can’t get past the other three quicks when they’re all fit. So with this surface expected to be effective for his bowling style – very accurate, fuller than the others, threatening stumps and pads more often – he’s in.
Teams
So, mature-age debutant Ackerman will be into the action immediately, opening the batting this morning. Steve Smith is playing after some concern following his head knock in Durban.
South Africa
Aiden Markram
Marques Ackerman
David Bedingham
Temba Bavuma *
Matthew Breetzke
Ryan Rickelton +
Wiaan Mulder
Marco Jansen
Simon Harmer
Anrich Nortje
Kagiso Rabada
Australia
Nic Maddinson
Travis Head
Marnus Labuschagne
Steve Smith
Matt Renshaw
Alex Carey
Beau Webster
Pat Cummins
Mitchell Starc
Scott Boland
Josh Hazlewood
Australia win the toss and bowl
Pat Cummins has no hesitation in bowling first, something he’s done more than most captains. He cites the fact that it’s a damp morning, that the wicket will be freshest today, and rather burying the lede, that they have once again dropped their spinner to play four fast bowlers, with Scott Boland coming in for Nathan Lyon.
Temba Bavuma says, “We were undecided, but a decision has been made on our behalf.” Understated as ever. For his team, Marques Ackerman will debut, Matthew Breetzke comes in to help the batting, and then there’s Rabada. So that means Verreyne and Stubbs miss out from the batting side of things, and interestingly Keshav Maharaj is the spinner dropped rather than Simon Harmer. Maharaj bowling left arm is very much the senior bowler, but Harmer the off-spinner may have been preferred with so many Australian left-handers.
Interesting given left-arm spin has been effective against Australian sides for a while now.
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
Hello, cricket pals. Get ready for something spicy. And wet. Spicy and wet. The tom kha soup of cricket. It’s coming to your table very shortly, direct from Gqeberha, which you may know historically as Port Elizabeth.
Here’s the deal. Australia in South Africa, tough away trip but they’ve got a record doing it, very competitive and tense history between the teams, not to mention some… uh… stuff that happened last time that was spoken about exhaustively in the first place. And amid all this context, Australia rolled up and grabbed the first Test in Durban despite a batting collapse on day one.
Point two, South Africa will revamp their side quite substantially, and oh oh oh oh, Rabada’s back. Last time we had this tour, Australia also won in Durban but then got torn up by Rabada in Gqeberha. This time he’s coming off a hamstring injury, so point one will be whether he can bowl at his best and get through without aggravating it.
South Africa have to grab this game to stay in the series, and there are precious World Test Championship points / chunks of win percentage on offer. Shall we?
Geoff will be here shortly to take you through the first half of the day, but for now remind yourselves of how Australia took a 1-0 series lead with victory on day five of the first Test in Durban.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2026/oct/18/south-africa-v-australia-second-test-day-one-cricket-st-georges-park-gqeberha-live-updates
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