Whatever the shortcomings of the MCG wicket, it has produced an enthralling first Test. South Africa's intense frustration yesterday at their inability to prevent Australia adding 123 for their last two wickets turned to delight by stumps that they entered the final day with nine wickets in hand. Victory, still some 302 runs away, was unattainable, but a draw was much more feasible than it appeared after three days.
The pitch, expected by many to start breaking up yesterday, instead entered its most productive phase, 269 runs in the day for the loss of only seven wickets. That equation compares to those from the first three days of four for 206, 10 for 197 and 10 for 159. The ball at last started to come onto the bat and the anticipated increase in unevenness did not materialise.
Wickets at the MCG remain unpredictable. The curator here blames the current problems on the Australia versus Iran soccer match that was played over the square a month ago. He was obliged before it to grow some rye grass with the couch on the square and still has an unwanted mixture of both.
Despite the improvement in conditions, batting was still far from easy until Paul Reiffel made it look so in a career best in Tests, 79 not out off 115 deliveries. The South African bowlers lost the plot when he came in, feeding his penchant for offside flamboyance, and then trying to bounce him out when tempers became frayed on a hot, burning day. The rest of the Australian tail played and missed on a regular basis, but hung around annoyingly.
South Africa's only consolation in the field came when Allan Donald broke the national record for Test victims. His return of six for 59 took him one past Hugh Tayfield's tally of 170, achieved in 37 Tests, one more than Donald has played.
For Australia, Mark Taylor played an accomplished innings, resisting for more than four hours for a valuable 59. Judging with skill which deliveries to leave outside his off stump, he pulled particularly well before being controversially given out, caught at first slip, off the disappointing Pat Symcox.
As his side's only spinner, much depended on him, but Symcox probably tried to give the ball too much flight on a surface offering him a lot of turn. He bowled an unacceptably high number of loose deliveries, being regularly pulled and cut. Reiffel took a clear liking to him.
Given four sessions to get through, South Africa started disastrously when Gary Kirsten, regarded as their key batsman by the Australians, was out in the sixth over. Late on a ball from Reiffel that angled back into him, he became the Australians' 100th Test scalp.
The out-of-sorts Adam Bacher looked a bag of nerves, soon gloving a lifter from Glenn McGrath in front of silly point where Ricky Ponting dived full length to take what would have been a fine catch. The ball popped out of his hands when his elbows hit the ground, but umpire Randell already had his finger in the air. A reluctant Bacher was on his way to the pavilion before Ponting sportingly recalled him.
This was the piece of luck that South Africa, and Bacher, needed. Soon he was hitting the ball in front of square, picking up ones and twos to go with a solitary boundary. Jacques Kallis, at the other end, looked increasingly assured, cutting and pulling an off-colour Shane Warne for boundaries. For the first time in the match, South Africa were scoring at three runs per over.
