South Africa’s lower order was instrumental to securing a draw in the third Test in Sydney, after the visitors resumed their first innings on 149 for six on the fifth morning. While Australia’s bowlers were eventually able to dismiss them for 244, short by 21 runs of avoiding the follow-on, that did not come until after lunch and left South Africa only 47 overs to survive. They did so on a surface that had its challenges but was still largely good for batting, with play called off with five overs to spare and South Africa on 106 for 2.
After watching the first two Tests from the sidelines, it was off-spinner Simon Harmer who took a chance with the bat to press his claim for first-choice status. Resuming alongside Marco Jansen on a day that finally dawned sunny and warm after days of rain, the tall fast bowler was only interested in defence, adding one run in an hour before being dismissed. Harmer though defended well while keeping the scoreboard moving, nullifying the short ball from Australia’s fast bowlers by calmly playing grounded pull shots for singles.
Travis Head’s occasional but effective off-spin got rid of Jansen via a catch behind, but fellow spinner Keshav Maharaj was a contrast as he came in swinging. Two savage pull shots to the boundary against Pat Cummins saw the Australian captain replace himself with spin, but Maharaj was also happy to smack slow bowling down the ground and bomb Lyon for a huge six over midwicket.
By lunch South Africa had added 95 in the extended first session with no loss beyond Jansen. Harmer and Maharaj ended up adding 85, with Maharaj making what was only South Africa’s fifth half-century of the tour. Eventually in a spell of subtle reverse swing Josh Hazlewood hit Maharaj on the knee roll for 53 and bowled Harmer for 47, finishing with 4 for 48 on his return from injury before a signature Lyon diving return catch from Kagiso Rabada ended the innings.
The Australians had missed chances to finish things earlier. Tough catches of the stick-or-don’t variety went down off Lyon in the first session in consecutive balls, with Harmer on 28 edging him straight into Marnus Labuschagne’s wrist at short leg, then feathering one that Alex Carey couldn’t hold. Most crucially, when on 4, Maharaj smashed a drive back at Head that was too hot for the bowler. Five overs before the end, Agar in front of square leg missed a leading edge from Rabada off Hazlewood.
That all left too much for Australia to do in the third innings, on a surface where patches of rough made the spinners a threat, but that sucked the pace out of fast bowling. The Australians knew that their own batting in the first innings had grabbed 475 for four in well under two days, and might have shot for 700 without rain. Hazlewood and Cummins had each bowled 23 overs already in the second innings, Lyon had bowled 40. That left Ashton Agar to open the bowling in the third innings, but his left-arm orthodox spin was no more threatening this time around. Four boundaries came from his first two overs, and the omitted Scott Boland was sorely missed.
There was also frustration to come from the umpires. Opening bat Dean Elgar departed quickly, gloving a catch down the leg side for the fourth time in the series. After South Africa returned from tea at 46 for one, though, a review against Heinrich Klaasen showed that the ball was hitting halfway up middle stump, but was umpire’s call for whether it had hit his pad outside the line of off stump. It was the third umpire’s call review of the day to go against Lyon. Three balls later Smith caught Klaasen off Lyon at slip, but for the third time in the match the third umpire overturned a catch for being close enough to the ground to engender doubt.
Klaasen was eventually cleaned up by a stunning piece of reverse swing bowling from Hazlewood, snaking in the air before bounding in off the seam to hit middle stump. There were a couple of close appeals to follow. But the moments of threat were too few, as Sarel Erwee ended a tour of struggle on 42 not out, and Temba Bavuma batted brightly again for 17 not out. A series loss of 2-0 has little to take from it for South Africa, but there will be some satisfaction in at least stopping Australia having it all their own way. The Australians will be confident that without the time lost to rain, 3-0 would have been the result.