Adelaide Test, Day 2, Close
Saturday, December 15, 2001

It was a great opening partnership from Gary Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs - but watch out for Glenn McGrath.

South Africa did everything right in the early part of this final session. The big danger was early wickets, but it was a great stand. They got through the new ball, then saw off Warne and all the other bowling changes pretty comfortably.

Then we had that freakish ball by McGrath to Kirsten, and an equally freakish catch from Ricky Ponting. McGrath was bowling around the wicket and quite possibly that ball came out of the side of the sightscreen. Whatever happened, Kirsten just lost it.

And that catch! It's one of the best I've ever seen. That's been one of the most glaring differences between the two teams. You can't afford to drop catches at the best of times, and especially not in a tight Test like this one. It's going to get harder and harder to score as this match goes on and, if you're dropping catches, you're giving the batsmen more opportunities to score. Those misses will create headaches for South Africa.

It's interesting that neither side has taken wickets with the new ball. I don't think they've used it that well, but maybe it's that sort of pitch. When the ball is hard it comes on to the bat, but as it starts to get scuffed up and softer it doesn't come on to the bat as well.

Australia are way in front now - South Africa have a lot of work to do. But the Australians can improve as well. Warne didn't have much shape and flight, but the breeze doesn't really help in in Adelaide. It tends to blow into his face from the right - ideally he'd like it coming from the left.

I don't think the wicket will help Brett Lee too much either. He's either full or short, he doesn't quite settle down into a consistent length, and he lacks McGrath's patience and control. He's a dead-set strike bowler.

So the workload may fall heavily on McGrath and Warne. If they don't find the right length there could be plenty of runs to score out there.

Ian Healy made a record 395 dismissals in 119 Tests for Australia. His comments will be appearing on Wisden.com at the end of every session in the series. He was talking to Tim Stoney.

More Ian Healy
Day 1, Lunch: Aussies can't lose from here
Day 2, Tea: Warne's the key

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