‘It’s a nice feeling’: Proteas in full control against Australia ahead of final day of second Test

Despite being the standout performer on day four, Marco Jansen was full of praise for his Proteas teammates for producing an all-round effort to take control of the second Test against Australia in Gqeberha on Wednesday.

Having resumed their first innings at 3/1 in the morning session, Australia were completely dismantled by the Proteas attack.

All-rounder Jansen, who had hit a superb half-century in the SA team’s first innings, continued to shine with the ball by taking career-best figures of 5/33 in Australia’s first innings as the tourists were bowled out for just 99 runs.

After enforcing the follow-on, the hosts restricted the Baggy Greens to 156/4 in their second innings at the close of play – with Travis Head on 87 not out off 138 and Scott Boland unbeaten on two off 23 – and the Australians still needed 170 runs to make the Proteas bat again on the final day of the match.

“Obviously we knew because of the first few days with the rain and everything (there were lengthy rain delays over the first two days), we were going to have to try and bowl them out as quickly as possible, either in the first innings or second innings,” Jansen said.

“We’re just very happy with the way it turned out and happy we could capitalise on the wickets and the new ball. I thought the guys bowled really well with a lot of intent and energy.

“It’s one thing to bowl a certain way but it’s another thing to be backed up by your fielders as well. ‘Harmie’ (Simon Harmer) took absolute stunners there and also ‘Sauce’ (Aiden Markram) with that great catch at second slip. Everything basically going our way is a nice feeling.”

One moment at a time

Jansen said the Proteas, who were trailing 1-0 in the three-match series, had hit back by concentrating on the moment, focusing on each ball and each session at a time.

“I think you can get yourself in trouble if you think too far ahead of the game, and I think we did that really well in terms of just focusing on what we can do and we were trying to do in whatever moment, whether it was with the new ball, in the middle or the old-ish ball,” he said.

“As soon as you get too ahead of yourself then your mind is not where it should be, in my opinion, and you think of things and how they might play out, but in fact you can only do what you can do with this particular ball and then the next ball, and I think we did that really well.”