South Africa have Australia on a slippery slope at lunch

Rabada and Jansen strike early as the Proteas claim the first session

ICC World Test Championship Final. Lord’s, London. Day One: June 11.

First innings: Australia: 67/4 (23.2 overs). Smith 26*, Head 11

South Africa: Rabada 2-9, Jansen 2-27, Ngidi 0-19, Mulder 0-6

South Africa won the toss and chose to field

Lights, camera, action and cloud. The final of the World Test Championship began under gloomy skies at a floodlit Lord’s on Wednesday. Fireworks went bang before the match had even started. Then Kagiso Rabada, who has shrugged off a cloud of his own making, went bang-bang to lift the underdog gloom that has marked much of the build-up and predictions on South Africa’s chances of victory.

Rabada struck just before and after high noon, David Bedingham holding on at slip off Usman Khawaja despite Aiden Markram throwing in a little dummy. Australia were 12 for one and Khawaja trudged back through a relatively empty Long Room.

Three balls later in that seventh over and Rabada, coming in from the Nursery end, had Cameron Green trudging back, this time Markram holding on despite Wiaan Mulder almost getting in his way. Marco Jansen saw off the stubborn Marnus Labuschagne for 17, breaking a building and ominous partnership between himself and Steve Smith.

With lunch a minute away, Jansen induced a leg-side edge off the dangerous Travis Head and Kyle Verreynne obliged by taking an acrobatic, diving catch. It was South Africa’s session. Temba Bavuma’s decision to bowl was proving to be a good one. From Lord’s, Stuart Hess of TimesLive messaged to tell me it was expected to clear up later. South Africa had to make the morning count and, lo, they did just that.

“The overhead conditions dictate that we bowl first,” said Bavuma at the toss. “We’ve selected the best team for these conditions. It’s a massive occasion, we all have some sort of allegiance to Lord’s and we can hear the South African accents in the stands.”

That meant Lungu Ngidi in and Dane Paterson left out, a tactical decision according to Bavuma that split South African fans down the middle. “It was probably one of the tougher decisions that have been made. We've seen what Patto (Paterson) did for us at the end of last season. But from a tactical point of view, there's a little bit more pace from Lungi. He is taller as well.”

South Africa had done their homework with a little top-up tutoring from former English bowler Stuart Broad. Height matters at Lord’s and all four of South Africa’s quicks are over six foot tall. It’s all about the slope at Lord’s and how it affects run ups, lengths and approaches.

The pitch’s beige looks were deceiving wrote Nagraj Gollapudi in ESPNcricinfo on Wednesday: “A bright, creamish carpet tinged with faint green – the Lord’s pitch is like a strip of band aid in the middle of a verdant green. But don’t let that fool you into thinking it could be flat. The groundsman Karl McDermott has been busy using the heavy roller in the week leading into the final. As a consequence, the grass has been padded in but the surface is likely to be hard and provide good bounce across the five days.”

Jansen got the ball to bounce from the Pavilion end, while Ngidi and Mulder did the same from their ends. Is it all about the slope? Mike Selvey, the former England and Middlesex quick, has bowled many deliveries at Lord’s and wrote in The Guardian in 2013 that the slope can be a slippery and tricky beast.

“On this ground the end really does justify the means. But to understand the conundrums facing bowlers it is necessary to appreciate the topography of the place.

Most people know it has a slope. Bowlers, though, run neither up it nor down it, but instead across, for there is a fall, from the Grandstand on the north-west side to the Tavern stand to the south-east, of just over two metres. This may not sound much over the width of a large cricket ground but its effect is sufficiently dramatic to have a major part to play not just for choice of ends, but also the methods and lines to be exploited.

“The rationale is quite simple: run in from the Pavilion, and the slope can tend to throw the bowler into the crease. To counter this, there is a tendency to lean back slightly, throwing the action out of kilter and sending the ball too straight, with it going further to the leg side with the tilt of the pitch. From the Nursery End, by contrast, an outswing bowler gets nicely set at the crease and can bowl a tight line, with the ball having a tendency to nip further away down the hill. And the prevailing breeze coming in from fine leg is optimum as well.”

Simple enough, then. South Africa need to keep Australia on a slippery slope this afternoon.

TEAMS

Australia: Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey +, Pat Cummins (captain), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

South Africa: Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickleton, Wiaan Mulder, Temba Bavuma (captain), Tristan Stubbs, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne +, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi.