First Test, Cape Town, day two (close): South Africa 205 & 70-3; Australia 308 Lee jumps for joy after knocking back Herschelle Gibbs's off stump |
Australia tightened their grip on the first Test in Cape Town by picking up three South African wickets in the final session of day two.
Brett Lee dismissed AB de Villiers and Herschelle Gibbs in the space of three balls and Shane Warne trapped home skipper Graeme Smith lbw for 16.
It left South Africa on 70-3 at the close, still 33 runs in arrears.
Matthew Hayden top scored with 94 earlier in the day as Australia totalled 308 in their first innings.
Their advantage should have been a lot bigger, but they were guilty of tossing wickets away with some uncharacteristically loose strokes.
Hayden top edged an attempted pull, Mike Hussey, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist all chased balls wide of off stump and Andrew Symonds holed out at long off after reaching a 46-ball fifty off the previous delivery.
Jacques Kallis took 3-51 for South Africa and there were two wickets each for Andre Nel, Andrew Hall and Nicky Boje.
Australia resumed on 63-1 in the morning and Hayden and Ricky Ponting batted with authority as they shared a partnership of 154.
Ponting was lucky not to depart on three occasions, edging between the keeper and first slip, surviving an lbw shout from Kallis and then being dropped by Andre Nel off Hall at fine leg.
He finally drove Kallis to Andrew Hall at short cover on 74, but it did not disturb Hayden's' composure and he looked well set for a hundred after a four and a six off spinner Nicky Boje shortly before lunch.
But with the score on 192 he was surprised by a little extra bounce from Ntini and Jacques Rudolph made no mistake at deep mid-wicket.
Hussey suffered a rare failure when he fell to Hall for six, and Martyn (22) got a thin edge as he tried to square cut Kallis.
Gilchrist's stay in the middle was brief as he flailed at an off-cutter from Kallis on 12 and Smith made a sharp slip catch look routine.
 Kallis had a good day for South Africa with ball and bat |
Symonds, however, refused to be shifted and hoisted Boje over the ropes at mid-wicket to signal his intent shortly before tea.
He struck four sixes in all, the last carrying him to 55, but then lost his head and one hand came off the bat as he lofted a catch straight to Nel.
Once Symonds was out, the tail did not offer much resistance, the last four wickets going down for 14 runs.
Facing a 103-run deficit, South Africa needed a solid start in reply but they did not achieve their goal as Lee produced a hostile spell.
De Villiers was caught behind off the inside edge for seven and a searing off-cutter hit the top of off stump as Gibbs groped forward uncertainly.
Lee struck Smith on the hand with a bouncer in excess of 150kph, resulting in a trip to the middle for the South African physio.
But it was a big leg-spinner from Warne which dislodged the left-hander, but he looked unhappy to be given out by umpire Billy Doctrove.
Kallis was more assured than his team-mates and twice struck Warne through the off-side for elegant boundaries as he reached 31 not out at stumps, with Ashwell Prince on 14.
MMIX
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It's a difficult wicket - we wouldn't want to be chasing 300 here