Australia were in trouble in the first session of Day 1
Australia began the defence of their World Test Championship (WTC) title on a hesitant note on Thursday as they were reduced to 67/4 by the end of first session against South Africa at the Lord’s.
Travis Head, who has been in superb touch across all formats, was the fourth wicket to fall under the overcast London sky when he nicked Marco Jansen’s seaming delivery off his pads.
Proteas wicket-keeper Kyle Verryenne then pulled off a stunner by diving to his right and plucking the ball at a low height to snuff out Head’s danger.
Jansen reaped the rewards of a very disciplined bowling effort from the entire pace attack as he got Marnus Labuschagne and Head in quick succession to end the first session of the day.
The likes of Lungi Ngidi and Wiaan Mulder got the lateral movement while also hitting the right areas throughout the morning which put Australian batters on the backfoot.
The movement was apparent from the first ball itself as pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada got the wickets of Usman Khawaja (0) and Cameron Green (4) thanks to two brilliant catches from David Bedingham and Aiden Makram in the slips.
Mulder was excellent with the new ball as he constantly tested Labuschagne with his fifth stump lines that often sneaked past the blade or fell short of the fielders.
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Ngidi, at one moment, almost got Head with the snaking seam doing him in, but the ball was too low for the fielder at short third man to hold on.
Only Steve Smith, fresh off four hundreds from his last eight innings and latest addition to the 10,000 Test runs club, was confident in his stay at the crease as he batted at a brisk rate.
Australia have brought back Green into the playing XI after a gap of eight months as well as captain Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood who had missed the Tests against Sri Lanka in February.
Scott Boland, who snared 21 wickets from just three matches against India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was benched in preference to Hazlewood who has recovered from a shoulder niggle he suffered during the IPL 2025.
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