Usman Khawaja’s spectacular love affair with the SCG and Sydney’s continuing dodgy weather may force captain Pat Cummins to impose his first follow-on as skipper.
More rain and bad light on Thursday prevented Khawaja from scoring his first double century, leaving him on 195 when an early stumps were called, much to the disappointment of the elegant left-hander and the 27,663 who were cheering him on during second day of the third and final Test against South Africa.
Usman Khawaja reaches his century at the SCG.Credit:Getty
Remarkably, it was his third century at the SCG in as many innings. It left Australia at an impregnable 4-475. However, showers and bad light have been taking time out of the game.
Khawaja was aided by Steve Smith, who scored 104 in a partnership of 209, before Travis Head again put the icing on the innings with another blazing performance, this time 70 from 59 balls.
Along the way, Smith became the sixth player to score 1000 Test runs at the SCG and went past Don Bradman’s 29 centuries to join Matthew Hayden on 30. Only Steve Waugh (32) and Ricky Ponting (41) have more hundreds for Australia.
Smith also went past Michael Clarke to become the fourth-highest run scorer for Australia, with 8647 runs at an average of almost 61.
“I don’t think about that stuff a great deal, but I did look up at the scoreboard just after I got 100 I think and … there are some pretty big names there, so that’s pretty cool,” Smith said after play.
Given South Africa’s highest score in their past eight innings is 204 and they have only three players in their line-up averaging above 30, the chances of Australia bowling them out with a lead of at least 200 is strong.
Recent Australian captains have been loath to enforce the follow-on, preferring instead to rest their bowlers and bat opponents out of the game. The last to do it was Tim Paine against Pakistan in Adelaide during 2019.
In the circumstances, it would be easy to play out a comfortable draw if the weather continues to intervene. However, Australia must beat South Africa 3-0 to be sure of a place in the World Test Championship final before next month’s tour of India.
Smith believes what has so far been a fairly flat pitch will start to play tricks as the game progresses.
“I think there is starting to get a little bit more rough and, unfortunately, we’re at the end of day two and only had 120-odd overs [131, because of the weather], so it would have been nice to have a bit more traffic on the surface at this stage, but there is starting to get a little bit more going on there,” he said.
“That’s certainly positive signs for us. And I think the rougher and more abrasive that surface gets, the more you’ll probably see reverse swing come into play as well.”
Cummins had the chance to make the West Indies follow on in both Tests earlier this season but declined knowing that Australia had five Tests in 40 days.
The decision in this Test is further complicated by the fact that allrounder Cameron Green could not be considered because of a broken finger, robbing the Australians of a genuine third seamer now they have played two spinners in Sydney.
Having revived his career with twin centuries against England in the corresponding Test a year ago, Khawaja has now hit four centuries from seven Tests at the SCG at an average of 131.
Steve Smith acknowledges the crowd after being dismissed for 104.Credit:Getty
He is only the fourth player and second Australian to score three consecutive centuries at the SCG behind former England captain Wally Hammond almost a century ago, Doug Walters during 1968-69, and India’s VVS Laxman across three different tours between 2000 and 2008.
The mighty innings ended a frustrating Test summer for Khawaja, who had missed out on Australia’s run glut and averaged 27.42 from seven previous innings.
This contrasted with what had been an otherwise remarkable 2022 for Khawaja, who was the only Australian to score 1000 runs, making 1080 at 67.5.
The high points were his twin centuries last summer against England at the SCG following his recall and the tour of Pakistan, where he scored two hundreds and averaged 165.
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