By Adrian Meredith
MELBOURNE, Australia (TheSportsNEXT) November 9, 2012: The opening day of the Brisbane Test started with two shocks - South Africa didn't play Imran Tahir, instead going in with an all-pace attack, with Rory Kleinveldt making his debut. Then we had the biggest shock - not only did Australia play the out-of-form spin bowler Nathan Lyon (in spite of fellow spinner Tahir not playing) but they also left in-form left arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc as 12th man.
Mitchell Starc has just completed the Champions League T20 tournament, where he took the most wickets to win the player of the tournament award. This was on top of a highly successful ODI and T20 season, at both domestic and international level, in which he has been the best bowler in the entire world.
There were question marks about whether Mitchell Starc could turn this into performances at test level, with some labeling him as a short form specialist - yet his first test had poor figures and he has since improved on his test record. There were also some highlighting the fact that Starc had lost six kg in weight to suggest that he didn't have the stamina to last a 5-day test match.
Ben Hilfenhaus hadn't played any first class games in six months either, and both Hilfenhaus and Starc played in Australia's last test match, for both of them their last first-class match. The difference is that Hilfenhaus has done considerably worse than Starc in the meantime - while Hilfenhaus hasn't been horrible, he hasn't exactly been in great form - averaging mid to high 20s in the limited overs format. But Hilfenhaus is generally known as a long format specialist, not to mention that he is older, and with Australia's players lacking experience, the selectors wanted an old head.
Whether fitness was an issue, or lack of experience, or just a hunch that Starc isn't a Test bowler, the selectors didn't say. The end result, though, is that they played the out-of-form Lyon, who has averaged over 50 in the past half year or so, a spin bowler, while leaving out our only left-arm bowler in Starc, the only bowler likely to bring fear to the South African batsmen.
Australia were already controversial in their selections, by picking both Ed Cowan and Rob Quiney, and the absence of Starc just compounded these problems.
Not to mention that Siddle and Hilfenhaus are not the only old hands that Australia could have played - they could have tried Doug Bollinger and Clint McKay, for example. They could have tried in-form bowlers with great records, who are also experienced.
South Africa won the toss and batted and early on Alviro Petersen looked in all sorts of troubles against James Pattinson in particular. Graeme Smith looked incredible early.
Then Pattinson should have had Smith out caught behind, against the run of play. It was given not out, was referred, and should have been given out, but wasn't. A bit of a shocker but hey! Smith was generally playing well other than that though.
Then Hilfenhaus had a second chance against Smith, this time LBW. It was originally not out, was referred, and was correctly given out. Smith looked good other than that but it almost seemed he was lulled into a false sense of security.
Alviro Petersen kept surviving and after Smith's dismissal, with Hashim Amla's quality coming in, Petersen's batting improved. With Siddle and Lyon coming in to replace Pattinson and Hilfenhaus, the pressure was off and South Africa really capitalised. Petersen got to his half century and Amla looked immovable.
Then, just as it looked like it would be one wicket down at the end of play, Alviro Petersen lost concentration and lobbed a ball from Nathan Lyon over to Michael Hussey. It wasn't a good ball, there was no build up, it was just a bad shot from a batsman that lost concentration.
Lyon was the worst of the bowlers but Siddle wasn't much better, spraying it all over the place. At least Hilfenhaus was accurate, if not likely to take a wicket.
Lyon did nearly take a wicket late in the day though, when Hashim Amla edged it between keeper and 1st slip. Michael Clarke didn't even move. He was on 62 at the time.
Not long afterwards, Peter Siddle had Jacques Kallis out caught at mid off - only to have it referred in case he had bowled a no ball - and he had! He was on 44 at the time.
Later still, Peter Siddle dropped a chance off Hashim Amla when he was on 74.
At the end of the day, South Africa finished on 2/255. James Pattinson was easily the best of the bowlers but Hilfenhaus at least tied up one end. Siddle and Lyon were all over the place; but Siddle had two chances - one he dropped and the other was taken but it was a no ball, while Lyon got a wicket off a bad shot and had another one edged.
The optimistic Australian fans might say that those chances should have gone the right way for Australia, and, if they had, South Africa could have been 5 down. But there was really only 1 drop - the others were no balls and edges. Even if South Africa were 3 down they would still be a long way on top.
At the end of the day, this team that was selected never had any chance of beating South Africa. They had to pick Mitchell Starc for starters, but really needed the variety of two left-armers, and should have played either Mitchell Johnson or Doug Bollinger alongside him. They also needed to have a genuine 5th bowling option, whether it was Dan Christian, Andrew McDonald, James Faulkner or even Glenn Maxwell - it was just a question of how much batting they wanted to lose versus how much bowling - Faulkner is a better bowler than Watson but a much worse batsman, while McDonald is only a slightly worse bowler but not that worse as a batsman, Maxwell is only a bit worse as a batsman but a much worse bowler, while Dan Christian is a similar player to Watson but worse in both disciplines - but has the benefit of being a different kind of bowler that South Africa wouldn't be used to.
With the wrong bowling attack - not to mention the wrong batting line up - Australia never had a chance. No amount of trying from the likes of Siddle, Hilfenhaus and Lyon, or odd bowling options in Quiney and Hussey - were ever going to get through the South African batting line up.
With only one day gone and a whole four days to go the best that Australia can hope for is a draw, and it would take a huge effort to get to that from here.
