South Africa wins first Test by 177 runs in Perth

Australia coach Darren Lehmann warned his wounded squad “every spot is under pressure” after poor batting and a string of dropped catches in Perth consigned Australia to a fourth successive Test defeat.

Ticket sales for the second Test in Hobart are sluggish as forecast rain and an out-of-sorts Australia add further obstacles to administrators trying to boost Bellerive Oval’s appeal as an global cricket venue.

The new poster boy of South African cricket Kagiso Rabada was in the forefront once again with a brilliant five-wicket haul which paved the way for victory over Australia in Perth yesterday.

South Africa: Stephen Cook, Dean Elgar, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis (c), Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wk), Vernon Philander, Kyle Abbott, Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj or Morne Morkel.

Australia started on top, having the South Africans reeling at 81-5 on the first day before bowling them out for 242.

“If David Warner or Steve Smith don’t score heavily, the Aussies are in trouble”. If we do that we can put some pressure on Australia. The disappointing thing is we were off to flyer, obviously 0 for 158, and we lost 10 for 86.

“I think the team’s in a good place at the moment”, a defiant Smith said in the face of a barrage of criticism.

Smith played his last Test in 2014 and Sutherland said he’s out of touch.

“Captain Steve Smith, in particular, is under the pump”, he wrote.

“He isn’t in the best form with the bat either, which compounds the problem for him personally and for the team as a whole”.

At the same time, Australia in the last two outings at Hobart scored heavily against Sri Lanka and West Indies but South Africa are a quality side.

“The facts are it was disappointing”, Waugh said on Fox Sports.

“We’ve not been good enough and I guess for me it’s about making sure that the guys are upbeat and ready for the challenge out there in the middle”.

“We will have to see who replaces Steyn but Rabada will be the key, how we handle him”, he said.

“Perth was really dry and extremely hard”.

Fresh from a 177-run loss in Perth, the hosts have come under fire heading into the second Test starting Saturday. Full credit to them.

“He’s crucial for our bowling attack I think”.

Australia have lost just once at the Bellrive Oval but that statistic is deceptive given that Tests played in Hobart tend to be against weaker opponents.

“That’s the nature of the beast if you don’t have success”, he added. At times, with the amount of cricket you can play, it can be seen to be playing another game, and it is not (just) another game when you play for your country.

“There are possibilities we could go in with six genuine batsmen”.

Even without injured pace spearhead, South Africa’s bowlers dominated Australia’s batsmen in Perth and Burns will face a task to step up to global level at Bellerive Oval on Saturday.