De Villiers bats South Africa into lead

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa: Australia fought back on the second day of the second Test but could not stop AB de Villiers taking South Africa into a slender first innings lead at St George´s Park on Saturday.

South Africa were 263 for seven at the close, a lead of 20 runs after Australia were bowled out for 243 in their first innings.

There was a flurry of wickets after tea but De Villiers counter-attacked to hit 74 not out off 81 balls with easily the most aggressive batting of an otherwise slow day.

Australia were able to take only one wicket before tea, that of nightwatchman Rabada, as Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla ground out half-centuries.

But the scoring was painfully slow and Australia were right back in the game when both batsmen were dismissed in the first two overs after tea, followed by two more batsmen being dismissed cheaply.

The Australian bowlers made effective use of reverse swing, firstly to restrict the scoring and then as a weapon in all four wickets.

Amla was bowled by a fast, reverse swinging yorker from Mitchell Starc for 56 four balls after tea and Elgar was caught behind off Josh Hazlewood for 57 in the next over. Like Amla, Elgar fell to a full delivery which swung late.

Score Board

Australia won toss

Australia 1st Innings 243 all-out (D Warner 63; K Rabada 5-96)

South Africa 1st Innings

D Elgar c Paine b Hazlewood 57

A K Markram lbw b Cummins 11

K Rabada b Cummins 29

H M Amla b Starc 56

A B de Villiers not out 74

*F du Plessis lbw b Marsh 9

T B de Bruyn lbw b Marsh 1

†Q de Kock b Lyon 9

V D Philander not out 14

Extras (lb 2, w 1) 3

Total (7 wickets; 95 Overs) 263

Did not bat: K A Maharaj, L Ngidi

Fall: 1-22, 2-67, 3-155, 4-155, 5-179, 6-183, 7-227

Bowling: Starc 26-4-78-1; Hazlewood 24-4-73-1; Cummins 20-6-55-2; Lyon 16-5-29-1; Marsh 9-1-26-2

Umpires: C Gaffaney (New Zealand) and K Dharmasena (Sri Lanka). TV Umpires: S Ravi (India). Match Referee: J Crowe (New Zealand)