London: Australia might not have walked as disappointed as they would have been maybe an hour ago before the stumps, as the reigning champions recovered the lost ground with an invaluable 61-run partnership between Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc for the eighth wicket in their second innings against South Africa in the World Test Championship (WTC). Australia were tottering at 73/7 before a few near-misses and some erratic bowling from the Proteas pacers meant that the holders’ tail wagged a bit to take the lead past 200.
Australia were effectively 218/8 by the end of the second day’s play as South Africa, even though would be positive about chasing anything below 230-235 but inside, would be feeling that they missed a chance of bundling Pat Cummins and Co under a total lead of 200. The eighth wicket partnership and that counter-attacking knock by Carey of 43 off just 50 balls probably put Australia back into the thick of things after Lungi Ngidi was all over the Aussie middle-order.
