Australia are it again..trying to rebuild from the ashes. Flattering deceptions marked the day and South Africa will still feel they have had a hold on the hosts at the SCG.
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It could be said that Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin once again rescued Australia from a sudden collapse. Struggling at five down for 162 when debutant Andrew MacDonald departed after facing a barrage of short pitched deliveries that included one that actually knocked the helmet off his head, it was the seventy-run partnership between the vice captain and wicket keeper that kept Australia going.
If flattered to deceive was a term most appropriate, it had to apply in Sydney. The openers, Simon Katich and an under fire Matthew Hayden, saw Australia safely to sixty-two before Katich was nailed in the slips in the safe hands of AB de Villiers off Jacques Kallis' bowling to open the doors.
Suddenly the score read sixty-three for two when Ricky Ponting was sent back with a duck, an inside edge to wicket keeper Mark Boucher off a more aggressive Morne Morkel doing the job.
Hayden and Hussey, who have both run dry with the runs, tried to rebuild a partnership before Hussey felt tenatively prodding in the slips off Paul Harris, who incidentally injured his knee by leaping in the air to celebrate the wicket. At the other end, Hayden was cleaned by Dale Steyn who bowled round the stumps.
The stage was set once more for a rearguard action and it was Michael Clarke who held it together with an unbeaten seventy-three while Haddin indulged in shot making. But at the end of the day, Australia have left themselves with more to do with Mitchell Johnson keeping the vice captain company with the game wide open at 267 for six.
If South Africa can rid themselves of the malaise that has allowed the Australian tail to wag in the past, this could be a more brutal encounter.
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