Australia and South Africa locked horns in the boxing day Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne. The hosts’ skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and asked the Proteas to bat first in the first innings. Riding on the bowling brilliance of Cameron Green, the Aussie bowling lineup bundled the visitors only on the score of 189 runs in the first innings.
Subsequently, the Australian team managed to post a mammoth total of 575 runs for the loss of eight wickets to take a lead of 386 runs in the first innings. Subsequently, Dean Elgar’s men happened to surrender against the bowling attack including the likes of Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland alongside skipper Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc. Eventually, Australia won the match by an inning and 182 runs to take an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the three-match series.
The ardent cricket fans who are closely eyeing this series also reacted to Australia’s win. Fans also felt that it has made the Indian team’s run to the final quite a bit easy. They took to Twitter to come up with different reactions.
Here’s how fans reacted:
Dominating win by Australia,💥 Thanks to South Africa 😍🙏😁
— Shubham Singh (@Shubhamak18) December 29, 2022
India's path to WTC Final is Clear now.🥳🥳🥳🥳#AUSvsSA #AUSvsSA #INDvsBAN #INDvsSL #DavidWarner #AUSvSA #TestCricket #WinterCare #WhyMediaLensDidntCapture pic.twitter.com/0TfbnWEaPe
Proudly saying fuck you som bitches @ProteasMenCSA !!!
— Himanshu (@himmyrao23) December 29, 2022
Take that piece of Sandpapers and stick em where sun does not SHINE 😉😉
Good Job @patcummins30 and boys to get the series home 😇 #AUSvsSA
Whoever wins, whoever loses, wherever is the match, things only come down to fans claiming india defeating Australia at home 😂 #AUSvSA #AUSvsSA
— Abhishek Mishra (@Im_Abhishek2701) December 29, 2022
I don't remember Aussies won a test against SA at home.
— நந்தினி ✩✩ 🎀 🅽🅰🅽🅳🅷🅸🅽🅸 🎀 ✩✩ (@nandhinithinks) December 29, 2022
That's how previous SA team used to dominate there #AUSvsSA
Players to win Johnny Mullagh Medal :-
— Rhitankar Bandyopadhyay (@rhitankar8616) December 29, 2022
Ajinkya Rahane 🇮🇳 in 2020
Scott Boland 🇦🇺 in 2021
David Warner 🇦🇺 in 2022 (today)#AUSvsSA
Interesting fact this year eng won on Anderson 100th home test , Sri Lanka won on Matthews 100th test match , Australia won on warner 100th test match what a achievement for legends #AUSvRSA #AUSvsSA #Cricket #WTC23 #WTC2023 @SriLankaTweet @davidwarner31 @TheBarmyArmy
— JOYDEEP SINGH GILL (@joydeepgill4) December 29, 2022
If all goes well, BGT will be a 5 test match series with an all important 5th test to be played at the Oval 🔥🔥#WTC23 #AUSvsSA #indvsaus
— AB_Hi (@abhi_inthearc) December 29, 2022
Great Time for a Cricket fan. Just saw Australia win a test match, and now we get to watch Kane Williamson bat 👍#AUSvsSA #PakvsNZ #CricketTwitter #KaneWilliamson #DavidWarner
— JustCricket (@justcricketblog) December 29, 2022
At lesst we scored 200+ 🤡🤡😭 #AUSvsSA
— Mbo Salah (@DaMbongza) December 29, 2022
(Australia vs South Africa) 2nd Test
— Sports Yaari (@YaariSports) December 29, 2022
Player of the match : David Warner
1st inn - 200 runs 255 balls 4s - 16 , 6s - 2#Cricket #AUSvsSA #TestCricket #CricketTwitter #sports
Australia Just 1 win to seal the WTC final spot.#WTC23 #WTC2023 #AUSvsSA
— Nihal (@IamNihal18) December 29, 2022
At the start of the year, South Africa promised a lot but fell flat as the year progressed. Be it Tests, ODIs or T20Is. Opportunities missed, from WTC to T20WC. Australia, on the other hand will look to make up for the T20WC with WTC & WC in the coming yr.#AUSvsSA
— Akash kulkarni (@Dragan_geming) December 29, 2022
Thanks I am more keenly following this as 3-0 will give India a #WTC entry ! #AUSvsSA
— Aroop Datta 🇮🇳 (@AroopDatta) December 29, 2022
Notably, it was also the 100th Test of veteran Australian southpaw David Warner. The 36-year-old celebrated his 100th Test appearance with a brilliant double century against South Africa. He played a knock of 200 runs off 255 balls with 16 boundaries and two sixes before falling prey to Anrich Nortje.
Other than David Warner, wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey also scored a century of 111 runs with 13 boundaries alongside half-century contributions from former skipper Steven Smith (85 runs with nine boundaries and a six) and 51 runs each by Travis Head and Cameron Green.
Eventually, David Warner won the ‘player of the match award for his brilliant double century in the remarkable 100th appearance in red-ball cricket.
Now, Australia and South Africa will take on each other in the third and last of the three-match Test series at Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney next month on the 4th of January, 2023.