When the South African national anthem was being sung, the camera caught a fly pestering Faf Du Plessis. The SCG Hill told Douglas Jardine to leave the flies alone. But Du Plessis, and his team, spent much of day one playing as if a fly was pestering them.

Douglas Jardine is probably the most famous opposition captain ever to come to Australia. But the last man to captain South Africa in Australia isn’t far behind him.

Graeme Smith was bested in Australia in his first tour as captain, but managed to turn the tables in the other two series he captained in Australia. Very few can claim that.

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He could do that because he was a fantastic leader, but it was more than that. South Africa had a good enough team to win, a team that could win the longest days, a team that could withstand the heaviest hits Australia could give them.

Australia dealt some heavy blows in 2008 and 2012, but South Africa was always able to absorb those hits when the series was on the line.

The WACA is old Australia. Old Australia isn’t what it used to be. People are aware of it. The pitches are the most obvious symptom, but it goes further than that. The WACA has been tamed by television, by money, by the soil, by other things.

But old Australia still has a voice, and it’s still usually loudest in Australian cricket at the WACA. Ian Chappell is the Channel Nine commentator can pull off the voice of old Australia the best, on the grounds of authenticity.

Every Channel Nine commentator dissected Stephen Cook, but you could recognise the cuts that Chappell was making. Just calling it as I see it. Nothing personal. Move on. Come back to it later.

Other commentators were saying much the same thing in much the same words, but somehow it sounded different when Chappell said it.



Maybe it was because when Chappell first criticised Cook, it was while the WACA seemed to be saying sheep dip to your new age plans to Steve Smith.

Peter Siddle had been removed from the attack after dismissing JP Duminy to allow Starc a go at the new batsman, while Siddle switched ends to replace Mitchell Marsh.

Tactically, not a bad move. But it went wrong because both bowlers weren’t at the standard they needed to be, and it was the start of South Africa’s first real partnership between Du Plessis and Temba Bavuma.

Tactical romanticism isn’t always spurned at the WACA. England’s first innings at the WACA in 2013 was vintage Clarke in that regard. Short spells. Shorter spells. Attack. Attack. Attack.

Eventually, Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen were dismissed on the second evening, and Australia was always in front from then on.

But the WACA’s love doesn’t come easy. Australia under Clarke wasn’t always successful at the WACA. Stray too far away from the basics and you’ll soon pay the penalty.

The previous Test at Perth had been a thumping South African victory, and the third innings of the match was punishment for Australia.



Punishment for batsmen who couldn’t deliver when the series was on the line, punishment for not playing Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus and instead picking an unbalanced attack, punishment for just plain not being good enough and South Africa being good enough.

A fifth bowler is gold, but the WACA demands excellence from the fifth bowler too if the captain wants to use that fifth bowler as a secondary bowler and not a part-timer. It’s not a place where a fifth bowler can grind out six overs for fifteen despite not bowling that well.

Marsh went for 23 from his six. Mitchell Marsh wasn’t quite at the high bar the three other Australian pacemen were, and that meant two things. One, he didn’t have any success.

But two, it cut into Nathan Lyon’s bowling time. It didn’t matter, as Lyon needed only ten overs to take two wickets. Smith could wave away the fly relatively quickly today.

That wasn’t something South Africa or du Plessis could do. And this wasn’t day five Adelaide. Du Plessis couldn’t simply tolerate the fly for the whole day. He had to try to wave it away, and so did South Africa.

The fly nearly went into a tiny opening presented by Dean Elgar’s mouth today, but Usman Khawaja could not cling onto the reflex chance. But JP Duminy’s dismissal was one of those irritating DRS referrals. Not clear the umpire was right, not clear that the umpire was wrong.

It would have needed thigh cam to definitively tell whether Duminy hit the ball. If such a cam existed, old Australia would laugh at it, and it would be far from alone.

When the 2008 footy match between Victoria and the Dream Team included umpire cam, a more reasonable innovation, Sam Newman ridiculed it by having panel cam on The Footy Show. What next?



The fly respected Du Plessis and Bavuma. Flies pestered Bavuma throughout his innings, particularly in the 20th over. Chappell laughed, recommending the corked hat. But of course, the solution would be worse than the problem for batting. Sometimes, the problem is a compliment, or at least you must accept it as a compliment.

When Du Plessis finished the 21st over with a boundary, it was an example of how the ground will do the work for you at the WACA, if you earn it.

As Shane Warne said in the 23rd over, the WACA wasn’t as good as what it once had been on the first day of this Test, but it was a lot better than it had been for New Zealand. It could at least remind you of what it once was.

Du Plessis and Bavuma earned themselves a break from the fly at lunch. But when Du Plessis fell soon after resumption, so too fell the idea that South Africa might still score 400 in this innings. It meant the bowling would be tested on the first night, and it was found wanting. What was most surprising was that Dale Steyn was found wanting the most.

Steyn is a remarkable bowler. Steyn had played two previous Tests at the WACA. And Steyn bowled like a remarkable bowler who had played two previous Tests at the WACA for three overs.

The problem was his spell didn’t stop there. He bowled three more overs, and those three overs weren’t the overs of a remarkable bowler who had played two previous Tests at the WACA, they were the overs of a young bowler who had never visited the WACA before getting too excited by what happened when he bowled short. Those three overs went for 33.

Du Plessis didn’t stop attacking when Steyn was bowling, and it seemed like he and the rest of the slip cordon was trying to encourage Steyn to bowl fuller. But that spell was at least one over too long. The fly was right in his face at that point, and there it remained until stumps.



At stumps, Australia was 0-105 off just 21 overs in response to South Africa’s 242. South Africa walked off with the fly in their face, with the judgement that they had been found wanting all too obvious. Tomorrow, they will walk out on to the field once more. There will be no national anthem, no corked hat, no fly swatter.

Just the grim promise of a long, fly-infested day.