Lee strikes hand advantage to Australia
Lee strikes hand advantage to Australia
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Sunday, 26, Mar 2006 06:21
Brett Lee destroyed South Africa's tail to hand Australia the advantage on day three of the second Test match in Durban.
South Africa's tail did not so much wag as shrivel up helplessly in the face of Lee's devastating spell, reducing the Proteas from 255-5 to 267 all out.
The Proteas had been doing well with helpful contributions of 50 and 33 from AB de Villiers and Ashwell Prince taking them to 221-4 at lunch, but when Jacques Kallis fell for 114 a collapse was triggered reversing the game completely.
In response Australia's batsmen proceeded to extend their 102 first innings lead to 227 runs after closing on 125-1 at stumps, with Ponting two runs short of his half century.
"It's taken a lot of hard work and sacrifices to get where I am," Lee told the Herald Sun before the match began.
"What I keep telling myself is I look back 12 months ago and I wasn't wanted in the team. it's a great turnaround to be known as a strike bowler."
Lee's 5-69 figures took him past the 200-wicket milestone, an achievement he has reached in 50 tests at an average of 31.48.
Both sides are struggling under the strain of their extremely competitive back to back competitive Test series, with South African captain Graeme Smith failing in 14 of his last 15 innings.
"There's a lot of things going through his head," explained South African coach Micky Arthur to the Australian Advertiser.
"We've probably had the toughest season ever in terms of his captaincy."
Meanwhile Australia suffered bad news off the field after further revelations about an incident in which Andrew Symonds was thrown out of a Cape Town nightclub last week after arguing with Smith.