South Africa vs Australia: Pat Cummins lives up to the potential he showed on debut with second five-for at Wanderers

It was 17 November, 2011.

The venue was the Wanderers in Johannesburg.

The second Test between Australia and South Africa was about to begin. The series was at stake for the visitors as they had already lost the first match.

But that didn’t stop the Australian selectors and team management from handing an 18-year-old fast bowler from New South Wales his maiden Baggy Green. It was not an experiment or any act of desperation. In fact, the selectors knew that this young bowler could be the very difference between another defeat and victory for the Australian team.

That bowler was none other than Pat Cummins. Although he bowled a decent little spell of 15-3-38-1 in the first innings, it was his spell of 6/79 in the second innings on the fourth day of the Test match that impressed fans and critics alike. Australia won a thrilling contest by two wickets as a result of that spell and Cummins was rightly adjudged the ‘Man of the Match’ on his debut.

The future looked bright for both Cummins and Australia’s fast bowling unit. He promised a lot after such a performance.

The selectors were so confident in his abilities that Cricket Australia handed him a central contract just on the back of three impressive Sheffield Shield games and a successful Big Bash League 2010/11 season in which he had  topped the charts with 11 wickets at an economy rate of 6.59 and a mere average of 14.09.

The wonderful exploits on his debut Test, and the two T20Is against the Proteas in which he claimed 3/25 and 2/27 respectively, justified the faith that the selectors and Cricket Australia put in the young lad.

However, it took Cummins another six years and 134 days  to become the same bowler he had promised to be as an 18-year old.

When Cummins claimed yet another five-wicket haul at the same venue and against the same opponents on Saturday, it reminded everyone of the promise he had displayed back in 2011.

This is only his second five-for in all these years since he made his debut in 2011. And the number of Tests he has played so far also stands at only 14.

So why did he play so little for Australia in such a large time frame?

A series of back and foot injuries took a toll on Cummins’ body right after he made his debut for Australia. Although he kept making sporadic appearances in the limited-over formats, his body was not deemed fit for playing in the longer format continuously.

However, once he regained his full fitness in 2017, the Australian selectors didn’t take long to recall him into the Test squad. Cummins hasn’t looked back since making his Test comeback in March last year against India at Ranchi.

Over this period of time, he has shown that he has what it takes to be a perfect Test match bowler over a consistent period and at times he has even outclassed the more experienced bowlers in the side like Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. His latest exploits of 5/83 with the ball against South Africa at the Wanderers – the result of two wonderful spells on Friday and Saturday respectively— were once again an example of what he is capable of.

The Australian pace attack looked toothless in absence of the injured Starc. Hazlewood turned out to be totally ineffective. Although debutant Chad Sayers bowled his heart out in a tiring spell of 35-9-78-2, it was only Cummins who looked like having venom and a striking ability in his bowling.

On Day 1, the 24-year-old started off with the wicket of Hashim Amla with a beautiful outswinger to break the 89-run stand with Aiden Markram. And Peter Handscomb did the rest by claiming a stunner at slip.

Although South Africa looked to be in the driver’s seat with Markram blazing off to a superb knock of 152, it was Cummins who came back to bowl and made an immediate impact with back-to-back wickets. First it was the wicket of the well-settled Markram, who played a loose curt to an outswinger only to be caught at gully.

Then it was the wicket of the skipper Faf du Plesis that rocked the South African ship once again. This time it was an inswinger. Du Plesis tried to leave it at first, but watching it drifting in, he tried to bring his bat down to meet it. Unfortunately, he was beaten by swing and pace and was adjudged dismissed leg before wicket.

That little spell of inspired bowling brought Australia back into the match as South Africa lost two more wickets towards the end of the day to finish Day 1 on 313/6.

On the second day, when Temba Bavuma and Keshav Maharaj were threatening to do more damage with their partnership worth of 76 runs for the 1oth wicket, Cummins once again enforced a nick of Maharaj’s willow to send him back to the pavilion. He followed it up with the wicket of Morne Morkel, bowling a short ball on the very next delivery, thus forcing Morkel to fend at it with an angled bat that in turn produced an outside edge and landed straight into the hands of Handscomb at slip.

Thus, at the end of the innings he ended with a hat-trick with figures of 5/83 even though the hosts posted a big total of 488 on the board. Cummins’ bowling figures and the South African total clearly suggests how little support Cummins has got at the other end in this match. Despite that, he has put his best foot forward to come up with wonderful bowling.

Despite the gloomy and dark clouds hovering over Australian team’s present and future, Cummins’ exploits with the ball in this series have been something to rejoice about for Australian fans on an individual and personal level. He has been the highest wicket-taker for Australia in this series having claimed 18 wickets at an average of 23.00 and economy rate of 3.02.

It must be really satisfying for the selectors to see a player whom they had always trusted so much finally coming good. Cummins is emerging as the leader of the Australian pace bowling attack and is living up to the promise he showed as a teenager. Hopefully, he can continue to live up to that.