Australia head coach Andrew McDonald admitted that the visitors’ batting weaknesses were exposed on the fourth day in the ongoing second Test against South Africa that is being played in Gqeberha. This came after Australia was bundled out for 99 in reply to South Africa’s 425/9d.

South Africa had struggled at 110/6 at one time, but Temba Bavuma played one of the best captain’s knocks, making 179 runs and getting terrific support from Marco Jansen (85) and Simon Harmer (82). Scott Boland had picked 5/81 for Australia, while Mitchell Starc took three wickets.

In response, Steve Smith top-scored for Australia with 28, as Marco Jansen’s 5/33 routed Australia for 99 runs. South Africa made Australia follow on, something that happened only the third time since 1988.

"I think any time when anything unfolds at that speed, it takes a couple of players to communicate and navigate through that, and we weren't able to get any partnerships. We've had some of these moments across the journey, so we're not a perfect batting unit, and I've never said that we are.

The speed at which that happened and the momentum that South Africa was able to gain through that—we didn't envisage coming here and looking at a follow-on, that's for sure. We felt like we were good enough on that surface; it didn't play too many tricks, either. There was a bit of bounce. You do have to give a little bit of credit to the South African attack as well, the way they exposed some of our deficiencies in that, so I don't want to take anything away from that,” Andrew McDonald said on Australia’s 99 all-out, as quoted by Cricinfo.

Australia took the first Test in Durban handsomely by 214 runs. They have not lost a test series since the away trip to India in 2023, and McDonald defended their long-term record. But when they lost to South Africa in the World Test Championship final last year and more recently to Bangladesh in Darwin, their weakness was evident.

"It's only a week ago that we were a really, really good team. We're sitting here right now, and we're starting to defend a team that's performed exceptionally well. You'll be looking for a grab-and-talk about the negatives and what should happen and what should move. This team's been a really consistent team over a long period of time, so I'm not going to sit here and hang anyone out to dry,” McDonald stated.

"It's disappointing, but as I said, those players that sit in that room are still the same players that performed exceptionally well last week. I have great belief and trust that the skill sets in that room, in particular tomorrow, can go out there and potentially turn this one around.

If that doesn't unfold, then we move into Cape Town, we reload, and we go again. A great strength of this group is on significant setbacks, and I'd say this is a significant setback in terms of the way that we play; we've been able to respond,” he added.

Australia ended day four on 156/4 with Travis Head fighting back with 87*, as the Kangaroos still trail by 170 runs.

(Cricinfo inputs)