The second Test between Australia and South Africa got underway at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on December 26. Australia came into this Test with a victory in the first match of the series in Brisbane.
Australia captain Pat Cummins won the toss and chose to bowl first and his bowlers gave him an excellent start reducing South Africa to 67/5 inside 30 overs. Captain Dean Elgar was run out for 26 runs.
However, he could very well have been dismissed much earlier if not for a freak incident saving him. The incident happened on the first ball of the 13th over of the innings. Boland dished out a back-of-a-length delivery down the channel and Elgar defended it down near his feet.
The ball hit his leg and rolled towards the stumps, and even hit the base of the off-stump, but the force wasn’t there to dislodge the bails.
Lyon, who was stationed at the point when Boland was bowling, walked up to Elgar and said: “I reckon that’s your Santa present….That’s Santa coming late I reckon." Elgar fired back “I’ve been a good boy” before Lyon doubled down.
Shortly after, Elgar reached the milestone of 5000 Test runs with a boundary against a Boland delivery. Kyle Verreynne made 52 and Marco Jansen made 59 to save face for Proteas and the final total for the visitors was 189 runs inside 69 overs. Cameron Green picked 5/27 and was the best bowler for Australians.
