London, June 13 (IANS) Aiden Markram held one end firm to be unbeaten on 49 off 66 balls as South Africa reached 94/2 in 24 overs in their second innings against Australia at tea on Day 3 of the ICC World Test Championship Final at the Lord’s on Friday, requiring 188 more runs for victory.

With the sun being out and the pitch becoming flat, Markram was proficient in his drives to lead a solid batting performance for South Africa in that middle session. Though Mitchell Starc took two wickets after hitting a gritty half-century in the first session, Australia’s other bowlers couldn’t really trouble the batters, who have kept the scoring rate healthy.

But South Africa would be hoping skipper Temba Bavuma is fine after being in serious pain post-tweaking his hamstring, ten minutes before the tea break. Bavuma managed to walk off at 11 not out, but an assessment in the break will determine if he will resume his innings in the final session.

Just like the first innings, Starc struck early on by swinging one away from Ryan Rickelton, who tried to drive through cover, but he could only nick behind to Alex Carey. With Markram oozing confidence through his shots in the covers and point regions, Wiaan Mulder was great on the cut, punch, and pull.

Though Nathan Lyon managed to nearly castle Mulder through the gate, the all-rounder firmly latched on to an overpitched delivery to pick a boundary and raise South Africa’s hopes of chasing an improbable total.

But Starc delivered another breakthrough for Australia by coming from around the wicket and forcing Mulder to hit straight to Marnus Labuschagne at cover, who grabbed a good, low catch. The pacer could have got Bavuma in the 20th over when the South African skipper was squared up and the ball flew to Steve Smith at wide first slip.

But Smith couldn’t grab the catch and was left in pain. With a whisper of possible finger dislocation, Smith headed straight off the field, with Sam Konstas coming as a substitute fielder before South Africa ended a good session with fear around whether Bavuma would run freely.

Brief scores:

Australia 212 and 207 all out in 65 overs (Mitchell Starc 58, Alex Carey 43; Kagiso Rabada 4-59, Lungi Ngidi 3-38) lead South Africa 138 and 94/2 in 24 overs (Aiden Markram 49; Mitchell Starc 2-37) by 188 runs

–IANS

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