South Africa in trouble at 58-4 at lunch, day 1 at MCG

Australia claimed four wickets including the bizarre dismissal of captain Dean Elgar as South Africa reached 584 at lunch on Monday after Australia chose to bowl first in the second Test of the threematch seriesOn a greentinged pitch at Melbourne Cricket Ground South Africas batsmen had started cautiously advancing to 56 runs for the loss of Sarel Erwee 18 and Theunis de Bruyn 12Just when the touring team looked set to reach lunch with only two wickets down captain Elgar attempted a risky single to midoff in the penultimate over before lunch and was run out by a direct hit from Marnus Labuschagne Temba Bavuma was caught behind for one off the next delivery as Mitchell Starc joined Scott Boland and Cameron Green as wickettakers in the opening session of playHometown hero Boland who made his test debut in Melbourne a year ago struck the first blow of the day when Erwee was caught at third slip at 291South Africa had recalled toporder batsman de Bruyn for his first test since 2019 but the righthander topedged a pull shot off the bowling of Green and was caught behind at 562Also readSArsquos fragile batting makes it easier for AustraliaElgars departure heaps pressure on South Africas middle order for the afternoon session Khaya Zondo and Kyle Verreynne are yet to scoreElgar had been dropped on seven by rival skipper Pat Cummins after offering a difficult caughtandbowled chance The lefthander was also dropped at gully on 19 off the bowling of GreenThe risky tactic of choosing to bowl first paid dividends for Australia captain Pat Cummins in the first test in Brisbane which Australia won inside two days But that was on a pitch that offered alarming pace and bounce for the fast bowlers whereas the Melbourne pitch does not appear to favour the quicks to the same extentIt doesnt look like a raging green seamer but see how we go Cummins said after winning the tossSouth Africa is on the back foot after being bowled out for 152 and 99 in the first Test in Brisbane as the touring team crashed to a sixwicket loss in just two days of playAustralia opening batsman David Warner celebrating his 100th Test match is also under pressure to retain his place in the side beyond this threematch seriesWarner 36 has scored 0 and 3 in the Brisbane test and has not made a test hundred in almost three yearsAustralia leads the threematch series onenil and is aiming to secure its first Testseries win at home against South Africa since 200506The home side has named an unchanged team after pace bowler Josh Hazlewood who missed the second Test against the West Indies and the first test against South Africa with a side strain ruled himself outSouth Africa dropped struggling batsman Rassie van der DussenThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever