Aussie coach Andrew McDonald not ‘going to hang anyone out to dry’ after diabolical day in South Africa

With the careers of at least three Australians either in the balance or kaput after a dismal day in Gqeberha against South Africa, Australian coach Andrew McDonald conceded the nation’s batting order was far from a perfect one.

That would be an understatement after a day of dysfunction against the Proteas that saw 13 Australian wickets fall, the equal-second most in history, to leave the tourists with a near-impossible task to save the second Test of the series.

Watch Australia’s Tour of South Africa Live & Exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.

It is a measure of the farce that unfolded at St George’s Park, where Australia began its pursuit of the Proteas first innings total of 425 at 1-3 and finished the day at 4-156 in the second innings, still trailing by 170 runs, that McDonald fronted the press.

The senior coach usually saves his dissection of what unfolds for a post-match chat but with the Aussies bowled out for 99 and forced to follow on for just the third time this century, McDonald acknowledged this was far from a usual day.

“(I’m) disappointed. I think that’s the word that I’d use to sum it up,” he said.

“When you talk about being disappointed, probably some of the shots that we played in the scenario when we knew we had a lot of work to do at the start of the day … I think some of the shots that some of the players played today they would take back.”

The spotlight is firmly on Marnus Labuschagne, Beau Webster and Nic Maddinson for differing reasons after a diabolical day, with the latter’s stunning recall seemingly ended by the brilliance of Kagiso Rabada and the latter two under a massive cloud.

Labuschagne’s decision to play a wild lofted drive when settled into a solid partnership with Travis Head, who is unbeaten on 87 and stands as Australia’s hopes of forcing the Proteas to bat again, was extraordinary in the circumstances.

A scenario where Australia was trying to save the game, the Proteas were down a fast bowler with Anrich Nortje injured and the ball was softening makes it even more damning. Plenty of Australian batsmen have lost their jobs for less.

The Queenslander looked on in anguish as a wind blowing at gale force held up enough for Marco Jansen to continue a marvellous Test match by snaring a difficult chance and looked aghast as he walked back to the pavilion when out for 39.

Every good judge would assess he is right to feel horrified by the shot given the scenario was further exacerbated by the fact that champion batsman Steve Smith is stricken with a neck injury and needed more time to recover.

“He has got a neck issue at the moment, so it is giving him some grief, and I think that was probably something that everyone sort of witnessed in that first innings, and he had to sort of adjust the way that he plays,” McDonald said.

“Sometimes he changes his technique even when he is sort of fully fit, but he was limited in what he could do and we felt it was best to hopefully get the batting unit through to tomorrow, and then hopefully he’s better placed for that tomorrow.

“You would have seen physio working on him, so he’ll bat tomorrow. It’s not something that will rule him out of the innings, but it was just that it took a little bit more time than we expected on the back of the first innings.”

McDonald has defended Labuschagne, who was dropped midway through last year’s tour of the Caribbean and has not scored a century in three years, but he acknowledged that his repeated failure to cash in on starts is a significant problem.

“You saw what we saw,” the Australian coach said.

“I mean, for me, the option is there if the ball is in the right area – and it is a strength of his – but in that scenario, as I said, there’s probably some shots that players would take back.

“He did a lot of hard work once again and I think it feels like I’m on repeat around the amount of 30s that he has got, and that …. that’s been a danger period for him.

“What they had there was they had a good partnership going and (we were) starting to claw our way back into the game, albeit a long way behind the game from obviously the first innings disappointment.

“So for me, when you do that hard work, you’ve got to cash in and unfortunately that wasn’t the case for Marn, so he’d be disappointed. We’re disappointed, and we find ourselves in this situation.”

That situation is what to do for the third Test and whether to ring the changes for a match that will settle the series given the likelihood South Africa will win on Thursday barring an extraordinary form reversal from the Australians.

McDonald said he would not be drawn on selection midway through a Test but he knows there are clear problems to address.

“I never sit in a press conference (in the) middle of the game and start to talk about selection for the next Test match,” he said.

“I think it’s too early to navigate through that. It’s something that we do post match. We’ll work through that process as we lead into Cape Town.”

He had rallied the troops for a group address before play, only for several batsmen to get out to loose shots in a performance former South African seamer Vernon Philander described as “pretty gutless” batting.

And the Australian coach said there were no excuses.

“Every day the conditions throw up something different as well,” McDonald said.

“They’ve got different trajectories, different speeds, different options (and) no two attacks are ever going to be the same on the same surface.

“(But) we felt as though it was a good surface for batting. The excuses aren’t there based around the surface. I think there’s some decision-making stuff within that.

“And as I said before, we’ve been on this journey before within Test fixtures, so it’s nothing that’s new to us. But we would we like to be better than that, yes.”

Webster’s form is a concern. He batted extremely well in difficult situations in the infancy of his Test career but has struggled to fire in recent Test matches and looked unconvincing yet again when dismissed for 13 and eight on Wednesday.

Exacerbating the issue for Australia is that Cameron Green, while able to roll the arm over in the nets before play in a pointer to his improving fitness and likelihood of featuring in the final match of the series, is not yet clear to bowl in Test cricket.

“(Beau) hasn’t got the runs that he would like or we would like but we still think he’s a good player,” McDonald said.

“And the thing about all this is, to give you some context, it’s only a week ago that we were a really, really good team, so we sit here right now and we’re starting to defend a team that’s performed exceptionally well.

“So you’ll be looking for a grab and (want to) talk about the negatives and what should happen and what should move. But this team has 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.

“Beau hasn’t got the runs that he would like. We know that he’s working incredibly hard around that, but you’re not going to get that from me.”

But McDonald is adamant the Australians still have a chance of saving the Test with Head at the crease and Smith waiting in the wings.

It might have been too late, but it was a tremendous knock by Head, who is within reach of what would be a fighting century, given he was hobbling and barely able to walk early in the innings after copping a couple of nasty blows to his upper-leg early.

“I think if you look at across modern Test history, a lot of experienced teams have had batting collapses, so whether it be a young batting line-up, whether it be an experienced batting line-up, everyone’s vulnerable in particular against quality attacks,” the Australian coach said.

“And we’ve been able to dismantle batting teams as well with our attack as well. So, yeah, 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 and 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 and we reload and we go again. And 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.

“That’s been one of the strengths. So, looking forward to that opportunity tomorrow and further down the track in Cape Town.”