Australia's spin bowling coach Daniel Vettori admitted that they face a challenging situation on Day 4 as South Africa require 69 runs to win the World Test Championship (WTC) final 2025 with eight wickets in hand. However, he didn't rule out the possibility of their bowlers triggering South Africa's collapse if they find conducive conditions to bowl in.
00:01Normally when a team sends out a coach rather than a player, there's an admission that things haven't gone quite right. Is that what's happened right now?
00:10Yeah, it's a tough day for the guys. Obviously, it's Test cricket under that sunshine. It was incredibly difficult.
00:18So I think there was optimism in the way we started with Stark and Hazelwood.
00:22There was a really good partnership to put together a total that obviously, considering the rest of how the match had played out, was a challenging one.
00:31But under those conditions, Markram and Bovooma were exceptional and were able just to, I suppose, navigate their way through any tricky situations
00:40and then be able to put pressure back on us when it was opportune time.
00:43So it was a pretty benign wicket and obviously conditions weren't assisting the ball, but that partnership was exceptional.
00:52Dan, what's the mood like in the rooms after a day like that? Is there still belief that the team can do something special tomorrow?
00:58I think we understand the magnitude of the task. It's eight for 70 or whatever it is, is incredibly tricky and conditions would have to go away.
01:06But I think with the nature of where the ball is at and the surface, it's a difficult task.
01:14But it is a task that the group has probably done at times throughout the last three, four, some of them five, six even longer years.
01:22But I think there's an appreciation of how well Bovooma and Markram battered to put all that pressure back on us.
01:29So to get one of them tonight may have given that optimism. So it's going to be a real challenge tomorrow.
01:35Did conditions change significantly today or was it the fact it was a nice sunny day as opposed to the bit of cloud that was around on the first couple of days at times?
01:45I think it is the cloud cover. I saw KG's interview after they came off and he mentioned the same sort of thing, softball conditions.
01:54The wicket is slow and you've seen throughout the course of the game that boundaries are probably lower than what we've expected in previous test matches here.
02:03So it has been difficult scoring. But I think South Africa today made the most of those conditions.
02:11But also, like I've said a couple of times, exceptional partnership, navigated any tricky times and then were able to put pressure back on us through their running,
02:19through their ability to dissect the field. It was a real clinic from those two.
02:24Dan, of all the teams in world cricket that have, I guess, difficulty getting over the line, I suppose South Africa are renowned for it.
02:32I mean, to what extent does your knowledge of what they know about themselves play into your hands tomorrow?
02:38Look, I think it's always difficult to label tags to teams because the teams change and there's a change of personnel and it's difficult to assign that to a group that hasn't been in this situation in terms of a World Test Championship final.
02:53So I think the hope for us is that we can get a wicket or two in the morning and just see what that looks like.
02:59But, you know, eight for 70 is a real challenge for the group.
03:03Dan, there's obviously a pretty sort of sickening sight, Steve's finger.
03:08Can you just talk through where things are at with him?
03:11Give it to Kyle.
03:12Is he back from hospital?
03:14No.
03:15No.
03:16No, we don't have any further updates.
03:17Is it right now?
03:18Okay.
03:19Good.
03:20And just about, I suppose, the period yesterday when you started the second innings with a decent lead.
03:25Like, is there anything to assess from that in terms of anything your guys could have done differently or is it more credit to KG?
03:34I think it's both and Gede's spell as well to put that pressure back on.
03:38Obviously, the crucial wicket of Smith early on.
03:42But it was really good bowling by them and to be able to put that pressure on.
03:47After a reasonable start navigating through the opening spell, 20 for none, you hope that things start to get easier and easier.
03:53But I think at no stage did South Africa let up with their bowling performance.
03:57And that put all the pressure back on us.
03:59And we were fortunate with Stark and Kerry last night to get a bit of impetus back to us.
04:04And then again this morning.
04:05So, 280 in the context of the game, like I said before, there was some optimism.
04:10But, yeah, it's obviously going to be a real challenge tomorrow.
04:14Dan, just run chases in test cricket for the modern day batters.
04:21Is it just part of their psyche because they do it so often in other formats as compared to say your era that they just have that kind of attitude and approach?
04:30I hadn't thought about that, but I'm sure that plays a part.
04:33And because a lot of test cricket is in fast forward in a lot of ways in terms of the way the game's played now
04:40and the fact that day three, day four results are relatively common.
04:44To be put in this situation is still not easy.
04:48I think any time you're chasing the high score in the fourth innings and 280 puts a lot of pressure on a team.
04:55But the composure that those two showed throughout it I think could be a credit to that.
05:01But it's probably a credit to them in the situation and understanding what's required.
05:05Dan, you said that the pitch was pretty benign.
05:09Do you think bowlers could have maybe varied things up, cutters, yorkers, bouncers, just avoid that same consistent hard length that they kind of hit?
05:20I think, I mean, you look at someone like Mitch Stark.
05:22He probably does that naturally in his ability to change his length and potentially swing the ball both ways.
05:30I think the success that's come from the surface has been that six to eight metre length.
05:35That's what South Africa did so well.
05:36That's what we did in the first innings.
05:38So there is, there's sometimes an appetite for that, but there's also a concern around the score running away from us.
05:44And sometimes when you go to that short ball stuff, it's hard to control the scoreboard.
05:48And that was probably our fear today, that if we could hang in those areas long enough, something would happen.
05:53Like it has in the rest of the Test match, but it wasn't to be.
05:57I think that's why I hear a couple over here.
05:59Dan, the fact that you bowled, you wrapped South Africa's tail up so quickly, five for 12 in the first innings.
06:06Does that sort of lead into your messaging for the bowling group now?
06:11I think there'll be no desire to get ahead of ourselves.
06:15I think it's one wicket. That's the starting point.
06:18And because these two are in such control, if we can get a new batsman to the crease, then that's the start of it.
06:23So I don't think there'll be any thinking around how to get eight dismissals.
06:28It'll be simply about getting one and seeing what can happen from there.
06:32Dan, the compound fracture is a pretty sickening sort of side, I guess.
06:37Was it, yeah, was it a, were you in the dressing room when Steve came back in?
06:42You know, was it, was he in a lot of pain and was it a nasty sort of thing?
06:46He never made it to the dressing room, I think.
06:47Even sort of the doc and physio got him and took him into, there's a separate room there.
06:51So they had to deal with that.
06:53So we weren't really up to speed in terms of how gruesome the injury was.
06:58We just, we just heard that obviously there was a fear of the compound fractural dislocation.
07:04Something of that nature, of that nature.
07:06There weren't too many people running to the physio room to go and have a look.
07:09So I think, you know, we'll just wait and see what comes back after he gets back from hospital
07:15and then everyone will be able to update from there.
07:18Dan, did the guys say anything about the ball change just before stumps there?
07:21As they were coming off, it looked like they were trying to get changed for a few overs.
07:24It just, just out of shape. So simple as that.
07:27I think they said it was, the new ball was slightly harder,
07:32but probably pretty consistent with the one that they'd used up until that point.
07:36So there wasn't, yeah, there was no drama in it at all.
07:41Dan, how surprising was the shift in conditions given there's 28 wickets across two days to start
07:46and then just four today?
07:48I think that's the nature of a Lord's surface as it gets multiple rollers on it
07:54through the change of innings, the sun out, all those little things.
07:58I think anyone who's followed cricket at Lord's or even county cricket all around England
08:03that the overhead conditions can play such a huge part.
08:06So that obviously happened today, but I don't think the group's sitting there saying,
08:10wishing for overhead conditions.
08:11I think there's an appreciation of how well those two batted
08:14and what we can do to try and break that partnership tomorrow.
08:18So it was obviously flat out there, but we got the benefits of the flatness as well when we batted.
08:23And that was, we were able to navigate a score.
