AUSTRALIA’S ball-tampering shame hit them hard out in the middle – as the replacements for their disgraced trio all flopped in a Fourth Test batting collapse.
Queensland openers Matthew Renshaw and Joe Burns, plus No 4 Peter Handscomb, hit 12 runs between them after being recalled for skipper Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.
That left the Aussies 38-3 before they finished day two in Johannesburg on 110-6, chasing the Proteas’ 488 all out.
Australia must win this final Test to level the series at 2-2.
Burns hit only four in lasting eight balls.
Rensahw made eight while Handscomb was out for a golden duck.
Only Usman Khawaja (53) resisted the Proteas, who are now overwhelming favourites to land their first series win on home soil over the Aussies since the apartheid era.
Earlier, Temba Bavuma’s unbeaten 95 and 45 from Keshav Maharaj took the South Africans to an awesome first-knock total, despite 5-83 from Oz paceman Pat Cummins.
AL-RIGHT England batsman Alex Hales replaces disgraced David Warner at Sunrisers Hyderabad
It all suggested Australia will need far more than the unity promised by new captain Tim Paine if they are to survive.
Paine entered the Test saying his players would “look after each other”.
But they certainly failed to take care of the Proteas bowling.
And now the Aussies face a real pounding.
Warner, meanwhile, revealed earlier today he is “resigned to the fact” he is unlikely to play for Australia again.
The 31-year-old said: “It is heartbreaking to know I will not be taking the field with team-mates I love and respect and that I have let down.
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“It is something I will regret for as long as I live.”
Warner and Smith were given one-year suspensions by Cricket Australia.
Bancroft was banned for nine months.
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