Verreynne has confidence in bowlers to restrict Australia on day two

South African wicketkeeper/batter Kyle Verreynne says there is a lot left in the tank for their bowlers led by Kagiso Rabada to restrict Australia on day two of the first Test at the Gabba in Brisbane on Sunday.

The Aussies reached stumps on 145/5, still trailing South Africa by seven runs, with batter Travis Head looking solid at the crease with an unbeaten score of 78 after they bowled the Proteas for 152.

Head will be joined on day two by Cameron Green as they will be looking to surpass South Africa’s total and build a strong first innings lead to give them the advantage.

“After lunch the pitch seemed to pick up a bit more pace, there is a bit left in the tank for our bowlers,” said Verreynne, who was the top scorer with 64 runs on a day where the Proteas posted a disappointing score with only four batters scoring 10 runs or more.

Temba Bavuma was the other notable scorer for the Proteas with 38 runs but the rest of the batters struggled on a green wicket that Verreynne said was good for batting.

“The pitch is probably going to quicken up tomorrow (Sunday) and with a bit of the sun out and it will be interesting to see how it goes. Hopefully our bowlers can come with a bit of energy tomorrow and make an impact.

“With KG (Rabada), we have someone that always targets the big players, I don’t know what the stats are but he probably has one of the highest percentages of getting the top three or four batters out and he is really good at it.”

Verreynne added that Rabada is going to be key on Sunday when they will be looking to get rid of Head and the rest of the lower order.

“He is our main bowler and if we need someone to crack a game open or get the opposition big name players, he is the guy who we look to go to. It is something that he loves doing and he does it really well.”

Rabada got the Proteas off to a dream start when he removed the mightily dangerous David Warner with the first ball.

“When we bowled out for an odd 150, it is difficult to try and get the energy up, so when you get a wicket with the first ball of the innings and it is a big player like David Warner that lifts everyone up.

“I think for the next 10 overs, we carried that energy and adrenaline that we got from that first ball and got those two more wickets. That set us up nicely, Unfortunately we fell away for the next 10-over period or so. But it was definitely a massive moment, in the game.”