Australia vs South Africa: Usman Khawaja is left stranded in a wet test match in Sydney
Pat Cummins questionable declaration call prevents Usman Khawaja from scoring a double-century
Usman Khawaja left stranded in a wet test match iFormer Test captain Ricky Ponting said he didn't think Cummins would declare on Channel seven. Damien Fleming concurred with Justin Langer's sentiments that the announcement should be made soon and that the team should come before individual accolades.
According to Justin Sammons, their batting coach, the Proteas intend to begin batting on Saturday. On Friday, he continued, "I would say they will declare right away if Khawaja wasn't on 190-odd."
It was anticipated that plenty of turns would be available late in the game.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Old Boys. 😂 What ever is meant to be will be. Always grateful. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/alhamdulillah?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#alhamdulillah</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cricket</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/life?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#life</a> @ SCG <a href="https://t.co/01KtNZrjjc">https://t.co/01KtNZrjjc</a></p>— Usman Khawaja (@Uz_Khawaja) <a href="https://twitter.com/Uz_Khawaja/status/1611677827371335680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 7, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Australia's only chance of winning now that they have scored 475 runs over the first two days is to put South Africa into bat and try to bowl them out twice in just five sessions. Khawaja was just five runs shy of 200, which made things challenging for Cummins.
Speaking on Friday, Khawaja claimed that Cummins declaring and leaving him on 195 not out would have been "unfair." "I believe it would be unfair for him to bowl right soon. I don't believe that will occur," he remarked.