5 Australian weaknesses that South Africa exploited in the Perth Test

#4 Lack of healthy contributions from the Australian middle and lower order

The Australian middle and lower order failed to contribute much in the game

0,27,0,23,0, 18! These were the contributions made by the Australian middle order in the first innings where their openers—Shaun Marsh and David Warner had set up a platform with 158 runs on the scoreboard. From being 158 for no loss they were bundled out for 244.

Before the game, Dale Steyn had said that they would try and grab the snake by its head, meaning they would target rival captain Steve Smith and that is what precisely they did. And without Smith performing the inexperienced middle order crumbled under pressure.

The same middle and lower order tried to put up some resistance in the second innings with Peter Neville getting to a well fought 60 but contributions such as 34, 26, 13 were never going to get them across the line.