Five ways Australia should counter South Africa at Hobart

#1 Batting in partnerships

Smith is the leader of the middle order and should ensure he can rally up his lower middle order troops

Aussies can do all of the above and still lose if they cannot pile up decent totals. A collapse like at Perth, and no one can save them from defeat. To build up good totals, they need to bat in partnerships. Elgar and Duminy showed the value that a dominating partnership can bring to the game as their 250 run partnership virtually closed out the game for the Aussies.

While Warner and Shaun Marsh did an equally good job in the first innings, none of the middle order could capitalise on it to good effect. If the middle order can put up some strong partnerships too, Aussies are in a good position to post a decent total. Khawaja-Smith and Nevill-Hazlewood showed in the second innings that they have the fight in them.

Sadly for Australia, the fight came out too late and they will need to buckle up their batting at Hobart if they need to stay alive in this series. Smith is the leader of the middle order and should ensure he can rally up his lower middle order troops.