London [UK], June 13 : South Africa's David Bedingham exuded "confidence" in the Proteas' ability to gun down whatever target Australia throws at them and assured that they will approach the fourth innings chase with "belief" in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
The two days of a pulsating final have been filled with the explosive pace of the speedsters and the batter's inability to contain the seam movement. After South Africa folded on 138 in reply to Australia's 212 in the first innings, the Proteas dazzled with a spirited display with the ball to mount a strong comeback.
Lungi Ngidi justified his selection by scything priceless scalps of Steven Smith, Beau Webster and captain Pat Cummins. Conversely, Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada brought the heat on the field under the gloomy sky at Lord's, leaving Australia 218 runs ahead with two wickets in hand after day two.
After the day's play ended, Bedingham assured the Temba Bavuma-led troops were ready for the challenge and "excited" to seize the opportunity.
"It's just an amazing chance, and we are all very, very excited about the opportunity to win. Could go either way, but us as a team we are very, very excited and there's a lot of belief in the dressing room," Bedingham said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
At the 'Home of Cricket', South African seamers had figured out the formula to hurt Australia under the overcast conditions in mid-afternoon. The troika of Rabada, Jansen and Ngidi breathed fire down Australia's necks and had them reeling at 73/7.
Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc's valiance offered the Baggy Greens a moment of reprieve. The duo stitched up a 61-run stand to raise the defending champions to 144/8 before the end of the day's play.
"It's an amazing day. When they started batting in the third innings, we would've definitely taken 220 for 8. So we are very confident, there's a massive belief in this team," he added.
Considering how the past two days have unfolded, the batters have had to keep their noses to the grindstone to churn out runs. Cummins felt that the batters had to sweat blood to put runs on the board. Bedingham, who was South Africa's top scorer with 45(111) in the first innings, agreed with the Australian captain but felt conditions could ease up for batters on day three.
"When you have six quality seamers on a tricky pitch it obviously makes batting tough. The way the game's going, the wicket's slowed down a bit, so the nicks won't carry," he said. "So in the fourth innings they'll maybe come a bit straighter and that will probably be the danger on that type of wicket, but hopefully we can get those runs," he said.