The pressure has been right on the top-order because the lower order is so crap, though. When numbers 6, 7 and 8 are Haddin, White and Hopes, the top-order needs to fire big time. Most of the top-order have been solid, some decent scores without utter domination. Same as in the past a lot of the time. Big difference? No Symonds coming in at 6 to finish the job and put the Aussies past 250 and into the 300's. Mike Hussey getting out when he did was a turning point in the innings and it shouldn't have been. In the past, when you still had a player like Symonds to come, you had the capability to absorb a wicket or two, re-build and surge to the end, the lower-order only required to smack some quick runs rather than bat for 20 overs. Instead we saw panicked swings to fairly innocuous deliveries and, unsurprisingly, a steady flow of wickets.
The top-order needs some beefing up. Yesterday's loss was a bit embarrassing for the Aussies, as well as SA played. There were a few decisions which certainly made me raise my eyebrow but individually they weren't game-breakers. Aus have fallen into England's trap of picking a couple of specialists and a bunch of others who can 'do a job', I reckon. The middle of the innings' in the series have been when the Aussie momentum has generally been lost and the middle-order is the most anaemic part of the line-up. Coincidence? Doubt it.