If Katich’s words seem strong for a side 1-0 up in the series, this South African subsidence was the latest example of an Australian batting line-up only consistent for its inconsistency.
Bowled out for 132 in the first Test of the Ashes last winter, they piled up 511 in Brisbane in the next.
They scored 567 at the end of the Ashes, but were bundled out for 198 by Bangladesh in their next Test en route to a shock defeat.
Even the highs of Matt Renshaw’s 190 in the first-Test win in Durban were countered by the fact no other Australian made 50.
And after another failure, Marnus Labuschagne appears the most at risk. He will not get another chance to bat for his place before Cape Town hosts the third Test from 27 October.
After edging a drive to third slip for 14 off Anrich Nortje in the morning, he gave it away by hitting spinner Simon Harmer to long-on after tea for 39 – his third dismissal in the thirties in the series.
It was made worse by the fact he had only survived an lbw decision on review just three balls earlier.
It is now 47 innings since the 32-year-old, once the leading batter in the world, has made a Test century.
“Only he knows what was going through his mind when he tried to take Harmer down the ground, against the breeze, when Australia are trying to play for a draw,” added Katich.
“How will the Australian selectors view that dismissal?
“He’s been given plenty of rope over the past few years, when plenty of others haven’t, but he has.”
Hasanat al-Rashid, 48, has lived with diabetes for 15 years, and the three-and-a-half-year civil war between Sudan’s military and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group has worsened her situation. Finding the treatment she needs has become a daily struggle.
When the war broke out in April 2023, she was forced to flee south from her home in Haj Yousif in Khartoum North to Umm Daw Ban in Khartoum State.
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During her displacement, she went for days without medication and was forced to eat foods unsuitable for her condition, such as asida, a traditional Sudanese porridge.
She underwent operations on her foot twice when she developed complications of diabetes, including a severe infection.
She moved between hospitals in Gezira State south of Khartoum, seeking treatment in Rufaa, Wad Madani and Al-Hasahisa. When fighting spread to these areas in December 2023, she fled again, arriving in Port Sudan, a city on the Red Sea that was less affected by the war.
Her condition has worsened to the point that she now has to use insulin every day and with this comes added costs, something that forces diabetes sufferers in Sudan to choose between medicine and other essentials, such as food.
“The doses vary depending on whether my blood sugar is high or low,” she told Al Jazeera.
The war has pushed income levels in Sudan back to those last seen in the 1990s, according to the United Nations Development Programme. This means Hasanat and other diabetes sufferers are struggling to afford the medicine they need to treat the condition.
Hasanat’s doctor recommended she use an insulin pen, a device used to inject insulin under the skin. She would need one or two of the devices a month, but the cost at 70,000 Sudanese pounds ($8) is more than she can afford up front, so she opts for a vial of insulin.
This is cheaper at 17,000 Sudanese pounds ($1.80), but there is the additional cost of buying ice every day to keep the insulin cool. She spends 180,000 pounds ($20) a month on ice to preserve the medicine. But she is able to spread these costs out through the month, making the vials her only viable option even if the overall costs are higher than an insulin pen.
“It may last a month or less, but the challenge is that I don’t have a refrigerator, so I struggle to store the insulin properly,” she said.
She also needs painkillers and vitamins on a regular basis to manage complications caused by the diabetes.
Hasanat al-Rashid has struggled to find the medicine to treat her diabetes during Sudan’s civil war [Fatima Edam/Al Jazeera]
The rising cost of treatment
Fatima Adam, 75, is among the patients at Port Sudan Hospital struggling to afford the medicines she needs to manage her hypertension and a thyroid condition.
She was admitted to the hospital with complications caused by high blood pressure, which has started to impact her heart. Too unwell to speak to Al Jazeera herself, her daughter, Aisha, described how the rising cost of treatment has affected her whole family.
Before the war, Fatima received medicine through the National Health Insurance Fund. She paid a quarter of the cost while the fund covered the rest. But when the war started and the economy collapsed, the medicines she needed were no longer covered by the scheme.
“My mother takes six different medicines because hypertension has affected her heart in addition to her thyroid medication. The war has made things harder because the prices of these medicines have gone up,” Aisha told Al Jazeera.
The responsibility for paying for Fatima’s treatment and supporting her and her daughter falls on her son, who works as a casual worker. With no fixed income, he goes to the market every day in search of work but sometimes returns home empty without any luck.
“Sometimes, when my brother finds work, we buy enough medicine to last a month. Other times, we have to buy smaller quantities and take the medicines intermittently,” Aisha said.
She bought a month’s supply of her mother’s medication a few days ago for 160,000 Sudanese pounds ($17.80), a substantial expense for a family whose income depends on day labour but essential to treating Fatima’s condition.
War damage
The war has caused an estimated $500m in losses to medicine stocks, infrastructure and transport fleets, dealing a major blow to Sudan’s pharmaceutical supply system, the National Medical Supplies Fund told Al Jazeera.
The National Medicines and Poisons Board estimated that only eight of the 30 pharmaceutical factories in Khartoum that shut down during the conflict have resumed operations despite the security situation in the capital recently improving.
This has increased Sudan’s reliance on imported medicines, but the subsequent depreciation of the Sudanese pound has driven up the costs of pharmaceutical procurement and production.
Hossam al-Naeem struggles to stock some medicines in his pharmacy due to the collapse of the Sudanese pound [Fatima Edam/Al Jazeera]
Hossam al-Naeem, who works as a pharmacist in Port Sudan, said customers with diabetes and hypertension require regular painkillers and vitamins to help their overall condition.
“I feel deeply saddened when I see the expressions on some patients’ faces as they ask about the prices of medicines and discover how much they have increased because of the depreciation of the Sudanese pound,” Hossam told Al Jazeera.
The currency’s collapse has created added challenges for pharmacists. Before the war, a dollar traded for roughly 600 Sudanese pounds. Now black-market currency traders are quoting rates of 9,300 pounds to the dollar, meaning higher costs for most goods in Sudan.
Sometimes Hossam incurs losses himself when he finds that the prices of drugs have risen sharply, and keeping essential medicines stocked is becoming difficult.
“I used to sell a strip of cold and flu tablets for 6,000 Sudanese pounds [70 cents]. But when I went to buy new stock, I found that the supplier’s price was also 6,000 pounds per strip. That means I made no profit, not even enough to cover the pharmacy’s operating costs,” he said.
The struggle to afford heart medication
Huda Mahmoud, 58, lives in el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state in south-central Sudan, where drone attacks and other violence remain a problem while the military is making advances towards the city.
Huda has lived with heart problems for more than 12 years and described the impacts of the war as being physical, financial and emotional.
“I take five different medicines. There was a time when they weren’t available, and I suffered a lot. Sometimes, I had to ask people in Wad Madani, Sennar or Port Sudan to send them to me,” she told Al Jazeera. “The medicines were extremely expensive, costing me 300,000 Sudanese pounds [$33.30] a month.”
Taking medication has become a carefully managed routine with each pill tied to a specific time of day.
“I’ve become tied to my pills: this one before eating, that one afterwards. If I forget one, my heart starts beating very fast,” she added.
In March, Huda was forced to travel from el-Obeid to Omdurman. Following her strict treatment regimen has become increasingly difficult during repeated periods of upheaval.
She has now returned home to el-Obeid, where her regular medicine is priced at 151,000 Sudanese pounds ($16.80) a month, something she can barely afford.
Her greatest fear is running out of medicine or being unable to afford her next supply, which would put her at risk of a blood clot.
“I’m afraid of becoming incapacitated. I used to be responsible for the whole household, but now I need help. I feel like I’ve become a burden on my family,” she said.
BRITS could face hefty fines if caught smoking, or playing loud music at one popular holiday spot.
In some cases, the penalty could be as much as £2,500.
In areas of Tenerife it’s now it’s been banned to smoke on the beachCredit: Getty It’s also been banned to be disruptive around natural swimming poolsCredit: Getty
The area of La Laguna in Tenerife, has approved new rules banning smoking, camping, overnight stays and disruptive music on its beaches and natural swimming pools.
The announcement was made on October 7 and has been put in place to protect the coastline.
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Under the new rules, beaches within the areas and natural pools are now smoke-free.
It also stops visitors from leaving rubbish behind including soap and shampoo in public showers.
Murphy is a baseball lifer who paid more dues than a union plumber before finally pulling on a big-league uniform for the first time when he was 56. Murphy pitched in the low minors for two organizations and for two independent teams before retiring to become a college coach at Maryville, Claremont-Mudd, Notre Dame and Arizona State. He also managed the Dutch national team to a European championship and a spot in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
His big break came in 2015, when the Padres promoted him from their triple A team in El Paso to take over for Bud Black as interim manager. A year later Craig Counsell hired him as bench coach for the Brewers, and when Counsell took the Cubs’ managerial job ahead of the 2024 season, Murphy, now 67, was named his replacement.
Two-hundred and 93 regular-season wins and three playoff trips later, the baseball lifer is four wins away from the World Series, which would be the trip of a lifetime.
“I think it was just the relentless pursuit of something,” Murphy told Yahoo Sports of his long journey. “I wanted to be somebody. I wanted to be special.”
Left-hander Martín Pérez (9-9, 3.04) is on the injured list with back inflammation and isn’t expected to be activated for the National League Division Series but right-hander Bryce Elder (8-8, 4.11), who underwent knee surgery in early September, could be available, which would strengthen a rotation that’s missing four starters.
Fortunately, the Braves have a Cy Young candidate in Sale (14-9, 2.16 ERA in the regular season). The left-hander gave Atlanta a solid 6 1/3 innings in the Game 1 win over Philadelphia in the wild-card series this week. Journeyman Tyler Mahle, who went 4-1 with a 1.99 ERA after coming over from the Giants in August, allowed just a run in 6 2/3 strong innings in Game 2 in his postseason debut.
After that, however, Weiss will have to lean heavily on his bullpen and fortunately he has a good one: Atlanta relievers were second in the National League in ERA (3.44) and saves (49) during the regular season. Cuban closer Raisel Iglesias had 34 of those saves (in 37 regular-season opportunities), blowing just one save chance since July 26.
Set-up man Robert Suárez missed more than three months with elbow inflammation but made two appearances in the final week of the regular season to finish the year 4-0 with a 1.06 ERA in 33 games. Ahead of him, Didier Fuentes (7-2, 2.45), Dylan Lee (6-1. 3.09), Dylan Dodd (4-1, 2.54) and Brent Suter (2-0, 1.63 with the Braves) give Atlanta perhaps the deepest bullpen in the playoffs.
