Proteas ensure this bewitching series will get Cape Town climax it deserves

Fifteen years later, a similarly memorable finish beckons at Newlands. The Australians need 288 for victory on day five, after captain Cummins wrung a flurry of late wickets from a day that for its first five hours was dominated by South Africa’s middle order.

South Africa’s Ryan Rickelton celebrates his hundred.AP Photo/Halden KrogRyan Rickelton (101), Wiaan Mulder (115) and Matthew Breetzke (43) played with calmness and confidence in themselves and the surface, taking the game from a position of strength for Australia to one where it was the Proteas who started to think about winning scenarios.

Josh Inglis and Marnus Labuschagne conjured a couple of run outs to help clean up the hosts' last five wickets for 53. Mitchell Starc finished with nine wickets for the match and what looked like a niggling injury to his right calf.

So it is that a most bewitching and unpredictable series will go into its final day with the result still very much in doubt. Having started, bizarrely, on a Tuesday morning, that also means the final chapter should be written in front of a bountiful Saturday Cape Town crowd.

Australia's batting will duly be placed under the spotlight for the second innings, this time with plenty on the line. Victory or a draw will retain an unbeaten record against all comers in bilateral Test series. Defeat will cede top spot on the ICC World rankings to South Africa.

Recent history suggests the target is within the sights of Cummins’ men. They chased 282 at Edgbaston in 2023 and 281 in Christchurch the following year – both highly significant results in which, tellingly, Steve Smith did not need to play much of a role.

There will be reasonable questions to ask about why Australia allowed the Proteas to leap from 4-140 at the start of the day to 387 by the end.

It appeared that the pitch, which threatened to crack up completely after day three, had settled back down to a degree. Certainly, there was little in the way of treacherous bounce for the fast bowlers, although scoring quickly could be difficult, as Rickelton observed.

“It definitely felt like it was quite slow, and the ball was soft as well so to beat the in field was quite hard,” he said. “With that new ball there [are] obviously runs available and obviously wickets too. It has been quite slow. If Australia decide to have a go at it, it might factor how they go about it.

Australia celebrate the wicket of Ryan Rickelton.Getty Images“For them to bat effectively at threes the whole day will be a big ask, especially on a slower, lower deteriorating wicket now.”

But it was also true that the Australian attack lacked a little bite, having strained every sinew for wickets on the third evening. Criticism was raised in some quarters, most volubly by former South African seamer Vernon Philander in the commentary box, that Cummins did not attack enough with his fields in the first hour.

It was possible to wonder whether Nathan Lyon’s fingers were a little fatigued, as he battled to find enough deliveries with similar torque to the ball that had flummoxed Temba Bavuma. He remained accurate all day, but the biggest turning delivery was twirled down by Matt Renshaw: an off break that turned straight into the hands of Marnus Labuschagne at slip as Rickelton tried to drive.

Both Rickelton and Mulder were warmly received upon making their centuries, having shown enormous expertise both in keeping calm under pressure and showing firm technique.

This was especially true against deliveries turning out of the footmarks, never getting trapped by good length balls. In the final half hour alongside last man Kagiso Rabada, Mulder attacked grandly against pace and spin. His sixes might be handy when MI Cape Town are preparing sizzle reels for next year's SA20 league.

Another factor in the South Africans' ability to build big partnerships may have come from the fact that while this is the third Test of the series, the tour effectively worked as the third, fourth and fifth matches of the Test match block that began with two games against Bangladesh in August.

According to statistics compiled by Ben Jones, there is a discernible if not dramatic reduction in the collective effectiveness of Cummins, Starc and Josh Hazlewood in the fourth and fifth games of a series. That a fair portion of those games have historically taken place on batter-friendly pitches in Melbourne and Sydney is one factor, but volume of overs is another.

Starc will certainly be due for a rest, having spent much of his final bowling innings stretching and feeling for his right calf. Bowling coach James Franklin insisted the stoic Starc was fine.

Cummins was relieved early in the day when Breetzke had deigned to pull a hip-high delivery straight to Starc at fine leg, his first wicket for 374 balls since the second innings in Durban. He has had a fascinating game in the field, working his bowlers and catchers in countless combinations on a surface that has only occasionally rewarded bowlers.

A quirk of this game is that in claiming 20 wickets, not one of them has come to Australia from the time-honoured method of a pace bowler bowling a fullish or length ball and getting an edge to slips or wicketkeeper.

It was Cummins who claimed the final wicket, drawing Mulder into slogging a wide bouncer to Starc in the shadows at long on. Before this game, he had spoken expansively of his fond memories from that 2011 tour, when he took in Cape Town’s sights and sounds as much as possible. The kind of memories to be left by this match now rest largely with his batsmen.

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