At stumps on the second day of the third and deciding Test at Newlands, Australia edged ahead of South Africa by a single run with six wickets remaining, bringing stability to a series previously marked by wild swings in momentum. Australia had earlier claimed victory by 214 runs at Kingsmead, while South Africa answered with an innings-and-31-run win at St George’s Park. Soaring and swooning rollercoasters and garish, rackety ghost trains, this series needed a gentle twirl on a soothing carousel, after 11 days of wildly swirling swings and roundabouts.
Day two presented a grinding battle under clear skies on a flatter pitch, contrasting sharply with Tuesday’s late play when Mitchell Starc exploited heavy overcast conditions and floodlights to take 4/2 in nine deliveries, wrapping up South Africa’s first innings for 329. It was a relentless grind of a day’s play under skies unmarked by clouds and on a pitch that seemed to enjoy making bowlers suffer. Until it is tamed by the conditions and old-fangled application.
In the final 10 overs before stumps on Wednesday, Josh Inglis and Alex Carey added 44 runs against the second new ball, extending their unbroken fifth-wicket partnership to 145. Hints on Wednesday of what we saw in Durban and Gqeberha were rare.
South Africa’s bowling attack faced setbacks as key pacers Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen were off the field for significant periods during the afternoon. Team management confirmed Rabada suffered from stomach cramps while Jansen dealt with a stiff back. South Africa’s bowling coach Piet Botha acknowledged the challenging conditions during a press conference, noting that a lack of lateral movement demanded sustained discipline.
Botha reflected that the team failed to hit ideal lengths over long stretches to build maidens and induce false shots on the unhelpful surface. Addressing South Africa’s batting collapse on Tuesday, where they lost 9/126 after reaching 203/1 with a 158-run opening stand, Botha noted that a few ill-advised shots cost them a larger total before Starc blew away the lower order when clouds rolled over. “Maybe if we’re self-critical, we didn’t hit our lengths for long periods. You’ve got to create some maidens and hopefully create a false shot, because once the pitch plays like that. “We spoke about it, and we could have capitalised on the opening stand [of 158],” Botha said. “There were a couple of shots that shouldn’t have been played. 1-ranked Test allrounder] comes in at seven. If you do that chances might come your way.
The Proteas found brief success before lunch on Wednesday when Simon Harmer dismissed Travis Head, who played on, and had Marnus Labuschagne caught at slip within six deliveries. However, South Africa went another 31.5 overs without a breakthrough before Jansen returned to have Matt Renshaw caught behind, followed nine balls later by Cameron Green edging Jansen to second slip. No such drama played out on Wednesday.
Speaking after the day’s play, Renshaw highlighted the intense competitive drive of South Africa’s bowling attack, describing the ongoing contest as a feisty, high-level battle in the opposition’s home conditions. He noted that Australia benefited from luck in the opening Test before South Africa responded strongly in the second, acknowledging the quality of the top two ranked Test sides. But those were blips in the narrative; deviations from the utterly straight and desperately narrow.
The test match represents the 13th day of action in a fiercely contested three-match series, a format South Africa has not played since the December 2022 and January 2023 season. With similar sunny weather expected for Thursday, both teams prepare for another demanding day of attritional Test cricket. Settle stomachs, mend minds and remind us of proper cricket’s sense and sensibilities, to negate nerves. With similar weather forecast for Thursday it’s difficult to see how the stream of runs will be stopped.
