Australia’s veteran pace attack and Steve Smith took firm control of the first Test against South Africa in Durban on day three, leaving the tourists with a lead of 139 runs and the upper hand heading into the final two days of the match.
At 33-0 in their second innings, with Maddinson unbeaten on 17, Australia closed the day firmly on top after dismissing South Africa for 284 in reply to their first-innings 390. Even with bad light halting play early again, the tourists should have time to press home their advantage across the remaining two days.
For supporters following the series, the day turned on a familiar pattern. Nine years after they first appeared together as Australia’s bowling quartet, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon produced another relentless performance, sharing the wickets almost evenly. Cummins took three for 54, while Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon claimed two apiece. The full details of the day’s play can be found at https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/articles/cqvg0pdye05ro.
The morning had promised more for South Africa. At 82-1 on a relatively good surface, Aiden Markram and David Bedingham were countering Australia’s search for early swing with a second-wicket partnership progressing at almost 4.5 runs per over. It was then, at the 20-over mark, that captain Cummins reverted to the tried and tested: Lyon holding one end while the quicks rotated at the other.
Having bowled 34% of their deliveries full in the first 20 overs, Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins dragged back their lengths. Between the 20th and 60th overs there were only 19 deliveries pitched fuller than six metres. With easy deliveries scarce, Markram and Bedingham attempted forced back-foot drives and edged to slip for 37 and 49 respectively. Wiaan Mulder was caught in two minds and bounced out by Cummins, while Tristan Stubbs top-edged the Australia captain to fine leg.
By contrast, Australia’s own batting in the first innings could hardly have been more assured. Matt Renshaw, who ground out a superb 190 across the first two days to bail out a struggling line-up, faced 52 deliveries pitched short and played a pull or hook to only four of them, scoring off just one, when he had 176 to his name and had faced 368 balls. Marco Jansen, meanwhile, struck six fours in quickly reaching 26 before trying to pull Hazlewood off a fuller length and being tamely caught at mid-off.
Lyon, bowling 19 overs at less than three runs per over, had a more worn pitch to work with than South Africa’s spinners and found significantly more turn and threat. He also had the sprawling Smith at his disposal. Both of Smith’s catches off Lyon, first to dismiss Temba Bavuma and then Kyle Verreynne, were feats of anticipation, as he read the right-handers’ intent to reverse sweep, gambled and clung on at close range. The one-handed second was spectacular.
“He’s an absolute freak,” said Lyon. “He practices that in training. He is an incredible thinker of the game but the way he moves, premeditates, for those types of catches. There are not many people in the dressing room that would be able to pull off those two catches.”
In between, Smith’s leaping catch at second slip off Cummins to remove Bedingham took the 37-year-old above Joe Root as the non-wicketkeeper with the most catches in Test history, on 223. He still holds a catch percentage of about 77%, below the format average, but he creates, and occasionally drops, chances others would not have created.
The quartet’s collective record now stands at 607 wickets in Tests played together, well clear of the next most successful four-pronged attack, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, who took 415 in 31 Tests for England.
“Each of these players will go down as a legend of Australian cricket,” said former Australia bowler Jason Gillespie on ABC Radio. “Starc got hit for a few early but I didn’t mind that. Hazlewood was very good, as he always is. Cummins was hostile. He looked fresh.”
Much has been made of Australia’s ageing side and a perceived lack of succession planning. Starc, at 37 the oldest of the three quicks, is averaging 141.21km/h in 2026, higher than any of his past three years, and is swinging the ball more than in any calendar year since 2015. The real concern comes when they are not fit: Hazlewood missed all five of last winter’s Ashes Tests and Cummins four.
Australia remain an intriguing side to unpick. Viewed by many in England as there for the taking despite a 4-1 Ashes win, labelled too old by observers at home, and having suffered shock defeats by West Indies and Bangladesh, they are nonetheless unbeaten in their past nine Test series. This run of Tests brings the world Test champions, in-form New Zealand, India and England, and on day three in Durban, the old guard answered any doubts about their effectiveness in emphatic fashion. Whether they can sustain it through the rest of a demanding schedule is the question that now hangs over them.