Cummins & Co. bowl Australia into a position of strength in Durban

Pat Cummins led the way and had three of his bowlers rallying around him to push South Africa on the backfoot on a fast-moving Day 3 as Australia went to stumps with a lead of 139. In fading light in the final session, Nic Maddinson put his 33-ball duck from the first innings behind him to pull the first ball he faced for a four but the day belonged to his bowling colleagues who bowled out the home side for 284.

Aiden Markram and David Bedingham made a brisk start to the day from an overnight score of 27/1 in response to Australia’s 390. The pair played their shots, added more than 50 runs and looked set to see out the dreaded first hour’s play. Mitchell Starc, who got hit for three consecutive fours by Bedingham, lured Markram into a false shot in his following over, which landed in Matt Renshaw’s hands at first slip. Temba Bavuma made a circumspect start to his time at the crease in the company of Bedingham but was snuffed out 27 balls in, courtesy an excellent catching effort from Steve Smith at first slip. Bavuma attempted a reverse sweep against Lyon but Smith moved to his right early and completed a fantastic take. Just a couple of overs later, Pat Cummins came back to deny Bedingham a half-century. The South African batter was undone by the extra bounce from a hard length and nicked the ball to Smith at first slip.

Tristan Stubbs and Wiaan Mulder then fought back, batting on for the next 16.2 overs, adding 56 runs. They took on spin by going after Lyon, and Mulder welcomed Travis Head with a six and a four first up. But Cummins clipped their wings. He took out both the batters in the space of two overs: first Mulder fell in bizarre fashion – he looked to offer judgment to a short ball, but it lobbed off his bat and went to Cooper Connolly at square leg. Cummins then bounced out Tristan Stubbs too, with the ball flying off the top-edge of his bat and Josh Hazlewood covering good ground at deep square leg to take the catch.

South Africa continued to spiral as Smith pulled another rabbit out of his slip-catching hat. Once again he anticipated a reverse sweep, moved across early and took a diving catch to send Kyle Verreynne packing for just 13. Marco Jansen threw his bat around in an attempt to counter-attack but that lasted for just 20 deliveries as he fell an over after Verreynne, hitting a Hazlewood delivery to Head at mid-off. At this point South Africa were down to 197/8, staring at a massive first-innings deficit.

The ninth-wicket pair of Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer saved some of those blushes by putting up a stubborn 52-run stand as Australia were made to work hard for the last couple of wickets. Harmer even got the better of a Cummins short ball, swivel-pulling it in front of square for a four. Maharaj batted out 44 balls and added 34 vital runs to South Africa’s tally but was then dismissed by Starc, who lured him to drive away from his body and chip it straight to Cummins at mid-off. Even after this, Australia were made to wait as Anrich Nortje stood tall for a final-wicket stand with Harmer. They attempted to eat into the deficit as Harmer carted Beau Webster for a six and two fours in an over. Webster, however, went on to wrap up the innings with the wicket of Nortje, giving Australia a 106-run lead.

Maddinson and Head took Australia to 33/0 in 5.4 overs in a flying start – mainly down to the former’s adventurous ways, but bad light put an end to it.

Brief scores: Australia 390 (Matt Renshaw 190, Pat Cummins 43; Wiaan Mulder 4-68, Marco Jansen 3-68) & 33/0 lead South Africa 284 (David Bedingham 49, Aiden Markram 37, Simon Harmer 35*; Pat Cummins 3-54, Nathan Lyon 2-58, Josh Hazlewood 2-54, Mitchell Starc 2-63) by 139 runs