Matt Renshaw continued to hog centre stage as Australia pushed closer to winning the first Test against <a href="https://absafricatv.com/renshaws-heroics-leave-south-africa-reeling-as-australia-close-on-first-test-victory/" title="Renshaw’s heroics leave <a href="https://absafricatv.com/australia-close-in-on-durban-test-victory-south-africa-need-319-runs-on-final-day/" title="Australia close in on Durban Test victory, South Africa need 319 runs on final day”>South Africa reeling as Australia close on first Test victory”>South Africa in Durban.
Renshaw added a second-innings knock of 82 to his game-shaping 190 and was not finished there. After Australia declared with a lead of 420, the occasional off-spinner picked up his maiden Test wicket as the Proteas laboured to 102-4.
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma was his victim, caught off bat and pad by Nic Maddinson for just one. Josh Hazlewood had already got the ball rolling, dismissing Ryan Rickelton and David Bedingham, with Pat Cummins adding Tristan Stubbs before the close on day four.
- Scorecard: South Africa vs Australia – first Test
- Get the latest Sky Sports dealsor stream with no contract
Aiden Markram will resume on 45 not out alongside Wiaan Mulder but the odds are stacked against the hosts salvaging the game on day five. Australia were without Steve Smith’s brilliance at slip after he was hit on the helmet by Anrich Nortje and was subsequently replaced in the field pending further assessments.
Renshaw’s second innings bore almost no relation to his first. The 190 came at a strike-rate of 47. The 82 came at 82, with seven fours and two sixes in it.
Then it took a freak moment to end it. The ball went through Keshav Maharaj’s hands more than once and off his own head before it stayed put, by which time the bowler was flat on the pitch.
Renshaw was on for twin centuries when it happened. Instead he finished with 272 runs for the match, which is close to the most any Australian has made against South Africa.
Three more runs would have put him level with Phillip Hughes, who made twin tons on this ground in 2009. Nine more and he would have passed David Warner’s pair of centuries in Cape Town in 2014. Bradman’s 299 not out was 28 away.
Nobody else in the Australian order got past 48. Maddinson stopped there, Marnus Labuschagne on 37, Smith on 27 and Alex Carey on 24.
Captain Cummins hurries things along for Australia
Australia resumed on 33-0 and never looked like batting for time. They were 174-4 at lunch and 280 in front, with Maddinson’s 48 from 38 balls setting the rate.
Labuschagne then produced the day’s statistical curiosity. He made 37 from 58 balls, exactly what he managed in the first innings, which is only the 12th known instance of a batter matching his runs and his balls faced in both innings of a men’s Test.
But Smith’s 27 was the innings Nortje will remember. The bouncer that hit him on the helmet arrived on the fourth ball he faced and Smith answered by taking 14 off one Nortje over.
Cricket Australia said he was being assessed for concussion and he will be monitored for 24 hours.
Cummins made the rest a formality. His 32 not out took just a dozen balls, with Simon Harmer conceding three of his four sixes inside one over. The declaration came shortly before tea on 314-6.
Markram the last line of resistance for hosts
South Africa were left 421 to win, which no side in Test history has managed.
West Indies’ 418 against Australia in Antigua in 2003 is still the mark and the best at this ground is 336, chased by Australia in 1950.
Batting out the day is the realistic hope and the record there is thin. Just two sides in the last 13 years have lasted 140 overs to save a Test.
Rickelton pulled at a short one in the fourth over and Carey took the catch, two runs made with Hazlewood again the bowler who had him.
Markram and Bedingham put on 66 in 19.4 overs before Hazlewood pinned Bedingham in front for 46. He was 49 first time round, so twice in the match he got into the forties and no further.
Three wickets went down for 13 runs from there and South Africa were 86-4, scoring across the innings at 2.48 an over.
Markram has needed 115 balls for his 45 not out and he was dropped on the way, on 15, when the chance hit Carey on the elbow and ran away past slip.
Among players still active, only Kusal Mendis of Sri Lanka averages more than Markram’s 45.56 in a fourth innings. His 136 won the World Test Championship final against these same opponents at Lord’s.
He has been in this position at this ground before, too. He made 143 here in 2018 chasing 417 against Australia, 340 minutes of work that still ended in defeat.
He will be hoping that something miraculous can happen on Tuesday with Australia needing six wickets to win and South Africa still requiring 319 runs.
Watch day five of the first Test live on Sky Sports from 8am Tuesday (first ball 8.30am). Not got Sky?Get the latest Sky Sports dealsor stream with no contract
