A lead of 40 becomes 287
Australia's four frontline bowlers began the fourth day at Cape Town with 1,674 Test wickets between them and finished it with 1,678, a return that understates how thoroughly Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder took the game away from them. South Africa had been 40 for four in their first innings at Gqeberha and still won; here they were effectively 40 for four again in the third innings, and the same recovery now leaves them well placed. A 40-run advantage became 287 by the close.[S1]
South Africa set Australia 288 to win the third Test, with Rickelton and Mulder both reaching three figures on the fourth day. The target leaves the series decider finely balanced heading into the final innings.[S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7][S8]
Rickelton trades T20 instincts for Test patience
Rickelton spends much of the year on the franchise circuit, scoring quickly and keeping wicket in 20-over cricket, and his strike rate in that format sits near 150 runs per hundred balls. His first-class scoring rate is roughly a third of that. Earlier in this series Josh Hazlewood dismissed him for none and two in Durban while he was used as a pinch-hitting opener, and he managed only 31 down the order at Gqeberha.[S1]
On a surface offering little sideways movement but decent bounce for the short ball and growing turn for Nathan Lyon out of the footmarks, Rickelton and Matthew Breetzke absorbed what Australia's rested attack could produce. Rickelton mixed defence with a single in most overs, and the first session brought 62 runs and a lead of 102. Breetzke's dismissal at lunch, pulling to long leg, ended a run of 372 balls without a wicket for Pat Cummins, the longest such stretch of his career.[S1]
A stand of 154 and a late collapse
Rickelton and Mulder batted through the afternoon, taking the partnership to 154 and the lead to 235 on a pitch that was wearing quickly. Rickelton reached his century after a slow passage through the 90s. His exit came through a mix-up: Mulder's reverse-sweep sent a full toss to Inglis at backward point, who saw Rickelton running while Mulder stood still, and Marnus Labuschagne gathered the throw at the bowler's end to complete the run out for 101.[S1]
Marco Jansen holed out on the pull for nought, Simon Harmer shouldered arms to Lyon and was bowled by big turn, and Gerald Coetzee was run out for the same score by a Labuschagne direct hit from the cordon. At nine down and 251 ahead, South Africa's lead looked light, but Mulder moved from 82 to 115 with Kagiso Rabada for company, farming the strike between boundaries. He was caught down the ground off Cummins in the day's last over while attempting a fifth six.[S1]
One innings left to settle the series
A match in which one full innings filled the opening day will now have another fill the fifth. A target of 288 is finely balanced for a contest that has stayed even throughout, and the result must fall one way or the other, carrying the series with it.[S1]
