SA vs Aus – Australia’s Durban turnaround – From batting collapse to total control – USFTB

October 13, 2026 5 Min Read

Plenty has changed since Australia last toured South Africa in 2018. But eight years on, the target they set the home side at Kingsmead was eerily similar: back then it was 417, in 2026 it’s 421.

In that previous face-off, Australia secured a handsome 118-run victory early on the final day after South Africa finished nine down the previous night. It was that evening that Faf du Plessis appeared wearing just his towel in the Durban stairwell, and the tour only went one way from there. The outcome is not quite so certain this time – although, regardless of the result, we are unlikely to need any off-field interventions – but the fourth day could barely have gone better for Australia. The only aspect to take the gloss of it was the concussion concern for Steven Smith.

Matt Renshaw is having the game of his life: he took his match tally to 272 runs with a second-innings 82, and then claimed a maiden Test wicket when Temba Bavuma completed a miserable game by gloving to short leg. The smile on Renshaw’s face was almost wider than the one for his century.

Before then, there were the first hints of reverse swing in the match when Josh Hazlewood trapped David Bedingham lbw. Late in the day, Pat Cummins touched 146kph. It was relentless.

At the start of the final innings, survival was not beyond South Africa. But by the close, it needed something to match the efforts from Adelaide in 2012-13, and will have to be likely led by Aiden Markram, to deny Australia. The fourth day was the latest finish of the game so far, with a clearer sky allowing play until the scheduled close of 5.30pm. If it’s similar on Tuesday, the final day, Australia could get the majority of the allotted 98 overs should they need them. But South Africa will want the cloud and haze to return.

Australia have fully earned the right to be in this position. From the moment they were wobbling on 124 for 6 on the opening day, and knives were being sharpened for another poor batting display, they have played almost the perfect Test.

Renshaw’s masterful 190, alongside a lower order which heeded the call of coach Andrew McDonald to play their part with the bat, carried them a total of 390, which was always likely to allow them to dictate the game. With the ball on the third day, the three quicks and Nathan Lyon applied consistent pressure on a South Africa batting order which aided in their own demise with some questionable shot selection as hanging the ball outside off provided profitable returns.

Then, when the game required a different tempo on the fourth day, Australia rattled along at more than four runs an over throughout their second innings. Overall, their 314 for 6 declared ended as their fastest 300-plus total in Test history.

The tone was set by Nic Maddinson, who overcame his 33-ball duck on the opening day with an innings for the team’s cause as he flayed 48 off 38 deliveries before being uprooted by a fantastic yorker from Anrich Nortje. Maddinson’s runs weren’t always out of the middle, but it was a show of character. Imagine what may have been going through his mind when he took strike the previous evening.

“Maddo, he’s a well-loved guy, and everybody knows his talent, and we saw a glimpse of it today,” Beau Webster said after the fourth day’s play. “He’s quite destructive when he gets going. He hits the ball in some odd spots, and when he gets in some moods, he can be really hard to stop. Today was a small glimpse. Me personally, I’ve been on the end of some absolute hammerings from him in domestic cricket. He’s a class player, and hopefully he started the series well and goes on with it.”

The morning session had brought 141 runs in 30.2 overs for Australia, while in the afternoon, they added 140 in 22. None of the batters who came in went into their shells, although Webster briefly took a little steam out of the latter stages as he struggled for timing. But Cummins had his time and target in mind, hoisting four sixes in an unbeaten 12-ball 32. Maybe he had the inside track that the light would hold.

“From the first innings to the second innings, he was quite clear in his game plan and never deviated from that. He didn’t miss one sweep; even [on] the lbw shout, he still got glove on it.”

Keshav Maharaj on Matt Renshaw

Renshaw was superb again, playing an innings that would fit well with his middle-order one-day role as he worked the gaps, ran hard, manufactured boundaries, and showed his power. He finished with the most runs in a Test for an Australia batter since Marnus Labuschagne in 2022, and the fourth-most for an Australia No. 5 of all time. Renshaw remains the only batter in the match to have passed fifty.

Significantly, across both innings of the Test, Australia, and particularly Renshaw, dominated the spinners. Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer finished the game with the combined figures of 4 for 320 from 82.2 overs. In the first innings, they were milked; in the second, Australia took a more aggressive approach. Maharaj did not bowl a single maiden for the match across his 29 overs, and Harmer only two. They were swept to distraction by Renshaw across both innings.

“From the first innings to the second innings, he was quite clear in his game plan and never deviated from that,” Maharaj said of Renshaw. “He didn’t miss one sweep; even [on] the lbw shout, he still got glove on it. But maybe a little bit of tactical awareness [from us] going into the next one.

“But you know, kudos to him, he played really well. I think the foundation that he set in the way he absorbed pressure in the first innings allowed him to play with the freedom that he did, just by reading the conditions really well. And you’ve got to give credit where it’s due sometimes.”

Spin was seen as a potential trump card for South Africa coming into the series – particularly here in Durban, where Maharaj had starred in the ODI last month, although, ideally, the toss would have gone the other way for them. However, while Lyon has not been a prolific wicket-taker in this match so far, in the first innings he provided Cummins with excellent control, something which Australia have not allowed South Africa’s spinners. The grip Renshaw achieved late in the day may have left South Africa’s duo pondering what could have been.

Maharaj’s first wicket of the match came when Labuschagne drove him to cover after making 37 off 58 balls, exactly his score from the first innings, in another frustratingly unfinished knock. So it’s not that every question around Australia’s batting has been answered. Meanwhile, the concerns over Smith also loomed as a potentially significant issue heading into the second Test, making it even more important that Australia convert their outstanding first three days into victory.

But after the fourth day, it was going to take a mighty effort to deny them.

Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at Cricinfo