Proteas ensure this bewitching series will get Cape Town climax it deserves

October 31, 2026 — 5:00am

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Cape Town: In Pat Cummins’ first Test, Australia chased down a fourth innings target of 310 at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, capped by the 18-year-old debutant hitting the winning runs at number 10 as a terrified Nathan Lyon watched with his helmet on.

Fifteen years later, a similarly memorable finish beckons at Newlands. The Australians need 288 for victory on day five, after captain Cummins wrung a flurry of late wickets from a day that for its first five hours was dominated by South Africa’s middle order.

Ryan Rickelton (101), Wiaan Mulder (115) and Matthew Breetzke (43) played with calmness and confidence in themselves and the surface, taking the game from a position of strength for Australia to one where it was the Proteas who started to think about winning scenarios.

Josh Inglis and Marnus Labuschagne conjured a couple of run outs to help clean up the hosts' last five wickets for 53. Mitchell Starc finished with nine wickets for the match and what looked like a niggling injury to his right calf.

So it is that a most bewitching and unpredictable series will go into its final day with the result still very much in doubt. Having started, bizarrely, on a Tuesday morning, that also means the final chapter should be written in front of a bountiful Saturday Cape Town crowd.

Australia's........

© The Age