Durban: “We hold ourselves to a higher standard.” Pat Cummins has used these words a few times lately, whenever the Australian Test team has stumbled against opponents they were favoured to beat.
It happened in the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in 2025, and again in August when they lost to Bangladesh in Darwin. There were no angry words or histrionics from Cummins, just a matter-of-fact statement that his men were short of where they should be.
At Kingsmead on day three, under the hottest sun of the week, Cummins and company showcased that higher standard. No one did so more grandly than the captain, bowling his quickest spells in several years, and deputy Steve Smith, who pouched a trio of catches with escalating levels of anticipatory brilliance.
Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon have now combined for over 600 Test wickets in matches together, and this will be a performance they look fondly upon at journey’s end.
“To have those guys toil away, show the patience, change different plans, whatever it may be, to have that reward out there today, it’s something that I’m very proud of the bowling group,” Lyon said. “That is an extremely proud moment for the four of us to tick over 600 Test match wickets as a quartet. Pretty bloody special, if you ask me.”
By stumps, the Australian lead was 139, Nic Maddinson had avoided a pair, and the major opposition now appeared to be Durban’s fading light, as much as any rearguard from a South African side that seemed intent on playing more hastily than Matt Renshaw had done.
While the South Africans undoubtedly helped the touring side with shot choices that at times verged on Bazball, they were largely cornered into errors by bowling and fielding of the highest quality. The Durban pitch offered some spin for Lyon and a little extra bounce here and there for the quicks, but it was otherwise a strip requiring plenty of elbow grease for wickets.
The required energy was on show early on from Australia, as the three quick bowlers pursued attacking lines that resulted in a few boundaries but always asked questions. Aiden Markram has become adept at squandering starts since his Lord’s century last year, and he was the first but not the last batsman to fence at a rising delivery around fifth or sixth stump.
After Starc’s initial break, Cummins followed up with spells of real pace and hostility, sometimes touching speeds of around 146kph, seldom seen since his storied 2011 debut on these shores as an 18-year-old tearaway. He had spoken before the game of feeling not only injury, but niggle free for the first time in years.
“Physically I feel really fresh, I feel great,” Cummins had said. “I think even from last week we had a day in the field in Potch, I think that was good, I feel better for that. So now I feel like I’ve got the good balance between being extremely fresh.
“I feel like I couldn’t be in any better place, and yeah, don’t need to worry about my back or how many overs I’m going to bowl or anything like that. I can just go and play what’s in front of me. In previous years, you’re fighting a tight hamstring or a sore ankle. I’ve got none of that at the moment.”
David Bedingham, Wiaan Mulder and Tristan Stubbs all felt Cummins’ heat; the latter pair both bounced out by short balls that pranced off what was otherwise a sluggish surface.
At the Fort Road end, Lyon found drop, drift, bounce and enough turn, often bowling slower than has become customary and teasing out errors. Temba Bavuma and Kyle Verreynne both tried to emulate Renshaw’s reverse sweeps without having his height or reach. On both occasions, the ball squirted high off the bat, with Smith moving as he saw the bat twist, then pouching the chances with ridiculous ease. A fourth near stumps took him to 223 Test catches, a couple clear of Joe Root.
“He’s just an absolute freak. He genuinely practices that,” Lyon said. “He’s an incredible thinker of the game, but the way he moves, premeditates for those types of catches, they’re freakish.
“There’s not many people within that change room that will be able to pull off what he does. You look back at [Cheteshwar] Pujara a couple of years ago over in India [at Indore], a freakish catch, similar to that today with the two of them.”
When Marco Jansen’s cameo was ended with an ugly smear to mid off, Australia glimpsed a huge lead. Though they were frustrated for a time by the last two wickets and a softening ball, their focus did not noticeably flag.
In the end, the Proteas subsided for 284, allowing enough time for Maddinson to display a few of the shots that swayed the selectors to choose him, in what has the potential to be a destructive duo with Travis Head. Maddinson had just flicked a six over square leg when the umpires called time due to the light, and it is Durban’s easterly location, without any recourse to daylight saving, that looms as a doughty opponent.
“Well, when you walk off the field taking 10 wickets and then get told you’re [batting] number three, I’m not the biggest fan of the light,” Lyon quipped of his nightwatchman duty. “But yeah, there’s nothing that we can do about it. Whether it’s cloud or smog or whatever the way you want to describe it, it is playing a role, but we can’t control it.”
But having shown their standard on day three, Cummins and company will have confidence they can close things out - South Africa’s batsmen have been warned.
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