Time the enemy for Aussies in first Test after Smith's day in Durban

What is it that separates the best cricket teams from the merely good ones? There were hints sprinkled throughout an absorbing day three of the Durban Test, in which Australia's most formidable obstacle on the path to victory is now time. 

All the fundamentals Australia had to get right with the ball today, it did: tight lines, safe hands, bowling in partnerships to coherent plans. In the face of this, South Africa simply lost its head.

The Proteas scraped together a first innings total of 284 — a 106-run deficit that Nic Maddinson and Travis Head extended to 139 by the time bad light prematurely stopped play for the third day running.

But the moment of brilliance that highlighted Australia's edge in this context came not from a bowler or batter, but in the field: Steve Smith leapt like a salmon for four highlight-reel catches that moved him to the top of the all-time list for Test catches, and one in particular will linger in the memory long after this game is done and dusted.

It was Smith's third catch of the day, aptly reviewed by his most vocal teammate: "Oh my God, Smudge," bellowed a disbelieving Marnus Labuschagne. For that one, Smith seemed to have a better idea of the flightpath of Kyle Verreynne's reverse sweep of Nathan Lyon than the batsman did.

Darting to his right from the standard slip position while the batsman was still constructing his shot, Smith then dived at full stretch to reel in the catch, like a security guard nabbing a shoplifter before he'd even fully grasped his loot.

The English cricket writer John Arlott once settled on a similar scenario as an exemplar of what makes Australian cricketers a different breed. It was a catch taken by Sid Barnes in a tour match during the 1948 Invincibles summer.

Like Smith, Barnes was something of an eccentric. On this particular day, he was going to field a bat-length away from Essex batsman Ray Smith at silly mid-on. "You can't drive me away," Barnes warned the batsman, but Smith gave it a go, thumping a drive so crisply it ricocheted off Barnes's boot and out to the boundary.

When a silent Barnes refused to budge, Smith tried it again, crunching an even lustier blow directly into the Australian's chest, whereupon an unflinching Barnes stuck out his hand, caught the deflection and repeated himself to the dismissed batsman: "You can't drive me away."

Arlott dubbed this attitude "Australianism". Steve Smith has it in spades. It was not just the sheer absurdity of the Verreynne catch, nor the skill it required, but the domineering attitude Smith was projecting: you shall not pass.

Otherwise, it was Australia's bowlers and their captain's efficient organisation of them that told the story of the day.

Where Temba Bavuma had let things slide for the home team on day two, Pat Cummins was a model of enterprise, rotating his attack as the circumstances demanded while bowling with tremendous vigour and skill himself to take three wickets.

The disappointment, as far as the hope of a more even contest goes, rests on the shoulders of South Africa's top order, which had teased early in the day. An 84-run second-wicket partnership between World Test Championship final hero Aiden Markram and the stylish number three David Bedingham was hurtling along at four an over and at that point, the game looked like a genuine contest.

As is so often the case, up stepped Mitchell Starc to take the initiative. The left-armer came around the wicket, pulled back his length and roughed up the batsmen with a nasty blow to the hands for both. Soon after, Markram was gone. Later, like clockwork, Starc returned to nip another 50-run partnership in the bud.

And as has usually been the case in Australia's recent run of 13 wins in 16 Tests, each of the frontline bowlers posed his own unique problems for the Proteas. Cummins attacked the off-stump relentlessly. Josh Hazlewood sat in cruise control, slightly back of a length, impossible to get hold of for long.

Unlike the local spinners, who'd been paddled and swept into submission by Matt Renshaw, Nathan Lyon was at his jagged, probing best and deserved more than his two wickets.

"Bavuma — caught Smith bowled Lyon 3 (26)" doesn't read too dramatically, but the Proteas skipper was subjected to a genuine ordeal before finally losing the plot and departing the same way as Verreynne.

There lay another telling difference between these two sides so far: whereas Australia's imposing total was, in the end, built on discipline and patient accumulation, the South Africans constantly lost the micro-battles.

Bedingham, who made a sparkling 49, was denied scoring shots for a frustrating 20-minute period before finally losing his patience. Trying to move things along when there was no need, Travis Stubbs and Wiaan Mulder squandered starts with similarly impetuous shots.

From South Africa's perspective, what was so deflating about the general approach of the top six was that bad light had already truncated this game significantly and was likely to continue to do so. The tail battled gamely, but it's unlikely it'll be enough this time around.

The remaining questions are how quickly Australia can get to a defendable total and how many overs it reasonably expects to be played. Advantage Australia, in other words.