Updated ,first published
Durban: As smoke from a post-match braai wafted over Kingsmead, Australia’s Test team could be heard singing and carousing in celebration of a 214-run mauling of South Africa.
The team chant, Under the Southern Cross, was belted out twice in the dressing room (“second verse, same as the first”), about three hours after Josh Hazlewood claimed the final wicket. They had truly barbecued South Africa, the kind of performance that, by its sheer dominance, should be cause for a reappraisal of Pat Cummins’ team.
Following last summer’s Ashes defeat of England, and fuelled by a spotty 1-1 home draw with Bangladesh, there has been much written and said lately about how this ageing team has to be one in decline.
That narrative has been strengthened by the lack of runs emanating from domestic ranks, culminating in the decision to recall 34-year-old Nic Maddinson for this series instead of flying over any number of young players who had been playing for Australia A in India.
In South Africa, too, there had been a degree of confidence that, having knocked off the Australians in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s last year, the Proteas were well-placed to repeat the dose on home soil, perhaps helped by the memories of the infamous 2018 series, sandpapergate and all that came with it. Commentator Neil Manthorp went as far as to suggest this was the first time in his career that South Africa entered a series against Australia as favourites.
When Australia chose to bat first, as Cummins had done in the Darwin loss against Bangladesh, and found themselves 6-124 on the first afternoon, it appeared that all these suspicions of a cricket empire at sunset were not without foundation.
But what followed was strong evidence that, in fact, this team of “creaking terminators”, to borrow Rahul Dravid’s phrase, has the capacity not just to maintain their rage, but improve on the performances of the past five years.
It started, of course, with new blood, Matt Renshaw. Always a gifted player who fell afoul of some harsh character assessments as a younger man, Renshaw showed with patience, technique and presence of mind that Australia do have the option of batting in a less hectic manner than has occasionally been the case in recent times.
His attentiveness to lower order batting partners in Cummins, Nathan Lyon and Hazlewood was notable, keeping them calm and focused as the likelihood of a mediocre first innings was turned into 390 – the sort of tally from which victory could be built.
“Renners’ method was one to wait for his balls,” Cummins said. “There’s plenty of time in a Test match, so you don’t need to overplay it. Particularly in these kind of conditions ... he laid a pretty good blueprint. Someone like a Travis Head might be more aggressive, but for other guys there is a path forward where going and grinding it out might be the best thing for the team.”
To hear Cummins speak of a blueprint was significant because he wants the likes of Marnus Labuschagne and the recovering Cameron Green to find a consistent method. If they can, Australia will be able to make enough runs to bring their magnificent bowling attack into game scenarios where, as the Proteas discovered, there is no escape. Cummins spoke of ruthlessness.
“Even sometimes where we have got that far in front, I feel like we haven’t been as ruthless as we could,” he said. “You just need to sometimes grind it out, wait for the game to come to you, and we’ve just missed those moments in the past. So that’s kind of, as a group, we look at the next evolution. That’s something we spoke about.”
Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Lyon all had their moments with the ball in this match, notably in how fast the skipper bowled now that he is free of back trouble and also clear of ankle and hamstring niggles that had compelled him to bowl within himself at times in previous years.
But centre stage was taken firmly by Hazlewood, who plucked eight quality wickets for the Test, with career-best figures of 6-49 as victory was secured less than halfway through the final day in Durban. Like Cummins, Hazlewood looked quicker than he had been in some time, and his combination of height, accuracy and canny manipulation of the seam were at times irresistible.
For evidence of that, just ask Marco Jansen, who offered what looked like a correct forward stroke, only to hear his bails trimmed with the second new ball. Two balls later, Simon Harmer received a brute of a lifter that grazed the top of his glove, having arrived far quicker and steeper than the batsman’s estimate. Even the most ardent fan of Scott Boland must acknowledge a haul of 67 wickets at 14.83 since January 2024.
“He obviously gets spoken about a lot about his consistency, but I think that undersells him,” Cummins said. “He’s really skillful with the new ball. But once you get a reversing ball he’s just as skillful, can swing it both ways.
“One thing I’ve always loved about Joshy and Starcy is they’re just so happy getting into the grind. They’ll never shy away from having a bowl. It’s not always the case with Test players, whereas they, just whatever the team needs, they roll up their sleeves and go to work. A captain’s dream.”
Before this game, it had been the role of Matthew Hayden to launch a strident critique of Cummins and the selectors, for “promoting the greatest pile of mediocrity that we’ve seen in a generation of cricket”.
Hayden was once part of an ageing team that, reinforced by a few more senior players like Mike Hussey and Stuart Clark, went on a sunset tear from 2005 to 2007. On the evidence of Durban, Cummins and company are capable of something similar.
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