Smith's slip wizardry and Australia's pace quartet crush South Africa in Durban Test
Australia seize control at Kingsmead as Smith reaches catch milestone
Australia’s modern Test side reasserted its identity on day three of the first Test in Durban, turning a competitive 82-1 South Africa to a 284 all out collapse and then taking a 139-run lead at stumps with Nic Maddinson 17* in an unbeaten 33-0 second innings.
Matt Renshaw’s superb 190 had bailed Australia out across the first two days in response to South Africa’s first innings, but the tourists took command in familiar fashion on day three. Nine years after first appearing together, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon produced a relentless performance to dismiss the hosts for 284, with Cummins taking 3-54 and Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon two wickets apiece.
Length change turns the game
At 82-1, South Africa looked well placed against Australia’s 390. Aiden Markram and David Bedingham were scoring at almost 4.5 runs per over when captain Cummins reverted to the tried-and-tested plan: Lyon at one end, the quicks rotating at the other.
Australia bowled 34% of their deliveries full in the first 20 overs. Between the 20th and 60th overs there were only 19 deliveries pitched fuller than six metres as the lengths were dragged back. With scoring options removed, Markram and Bedingham attempted forced back-foot drives and edged to slip for 37 and 49 respectively.
Wiaan Mulder was caught in two minds and bounced out by Cummins, while Tristan Stubbs top-edged the Australia captain to fine leg. Marco Jansen, who had reached 26 with six fours, tried to pull Hazlewood off a fuller length and was caught at mid-off.
Smith soars to 223 catches
Off-spinner Lyon bowled 19 overs at under three runs per over on a more worn pitch. He found help from the sprawling Steve Smith at close range.
Both of Smith’s catches off Lyon, first to dismiss Temba Bavuma and then Kyle Verreynne, were feats of anticipation as he read reverse-sweep shapes and clung on.
"He's an absolute freak," said Lyon. "He practices that in training. He is an incredible thinker of the game but the way he moves, premeditates, for those types of catches. There are not many people in the dressing room that would be able to pull off those two catches."
In between, Smith’s leaping catch at second slip after Cummins found Bedingham’s edge took the 37-year-old back above Joe Root as the non-wicketkeeper with the most catches in Test history on 223.
Inevitability with Cummins and Renshaw
Reporting from the fourth evening added further detail to Australia’s control. Matt Renshaw’s part-time left-arm spin produced a wicket orchestrated by Cummins’ bowling changes, with Cummins and Hazlewood swapped around and Lyon used from the Umgeni End.
Renshaw removed Temba Bavuma after drifting air into the captain and drawing him into a false pull that Nic Maddinson took at short leg. The wicket came on the back of strategic changes that Cummins has used throughout his fifth year as captain.
Pat Cummins, bowling at his fastest on average in a long time and touching 146.7 kph, set up Tristan Stubbs in eight deliveries. After searing deliveries at off-stump, a classic fourth-stump channel and a bouncer, Cummins offered the sucker ball full and wide. Stubbs edged to Alex Carey behind the stumps.
"Each of these players will go down as a legend of Australian cricket," said former Australia bowler Jason Gillespie on ABC Radio. "Starc got hit for a few early but I didn't mind that. Hazlewood was very good, as he always is. Cummins was hostile. He looked fresh."
At 37, Starc is the oldest of the three quicks but his average pace of 141.21km/h in 2026 is higher than any of his past three years, and he is averaging his most swing in a calendar year since 2015. The quartet now have 607 wickets in Tests in which they have played together.
Australia lead by 139 runs at 33-0 and should have time to press home an advantage across the final two days.
