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An early offering from our man Dan Brettig on the ground, who writes: “A couple nicks through slips and Maddinson has his highest Test score, 25 surpassing 22 from his first brief Test stint in 2016-17.”
Bavuma has now called for spin. It hasn’t taken long. Despite the ball being just nine overs old, Bavuma has turned to Simon Harmer – the 37-year-old, right-arm off-spinner.
Wow, Maddinson hasn’t taken long. He’s gone after Harmer immediately and belts a six over the spinner’s head. Maddinson to 48. Labuschagnne is five.
Australia is 1-71 off 10 overs.
Gone. Wicket!
Travis Head goes for 11. Jansen picks the opener up. The left-hander tried to work the left-armer onto the leg side but only managed a leading edge. It’s a big first wicket for the Proteas. Bavuma took the catch at mid-on.
Marnus Labuschagne comes to the crease. It’s another big innings for Labuschagne, who is out to snap a three-year century drought. He played with intent in the first innings, before being trapped in front for 37.
Australia 1-43 after 7 overs.
We’re underway and Nic Maddinson starts with a boundary.
There wasn’t much bounce from Mulder’s first ball – the fifth of the over – and Maddinson guided it down to the third man boundary. So he’s 21, Australia is 0-37 and the 34-year-old, left-hander will feel much better about himself already.
It will be Marco Jansen from the other end. The ball is just six overs old. And the left-armer has Head playing defensively. He gets a single from his second ball, before Maddinson picks up another boundary – this time from an outside edge that goes through first slip’s legs.
Australia 0-42.
On Maddinson. Fox Cricket’s team believe he’ll be locked in for the second Test regardless of the second innings. Mark Waugh believes he’s just “loosened up a bit”, which helped him.
O’Keeffe believes Australia will bat for about 50 overs today and hope to have a lead of around 350, and leave themselves around 80-100 overs to bowl South Africa out. But O’Keeffe believes the match is still very much alive for both teams.
Waugh says the match will be decided by the first hour.
First ball of day four is around five minutes away.
Australia’s commanding position was certainly set up by Matthew Renshaw’s 190. But the bowlers stood tall on day three. Starc (2-63), Hazlewood (2-54), Cummins (3-54) and spinner Lyon (2-58) all played their part. Beau Webster snared one too, taking 1-23. Steve Smith, meanwhile, took four fine catches, including a couple of classics to move ahead of Joe Root (220) for the most catches from an outfielder.
The Proteas were their own worst enemies. Four of the top six got to 30, but none of them passed 50. Kerry O’Keeffe just said on Fox Cricket that “there are no demons” in this wicket and that’s true. The bounce is consistent, there’s no roaring spin and there was not much swing out there for the quicks either. Instead, Australia’s quicks, led by captain Pat Cummins, relied on pace, line and length. Oh, and some poor batsmanship from South Africa’s batsmen.
Australia start day four in complete control. They’re 0/33 and lead the Proteas by 139 runs.
It shapes as a massive day for recalled opener Nic Maddinson. After his extraordinary recall, the left-hander chopped on for a disappointing 33-ball duck in the first dig. But he would have slept better on Sunday night after moving swiftly to 17. A batsman who likes to take the game on, he’ll likely look to continue to bat freely. He’s also got Travis Head (10 not out) at the other end, so strap yourself in.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of day four of the first Test between Australia and South Africa in Durban.
My name is Christy Doran I will be with you on the blog, and we have Daniel Brettig at the ground. All our game coverage and Daniel’s report will be right here tonight, so don’t stray too far.
