Matt Renshaw has made 272 runs at Kingsmead this week. Nobody else in the match has passed 50. Australia begin the final day of the first Test in Durban needing six wickets, with South Africa 102-4 and still 319 short of an improbable target of 421.
Renshaw’s 82 on Monday, following his career-best 190 in the first innings, took Australia to 314-6 declared half an hour before the scheduled tea interval. He then had the temerity to take his maiden Test wicket, Temba Bavuma caught bat-pad at short leg by Nic Maddinson for 1, in a spell that turned a comfortable position into a commanding one.
A declaration built for the clock, not the record book
Australia’s second innings lasted 58 overs and came at 5.41 runs per over — the fastest 300-plus total Australia have made in men’s Test cricket. That tempo was a direct response to the conditions rather than any sudden conversion to aggression. Bad light has shortened each of the first three days at Kingsmead, with day one closing at 15:23 local time after only 65.2 of the scheduled 90 overs. Pat Cummins’ side batted as though they expected to lose another session, and may yet be proved right.
Maddinson made 48 from 38 balls at the top, Marnus Labuschagne 37, and Cummins himself 32 from 12 deliveries with four sixes before the declaration. Beau Webster finished 39 not out. The match has now produced 16 sixes, a Kingsmead record.
The afternoon was not without cost. Steve Smith was struck on the helmet by an Anrich Nortje bouncer on the fourth ball of his innings, went on to make 27, and was cleared to continue — but did not take the field after tea. Australia said he would undergo concussion assessments over the following 24 hours. His availability for the rest of the series is the one genuine uncertainty hanging over a tourist side otherwise in control.
Josh Hazlewood then removed Ryan Rickelton for 2 and trapped David Bedingham lbw for 46, Cummins had Tristan Stubbs caught for 1, and Renshaw’s part-time spin accounted for Bavuma. Aiden Markram survived to stumps on 45 from 115 balls, with Wiaan Mulder on 5.
Nine years, 280 days
The scale of Renshaw’s week only registers properly against his career. His first Test hundred came against Pakistan at the SCG in January 2017, when he was 20 and being spoken of as a fixture at the top of Australia’s order for a decade. The second arrived in Durban 3,567 days later — nine years and 280 days, the third-longest gap between Test centuries by an Australian, behind only Warren Bardsley (13 years, 346 days) and Bob Simpson (10 years, one day).
In between came discards, reinvention as a middle-order player, a brief spell as Australia’s designated short-leg specialist and, in August, a recall against Bangladesh in Mackay. The 190 came from 187-6, rescued by a 134-run ninth-wicket stand with Nathan Lyon — the highest ninth-wicket partnership ever made against South Africa.
- 190 and 82 — 272 runs, the most by an Australian in an away Test since Steve Smith’s 2019 Ashes
- Highest score by an Australian in a Test at Durban
- Highest score by a number five of any nation at Kingsmead
- Maiden Test wicket in his 20s as a bowler: Bavuma, caught short leg
What Tuesday asks of both sides
South Africa are not chasing 421. No side has ever chased that much to win a Test; the record successful pursuit remains West Indies’ 418 against Australia in Antigua in 2003. The Proteas’ task is to bat out a full day, and the bad light that has frustrated Australia all week is now their most reliable ally. Every over lost to cloud rolling in off the Indian Ocean in the late afternoon is an over Cummins does not get.
Markram is the obvious obstacle. South Africa’s first innings 284 — in reply to 390 — was a collection of starts, Bedingham’s 49 the best of them, and the same fragility has reappeared. Lose Markram early and the tail is exposed to Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc with the whole day to fill.
Victory would give Australia a fourth consecutive Test win at Kingsmead, a ground where South Africa were once close to unbeatable, and a 1-0 lead in a series that was supposed to test a batting order in transition. Instead, the batting order found an answer in a 30-year-old who had spent most of the last decade being told he was not quite the answer.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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