An hour into the last session of day three, a wicket fell that prompted a celebration that showed how much the Cape Town Test matters to Pat Cummins’s Australian team.
The catch Green claimed to send his teammates into raptures was straightforward enough, its genesis and aftermath a little more dramatic.
Proteas opener Marques Ackerman, set fair on 62 and attacking everything Australia threw at him, had tried to limbo away from a Starc bouncer that followed him like a heat-seeking missile. Not quite agile enough with his Matrix manoeuvre, Ackerman faintly edged the ball flush into his faceguard, from which it ballooned into the cordon.
Unsure of the deflection and with his ears still ringing from the ding on his grill, Ackerman walked over to his skipper Temba Bavuma to discuss a review of the umpire’s call, perhaps as surprised as the Australians when Travis Head arrived on the scene to inquire after his health.
But, in all the chaos and confusion, the crucial 15 seconds had passed before Ackerman could signal for a review. He had to depart.
It has been that sort of series, really; so many periods of ascendancy abruptly terminated by moments of genius, madness and confusion, and so many subversions of the pattern recognition Test cricket followers can normally rely on to impose a sense of order on what they’re looking at.
South Africa finished the so-called moving day at 4-140 and 40 runs ahead. It would have wanted to be further in front. It could easily have been far worse off.
Earlier, in the latter stages of its first innings of 429, Australia probably let an extra 100 runs go begging. It sets up a perfect scenario even for those Australian fans who are not normally night owls: a thrilling finish on Friday night into Saturday morning.
On a pulsating day that produced 243 runs and 10 wickets, there was a second Test century for the recalled Josh Inglis and 80 for Alex Carey, both of whom fell to the off-spin of Simon Harmer.
In a Test featuring plenty of runs, only Josh Inglis has reached triple figures. (Getty Images: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images)
An obscurity to most Australians before this series, and tipped to be dropped after the first Test, Harmer was in the thick of everything again with four wickets, two catches, a busted finger and plenty of chatter.
Youngster Cooper Connolly, looking entirely at home at Test level, made a patient 29 from 83 deliveries and might have kicked on further with better support from Australia’s tail; the loss of 6-59 to finish off Australia’s first innings was, as Pat Cummins often phrases such things, not ideal.
Yet it was still a 100-run lead, and early in South Africa’s second innings you got the sense the game was about to break right open for an early finish.
In quick succession, Aiden Markram, who has been a thorn in Australia’s side, lazily slapped a loose one from Starc into the clutches of Head at mid-off, and David Bedingham, seemingly rattled by a Starc bouncer that cannoned into his chest, holed out with another inexplicable hook.
The Proteas were 2-31, still 69 runs behind, and the hyenas were circling.
Via the counter-attack of Ackerman, then in a slow and steady partnership between Temba Bavuma and Matthew Breetzke, South Africa began its rally. Yet there was one last twist in store with barely 15 minutes left in the day’s play.
Having tortured Bavuma for a few hours with his sharp turn out of the footmarks, Nathan Lyon removed the Proteas skipper again, this time a dipping off break that snuck between bat and pad to castle the lunging batsman. Bavuma is not quite to Lyon what Daryll Cullinan once was to Shane Warne, but he is not far off.
Proteas captain Temba Bavuma posed a major threat to Australia. (Getty Images: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images)
On the matter of hoodoos, much has been made in recent days of Cummins’s record-breaking streak without a wicket.
It continued today, despite periods in which the Aussie skipper bowled with genuine pace and guile, although his desperation to break his drought was made clear by one ill-advised review. Even when it is 1.6 metre Bavuma in the firing line, it is always difficult to get an LBW call when it hits above the batsman’s knee roll.
In truth, the odd brain fade was perfectly excusable due to the ratcheting up of the atmosphere as this game progressed.
Some testiness and conflict in this series was inevitable, but it has manifested in curious ways. Each team’s most vocal player — Marnus Labuschagne for Australia, Matthew Breetzke for the Proteas — has been its worst performed.
Breetzke, in fact, finally started to come good late on day three, and will resume tomorrow believing he is the man to turn the game for his country.
Given the way these two teams have echoed each other’s efforts in the past few weeks, perhaps that suggests one last tantalising and slightly mad prospect in the Australian chase: how about Marnus Labuschagne as the last-minute hero?
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