Starc wizardry turns Cape Town decider on its head

Mitchell Starc's second new-ball wizardry capped South Africa's mini-meltdown after they had Australia over a barrel, allowing Pat Cummins to breathe easier over his decision to bowl first in the Cape Town series decider.

A visiting attack operating without second-Test destroyer Scott Boland had been left stunned by the first punch landed by Marques Ackerman (95) and Aiden Markram (78) during a blazing 158-run opening stand. 

But after the visitors' desperate retreat to short-ball tactics proved successful, Starc's late burst in which he took the last six wickets of the Proteas' innings – including the final four in six balls – swung a see-sawing first day back Australia's way.

The left-armer accounted for David Bedingham (50 off 80) and Wiaan Mulder (second-ball duck) in the same over as Australia shifted to a bouncer ploy in response to the early carnage and placid surface. 

After the second new ball was taken in fading light, he continued the incredible solo act as he intervened again with astonishing finality. In the space of three balls, he removed both contributors to South Africa's other major stand, of 95, by trapping Ryan Ricketlon (42) lbw and clean bowling Marco Jansen (52). 

While Starc missed his hat-trick, he ploughed on by bowling the last two batters Gerald Coetzee and Kagiso Rabada for ducks. From 1-203, the Proteas had conspired to be skittled for 329 before stumps.

"Problem solving," Starc said when asked how he had managed to take as many wickets in 26 balls on Tuesday as he had from his previous 272 over the first two Tests.

"There's been a lot of things that haven't felt right through the series. I had a bit of a look last night with James Franklin and Ronnie (coach Andrew McDonald) – and also my wife has watched a lot of cricket.

"I just had a bit of a look at some footage from the Test in Durban with some overlay from the Ashes and just seeing if there was anything (wrong) through the action – which there wasn't really. It was just more a feel thing.

"A lot of us have been around long enough to try and problem solve while we're going. Was just hoping to get a few right with that second newie. It would have been nice to do with the (first) new ball in the first hour.

"But I think that's it's a feature of our group. We can problem solve before the end of the day's play, and to bowl them out (having produced) clearly not our best stuff in the first two hours, I think we take that."

It ended the day on a far brighter note than the one it commenced on. 

After Steve Smith failed a last-ditch morning fitness test, the sense of chaos around an Australian side featuring their most mid-series changes to an XI (four) since their post-sandpaper Test at the Wanderers eight years ago was only heightened by what ensued.

So absent was the new-ball nip Cummins had foreseen that Nathan Lyon was enlisted to bowl six overs before lunch – the most he had ever sent down after his captain had chosen to field first. 

Australia's seamers had quickly discovered the hoped-for assistance was minimal at best. From 13 first-session overs after the initial drinks break, Ackerman and Markram piled on 87 runs in a breathtaking second hour, helped by Travis Head shelling an easy-paced chance at cover created by Starc when Markram was on 39.

Ricky Ponting's infamous call to bowl at Edgbaston in 2005 without Glenn McGrath had yielded one wicket for 127 runs before lunch; Cummins' decision to try his Boland-less attack on the Proteas here brought 140 runs for no wickets. 

Lyon failing to grasp a hot chance off an increasingly confident Ackerman two balls into the afternoon session looked to spell more misery.

But it was the veteran's smart riposte – a slower, wider off-break that enticed the second-gamer, desperate to reach his hundred in fast time, into offering an easy stumping – that helped Australia course-correct.  

Denied the chance to bowl to Temba Bavuma during his nine-hour 179 in Gqeberha, the 38-year-old fired one into the right-hander's off-stump to make him walk for a third-ball duck.

When Cooper Connolly celebrated his maiden wicket courtesy of a sharp lbw review against Matthew Breetzke, three of South Africa's first four wickets had fallen to spin.

Equally difficult to fathom was the home side's insistence on continually biting on Australia's obvious bouncer ploy. 

Markram had been brutal when Australia dropped short during the exhilarating early fireworks but he then perished attempting a repeat when the field was set for his killer pull shot. 

Starc and Hazlewood traded clever boundary-line catches off each other's bowling to account for Markram and Bedingham respectively, while Mulder fell into the same trap two balls after the latter.

Jansen struck his second half-century in as many matches in his rebuilding effort with Rickelton before both fell victim to the Starc's late brilliance.

Qantas tour of South Africa 2026

All matches to be broadcast exclusively in Australia on Kayo and Fox Cricket

First Test: Australia won by 214 runs

Second Test: South Africa won by an innings and 31 runs

Third Test: October 27-31, Newlands, Cape Town, 7:30pm AEDT (10:30am local)

South Africa Test squad: Temba Bavuma (c), Marques Ackerman, David Bedingham, Corbin Bosch, Gerald Coetzee, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster