{"id":916277,"date":"2026-10-04T22:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T22:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916277\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T22:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T22:08:10","slug":"cricket-news-2026-marnus-labuschagne-scores-century-in-australia-vs-south-africa-tour-game-to-cement-test-team-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916277\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket news 2026, Marnus Labuschagne scores century in Australia vs South Africa tour game to cement Test team selection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Embattled batter Marnus Labuschagne<\/a> has all but assured his selection in Australia\u2019s Test<\/a> team this week with a timely century in a South Africa tour game.<\/p>\n

Labuschagne took just 76 deliveries to bring up triple figures as he belted 19 boundaries against an invitational team that was closer in quality to a club side than an actual Test outfit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Marnus Labuschagne has been out of runs lately.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

But it will be handy nonetheless for the 32-year-old who hasn\u2019t scored a Test century in three years, and has faced mounting calls to lose his spot in the Australian batting order<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He is expected to bat at No.3 when the Aussies take on South Africa in Durban on Friday.<\/p>\n

It is a homecoming for Labuschagne, who grew up in South Africa before moving to Australia as a youngster.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the ground where he hit the century on Sunday night is only a 40-minute drive from his childhood home.<\/p>\n

Labuschagne\u2019s family hosted a barbecue for the Aussie cricketers before his tour-game ton.<\/p>\n

Matt Renshaw<\/a>, who has been recalled to the Test squad and is expected to open the batting on Friday, was happy to see the maligned Labuschagne make a score.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooks like he\u2019s got a lot of energy at the crease, which is nice,\u201d Renshaw said per Cricket Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the Marn I know out there, so it\u2019s nice to see him getting amongst the runs and doing what he wants to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice positivity, his feet were moving well and he was just reacting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Renshaw scored 32 alongside Travis Head at the top of the order.<\/p>\n

It was a good sign for the recalled Aussie who suffered an injury during last week\u2019s ODI when a ball hit him on the arm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt all right out there… fortunately nothing serious, just a bit of swelling,\u201d Renshaw said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice to face some (fast) bowlers. The one-day series was a lot of facing spin, so it was a completely different scenario for me facing the new red ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really nice to get a bit of exposure out there, and it felt like my rhythm was going really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is still a major injury cloud over out-of-form all-rounder Cameron Green, who tweaked an abdominal muscle last week<\/a> and is racing the clock to be fit.<\/p>\n

Back-up keeper-batter Josh Inglis is also out with a finger injury, and Sam Harper and Nic Maddinson have been flown into the squad<\/a> as cover.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s first Test is the first time the Aussie team has been back in South Africa since the infamous 2018 tour, where Cameron Bancroft was busted using sandpaper to tamper with the ball in Cape Town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Embattled batter Marnus Labuschagne has all but assured his selection in Australia\u2019s Test team this week with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-916277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}