{"id":916621,"date":"2026-10-05T05:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T05:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916621\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T05:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T05:12:14","slug":"australias-marnus-labuschagne-hits-timely-hundred-ahead-of-south-africa-test-series-live-on-sky-sports-from-friday-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916621\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne hits timely hundred ahead of South Africa Test series, live on Sky Sports from Friday | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marnus Labuschagne scored a speedy, and timely, century in Australia’s sole warm-up match before the three-Test series in South Africa from Friday, live on Sky Sports Cricket.<\/p>\n

Labuschagne struck 111 from 89 balls, reaching three figures from 76 deliveries and hitting 19 fours, before retiring out against a Cricket South Africa Invitation XI in Potchefstroom.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old will hope to carry that form into the Test arena, starting in Durban this week, having gone 43 innings and over three years without a hundred in the format.<\/p>\n

After Labuschagne – who is averaging 25.43 since the 2023 Ashes – made scores of one, 31 and four in the recent 1-1 series draw at home to Bangladesh, ex-Australia captain Ricky Ponting told Sky Sports that the batter’s spot in the XI had become “untenable”.<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the Baggy Greens have kept faith with the South Africa-born player and he seems set to line up in his usual No 3 berth at Kingsmead as Australia begin their first Test series in the country since the 2018 ball-tampering scandal.<\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Steve Smith will play Test cricket in South Africa for the first time since the 2018 ball-tampering scandal<\/p>\n

Smith scores half-century in Test tune-up<\/p>\n

Steve Smith – who along with David Warner and Cameron Bancroft received a ban for the role he played in using sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball – Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Matt Renshaw are the survivors from that contest eight years ago.<\/p>\n

Smith, who followed Labuschagne in retiring out, and Renshaw scored 61 and 32 respectively on the second and final day of the tune-up for this month’s Tests, while Alex Carey made 57 as Australia replied to the hosts’ 318-7 with 368-6.<\/p>\n

On day one, Australia used 11 bowlers in order to manage workload with seven taking a wicket apiece and none of the seamers getting through more than 10 overs.<\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Josh Hazlewood was one of a plethora of bowlers used by Australia on day one of the tune-up fixture<\/p>\n

All-rounder Cameron Green did not feature after picking up an abdominal injury in the final ODI against South Africa last week and appears a doubt for the first Test.<\/p>\n

After the series opener in Durban, the teams will meet in Gqeberha from October 18 and then Cape Town from October 27.<\/p>\n

South Africa also host Bangladesh and England in Test cricket this winter, with the series against Joe Root’s men starting at Wanderers in Johannesburg on December 17.<\/p>\n

Watch the first Test between South Africa and Australia live on Sky Sports Cricket from Friday (7.30am on air, 8.30am first ball).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marnus Labuschagne scored a speedy, and timely, century in Australia’s sole warm-up match before the three-Test series in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-916621","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\/916621","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=916621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}