{"id":923201,"date":"2026-10-10T15:58:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T15:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/923201\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T15:58:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T15:58:30","slug":"renshaws-headline-act-saves-australia-in-durban-st-george-sutherland-shire-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/923201\/","title":{"rendered":"Renshaw’s headline act saves Australia in Durban | St George & Sutherland Shire Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Australia'sAustralia’s Matt Renshaw raises his arms in triumph after reaching his second Test century. Photo: AP PHOTO<\/p>\n

Matt Renshaw’s coming-of-age moment in Test cricket has taken Australia from a position of peril to one of command in the series opener against South Africa.<\/p>\n

Almost a decade after his last hundred as baby-faced 20-year-old, Renshaw enjoyed the finest day of his career as his 190 led Australia to 390 on day two in Durban.<\/p>\n

Josh Hazlewood then had Ryan Rickleton caught edging a drive to third slip for a duck, before South Africa were 1-27 when bad light stopped play.<\/p>\n

\"NathanNathan Lyon rushes to congratulate Matt Renshaw after he reached his century in Durban. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n

Andrew McDonald had spoken in the lead up this Kingsmead Test about the importance of lower-order runs and being willing to get into grind, and Australia delivered on both on Saturday.<\/p>\n

After Australia slumped to 6-124 midway through the first day of the series, Renshaw and Pat Cummins (43) combined for an 84-run seventh-wicket stand.<\/p>\n

Renshaw and Nathan Lyon (27) then added 134 together, marking Australia’s largest ninth-wicket partnership since 1894.<\/p>\n

All the while Renshaw managed the innings magnificently, knocking back singles and keeping the strike with South Africa were guilty of letting the game drift.<\/p>\n

Renshaw’s last Test century came with in his fourth Test in January 2017, before finding himself dropped from the side 10 months after that score of 184.<\/p>\n

Some 3567 days on from that hundred, Renshaw is now a 30-year-old who looks a far more complete cricketer after earning his third recall as an opener in August.<\/p>\n

So good was Renshaw’s innings, Australia may have another selection headache after Nic Maddinson came into the side and opened in this Test with a 33-ball duck.<\/p>\n

If Renshaw is this settled in the middle order, can they afford to move the Queenslander back to open once Cameron Green or Josh Inglis comes back in?<\/p>\n

\"Australia'sAustralia’s Matt Renshaw hit 22 boundaries on his way to his second Test ton. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n

Australia’s selectors had copped heavy criticism on Friday when they brought Nic Maddinson in to open, and he made a 33-ball duck.<\/p>\n

But at least the decision to move Renshaw to No.5 paid off, after the Queenslander gave a glimpse of what was possible in the middle in the ODI series.<\/p>\n

He was busy against the spin on Friday, and hit most of his early boundaries against the quicks behind square in the first half of his innings.<\/p>\n

After bringing up his half-century in the first over on Saturday, Renshaw got through a tough period with the second new ball just after Cummins fell.<\/p>\n

But as the morning went on Renshaw became more comfortable, cover-driving and cutting Anrich Nortje for two boundaries in one over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SouthSouth Africa’s Wiann Mulder was jumping for joy after dismissing Australian captain Pat Cummins. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n

He then hit his 204th ball from Marco Jansen to the long-on boundary to bring up his century, prompting a long embrace with Lyon and meaningful celebration.<\/p>\n

After lunch he started reverse-sweeping the spinners to the boundary and even uppercut Nortje for a six.<\/p>\n

Another big hook shot bounced onto the hill at Kingsmead, while the left-hander routinely hit through gaps on the legside.<\/p>\n

He eventually edged spinner Simon Harmer to slip two balls after tea, but by that point his 397-ball stay had ensured Australia were well on top.<\/p>\n

At the other end, Cummins, Mitchell Starc (5) Lyon and Hazlewood saw out 226 balls between them and lasted a combined 388 minutes alongside Renshaw.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even after he was out, Renshaw and Hazlewood (5no) added another 26 for the last wicket.<\/p>\n

The other concern for the Proteas was the lack of purchase they got out of their spin, after going with two tweakers.<\/p>\n

While Harmer (1-68) and Keshav Maharaj (0-75) are there for when the pitch dries later in the game, the fact they did little damage was notable.<\/p>\n

That meant Nortje (2-88) was forced to bowl 28 overs in his first first-class game in three-and-a-half years, while Wiaan Mudler (4-68) bowled 27 and Jansen 31 for his 3-68.<\/p>\n

Australian Associated Press<\/p>\n

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Loading…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia’s Matt Renshaw raises his arms in triumph after reaching his second Test century. Photo: AP PHOTO Matt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":923202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-923201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923201","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=923201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/923202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}