{"id":947991,"date":"2026-10-31T20:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T20:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947991\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T20:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T20:46:20","slug":"cricket-news-2026-australia-lose-to-south-africa-third-test-pat-cummins-post-comments-frustrating-loss-simon-katich-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947991\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket News 2026 | Australia lose to South Africa, third Test, Pat Cummins post comments, frustrating loss, Simon Katich comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s humiliating 176-run defeat to South Africa on Sunday morning<\/a> was a disaster \u201cbrewing\u201d for years, according to former Test opener Simon Katich, as the fallout sees the team tumble down the global rankings.<\/p>\n

Pat Cummins<\/a>\u2032 side entered the final day of the third and decisive Test at Newlands needing 288 runs to secure the match and the series. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Pat Cummins admitted the loss was \u2018frustrating\u2019. \u00a0AP Photo\/Themba Hadebe<\/p>\n

Instead, they collapsed to be all out for 111. <\/p>\n

A horrific morning session left the visitors reeling at 7-60 by lunch, plagued by lapses, a disastrous run-out and an lbw dismissal that could mark the end of Marnus Labuschagne<\/a>\u2019s Test career.<\/p>\n

The implications are immediate as Australia<\/a> has now dropped to third in the World Test Championship rankings – behind New Zealand and South Africa – while also slipping to second behind the Proteas in the ICC Test rankings.<\/p>\n

Katich did not hold back in his assessment of the team, targeting a culture of deflecting blame and validating excuses regarding pitch conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a snapshot of where this group\u2019s been at, not just this series, but a number of years now,\u201d he said on SEN. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been brewing for a while. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe rhetoric is this batting group has had to deal with bad wickets, well the wickets in this series, there\u2019s been nothing bad about them, but if you constantly keep making excuses for the players, guess what? They\u2019ll latch on to them. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all been there, whenever things aren\u2019t going to plan the first thing you look for is an excuse and don\u2019t blame yourself and that\u2019s got to change because it\u2019s come from within this setup and protected this group for too long. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest problem has been when the best player has said that these are the most challenging conditions he\u2019s confronted in his career, that adds to it. If he\u2019s giving them an out, then what are the rest going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

He also echoed recent criticisms from Matthew Hayden, who blasted selectors prior to the series for reviving Nic Maddinson\u2019s Test career<\/a>, saying it \u201cpromoting the biggest pile of mediocrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is exactly what Matty Hayden was talking about prior to the series, about mediocrity,\u201d Katich said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you allow that mediocrity to grow, this is the sort of performance you get, and this is the sort of performance you get in Port Elizabeth where you only last 42.3 overs, and the same in Darwin, and the two-day Test last year. <\/p>\n

\u201cYoung players believe that\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt Renshaw and Bavuma proved that all that stuff they\u2019ve been talking about, one with your name on it, the wickets have too much in them, that\u2019s all BS, because those guys have proved you can do it in Test cricket<\/a> if you apply yourself. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now it\u2019s the same with this protecting Cameron Green from Simon Harmer, you can run but you can\u2019t hide. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can keep using excuses about wickets … rubbish, find a way to survive.\u201d <\/p>\n

Skipper Cummins was a dismal picture speaking to media after the defeat, conceded his frustration and admitted the team must evolve and make changes to reclaim its status as the world\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mind goes to what could the team have done differently, what could I have done differently,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think reality is probably…we were outplayed for the last couple of tests. Bowlers could have taken more wickets at times, batters obviously more runs, so that\u2019s probably where my mind goes. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating, you wish you can have another go at it. You know how rare these opportunities are. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Pat Cummins spoke to media after the embarrassing defeat.\u00a0Cricket Australia<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, we seem to be making a little bit of a trend where we win the first one or two and, and it feels like it\u2019s there for us for the taking, and we just don\u2019t quite get it done. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating, it\u2019s annoying, but life does go on, but it does gnaw away at you a little bit.\u201d <\/p>\n

He acknowledged that selection questions are justified after the team collapsed in Cape Town and revealed that everything will be reviewed before their next Test. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s always the case after losing a series and it\u2019s probably fair,\u201d Cummins continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we lost two games in a row. I think it\u2019s fair to be asking those questions. So we\u2019ll be asking them internally as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a very good side, but I think we need to get a little bit better if we want to get back to number one and where we think we can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe that\u2019s a change of style. Maybe it\u2019s a change of personnel in some instances. Give us a couple of weeks and (we will) work it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Standing behind his group, the captain quickly laughed off the bold remarks from former teammate David Warner, who labelled the batting display \u201cun-Australian\u201d<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know what to make of that,\u201d Cummins laughed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s humiliating 176-run defeat to South Africa on Sunday morning was a disaster \u201cbrewing\u201d for years, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-947991","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\/947991","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=947991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}