![\"Kagiso](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/skysports-kagiso-rabada-south-africa_7383767.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSouth Africa secured an emphatic innings-win over Australia to level their three-Test series with one to play.<\/p>\n
The Proteas won by an innings and 31 runs at St George’s Park in Gqeberha to set up a series decider in Cape Town next week.<\/p>\n
Australia had won the first Test in Durban by a huge margin, only for South Africa to roar back and answer them in kind.<\/p>\n
Despite the morning session being a washout and without one frontline bowler in Anrich Nortje, South Africa bowled out Australia for 295 in its second innings an hour after tea.<\/p>\n
The result ties the series at 1-1 and the two sides, currently third and first in the World Test Championship respectively, will play for the series win in Cape Town from Tuesday, live on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
WTC holders South Africa rallied to seemingly save a draw when they wrapped up their rain-affected first innings late on day three after captain Temba Bavuma’s 179 and Marco Jansen’s rapid 85.<\/p>\n
But Australia were then shot out for 99 in their first innings by Jansen’s 5-33. They were forced to follow on, and remarkably lost 13 wickets in total on Wednesday. South Africa’s pace attack lost Nortje to a suspected groin injury in his fourth over and he didn’t bowl for the rest of Australia’s second innings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n Kagiso Rabada celebrates the wicket of Australia’s Mitchell Starc (AP Photo\/Themba Hadebe)<\/p>\n
Australia, resuming the final day on 156-4, still 170 runs behind, hoped on Thursday for a reduced 81 overs of rearguard action with Steve Smith and Alex Carey in reserve but unravelled once chief holdout Travis Head was dismissed.<\/p>\n
Wiaan Mulder rebounded from a wicketless and expensive second innings on Wednesday by taking three of the six wickets South Africa needed on the fifth and final day.<\/p>\n
Mulder bowled century-maker Head, fellow overnight fighter Scott Boland as well as Australia captain Pat Cummins.<\/p>\n
![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/skysports-wiaan-mulder-south-africa_7383766.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n South Africa’s Wiaan Mulder, centre, celebrates with team-mates after taking the wicket of Australia’s Scott Boland <\/p>\n
Head, on 87 overnight, posted his 13th Test century with his 12th boundary. But his natural positive intent undid him on 121 when he chopped on against Mulder. Head faced 190 balls.<\/p>\n
Smith came in at No 7, three places lower than usual after he got a kink in his neck in the first innings. Mulder tested Smith’s neck with a first-ball bouncer.<\/p>\n
Smith endured the last five overs of the old ball, but was out for three in the third over of the new ball when he mis-hit pacer Kagiso Rabada. The ball caught the wind and Matthew Breetzke bobbled the ball at midwicket but took it at the second attempt.<\/p>\n
Boland passed his previous highest Test score of 21 when he reached tea on 40 with Alex Carey.<\/p>\n
But Boland was the seventh Australian out soon after the resumption when he tried to defend a come-backer from Mulder and was beaten between the gates. Boland’s resistance lasted for 166 balls to score 40.<\/p>\n
Cummins quickly departed, also to Mulder, after hitting a boundary then Rabada returned and took out Mitchell Starc’s leg stump with an inside edge.<\/p>\n
Jansen completed the victory amid glooming skies when he got Josh Hazlewood to send a thick edge to Aiden Markram at second slip.<\/p>\n
Rabada took 4-77, Mulder 3-64, while Jansen finished with six wickets in the match to round off an impressive performance from the hosts.<\/p>\n
Watch the third Test between South Africa and Australia in Cape Town from October 27 live on Sky Sports Cricket from 7.30am (first ball 8.30am). Latest Sky Sports deals<\/a> or stream with no contract on NOW<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa secured an emphatic innings-win over Australia to level their three-Test series with one to play. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-810554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}