Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder struck centuries as South Africa were bowled out \u200cfor 387 to close day four of the decisive third Test against Australia, setting the touring \u200bside a victory target of 288 on the final day.<\/p>\n
Australia toiled, taking a single wicket in the opening two sessions before a burst after tea, but \u200bit was still very much the home side’s day and sets up \u200can intriguing tussle on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Mulder top-scored with 115, his fourth Test century, while Rickelton amassed 101 as the pair ensured Australia \u200bwill need to complete the second-highest successful run chase in 137 years of Test cricket at Newlands.<\/p>\n
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This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> “It was about trying to win the small moments,” Rickelton said. “We knew we \u200bwere effectively 40 for four this morning and that Australia would come hard \u2060at us.<\/p>\n “It was about spending time at the \u2060crease rather than worrying about scoring runs or getting too far ahead of ourselves. We had our plans and needed to stick to them.<\/p>\n “We \u200cknew the longer we batted, the more frustrated Australia would become. Perhaps they expected things to happen quite quickly because of the deteriorating wicket.”<\/p>\n The pitch is starting to show signs of wear, \u200cwith Australia batter Josh Inglis saying on Thursday a chase of over 200 would be a difficult one batting last.<\/p>\n They will need considerably more than that at more than three runs an over against a South African bowling attack that has had its feet up for more than a day and a half.<\/p>\n South Africa \u2060resumed on the fourth morning at 140-4 and lost only \u200bMatthew Breetzke (43) in two sessions as he fell to a pull shot \u200boff Pat Cummins (2-71) and was caught on the boundary by Mitchell Starc, a familiar mode of dismissal for the home \u200bside this Test.<\/p>\n Instagram<\/p>\n This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> Rickelton and Mulder put on 154 for the sixth wicket as they took \u2060few risks and accumulated runs.<\/p>\n There was considerable turn for spinner Nathan Lyon (2-101) and variable bounce for the seamers.<\/p>\n Mulder was the last man out as he tried to up the tempo, caught on the boundary – again by Starc off Cummins – to \u2060bring a close to the day.<\/p>\n The series is level \u200bat 1-1 after Australia won the first Test by 214 runs in Durban and South \u200bAfrica responded with a victory by an innings and 31 runs in Gqeberha.<\/p>\n “It’s been a special series. \u2060It’s ebbed and flowed across all three games,” \u200bRickelton added. “Both teams have got ahead at different stages, only for the \u200bother to fight back. There have been mistakes and some really good cricket as well.<\/p>\n “Hopefully it comes down to a really \u200cgood day for South Africa \u200btomorrow.”<\/p>\n The winners of the match will occupy the No 1 spot in the \u200cTest world rankings, which is currently \u200bheld by Australia.<\/p>\n Watch the deciding third Test between Australia and South Africa live on Sky Sports. Coverage continues on Saturday from 8am on Sky Sports Cricket. Get the latest Sky Sports deals<\/a> or stream with no contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder struck centuries as South Africa were bowled out \u200cfor 387 to close day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-819021","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\/819021","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=819021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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