Rickelton and Mulder centuries leave Australia chasing 288 in Cape Town

South Africa set Australia 288 to win the third Test in Cape Town on 30 October, with centuries from Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder taking the home side to 387 in their second innings. Australia will begin their pursuit on Saturday’s fifth day, according to Cricket Australia.¹²³⁴

Centuries reshape the innings

Rickelton scored 101 from 219 balls and Mulder 115 from 221, sharing a sixth-wicket stand of 154. The International Cricket Council said it was South Africa’s second-largest partnership for that wicket against Australia. According to the Guardian, South Africa increased their lead from 40 to 287 over the course of the day.¹³⁴

Matthew Breetzke was dismissed at lunchtime. Cricket Australia reported that he made 43 from 121 balls; the ICC said he mistimed a pull against Pat Cummins and was caught by Mitchell Starc. Rickelton subsequently reached a hundred in an innings containing 12 boundaries, according to the ICC.³⁴

Rickelton was run out, and South Africa then lost Marco Jansen, Simon Harmer and Gerald Coetzee without scoring. Starc dismissed Jansen and Nathan Lyon removed Harmer, while Coetzee fell to a direct hit from Marnus Labuschagne, according to Cricket Australia. Those wickets left Mulder batting with Kagiso Rabada.¹²³⁴

Mulder and Rabada added 36 for the last wicket, with Rabada helping his partner reach his century. The ICC recorded 10 fours and four sixes in Mulder’s innings and said Cummins took the final wicket. South Africa were dismissed after 134.4 overs, according to the same account.²³⁴

Starc finished with three wickets for 65 runs. The ICC put his workload at 24 overs and reported figures of two for 71 for Cummins and two for 101 for Lyon. The BBC’s score summary listed South Africa’s first innings as 329 and Australia’s as 429.²³⁴

The chase in context

A successful pursuit would rank second among fourth-innings chases at the ground across its previous 62 Tests, according to the BBC. Australia hold the larger precedent: they chased 331 to beat South Africa by four wickets in 2002. Cricket Australia said this would also be Australia’s largest successful fourth-innings chase in 15 years.²³

The BBC reported that Australia failed in 14 of 17 chases for targets between 200 and 350 from 2008 to 2019, but have completed pursuits of 282 and 279 since 2023. It also cited a WinViz estimate giving South Africa a 54% chance of victory.²

According to the BBC, Harmer took four first-innings wickets for Australia: Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis and Alex Carey. Its report said the PitchViz difficulty rating reached 6.6, the highest of the match, even as South Africa’s false-shot percentage fell from 18% on day three to 11% on day four.²