Aussies fold on final day as Proteas take series, No.1 ranking

A Test series that had been within Australia's reach on several occasions over the past fortnight slipped away suddenly and then painfully courtesy of their second batting shocker in as many Tests.

South Africa taunted, goaded and ultimately dominated Australia on a final-day pitch Pat Cummins had chosen to bat last on. The hosts seized the series 2-1 as well as the No.1 spot on the ICC rankings.

Chasing a challenging but not unmanageable 288, the visitors were knee-capped by Kagiso Rabada (3-39) and then spooked by Simon Harmer, who finished with the monumental figures of 6-16 from 21.1 overs in a stirring 176-run win achieved before tea.

It was a statement performance from the off-spinner who had not been South Africa's first-choice spinner at the beginning of the series. He finished it with career-best figures of 10-120, taking the last six wickets of the game and out-bowling one of his craft's greatest exponents in Nathan Lyon.

Overall though it was an equal-opportunity Australian collapse; Rabada's brisk new-ball pace brought a swelling Newlands crowd to life, a mad-cap run-out continued the chaos, before the threat of Harmer muddled Australia's thinking and left them 6-42 before midday.

In Gqeberha, Australia were rolled for 99 to pave the way for a bruising innings defeat. They fared marginally better here, with Lyon top scoring with 33no in a fruitless push for a draw. Cameron Green (27 off 110) was the only other batter to pass 15.

It consigned Australia to a fourth defeat from their last seven Tests – and three in five since the start of their busy 2026-27 stretch. It marks the first time they have lost consecutive Tests in three-and-a-half years and a remarkable double capitulation given the positions of strength they had assumed both in Gqeberha and Cape Town.

The sight of player of the series Marco Jansen applauding Cummins' first run off his 41st ball underlined the superiority the reigning World Test champions felt on the way to trumping Australia in a deciding Test for the second time in 16 months.

The tactical move for Green to avoid Harmer's end when the tail arrived was craftily undermined when the 37-year-old swapped ends and clean bowled the advancing allrounder with a dream delivery.

It all but ended Australia's hopes of grimly staving off defeat having made a late pivot to playing for the draw after all but one of their top seven were dismissed before the day's first break.

Using a ball picked by his former teammate Vernon Philander, Rabada's wild first over included a zooming leg-side delivery Matthew Renshaw was unfortunate to graze on the way through to the keeper, as well as a full toss his replacement Marnus Labuschagne edged for four.

By ball six, Rabada's radar was sorted. After antagonist Matthew Breetzke gave Labuschagne some not-so-welcome words to the crease, the Australia's No.3's not unreasonable decision to leave a fuller ball in the channel meant he stood little chance of his review falling his way after the violent movement back towards his pads.

Head had watched the carnage unfold from the other end but after a couple of slapped boundaries off Jansen, the allrounder had the last laugh when he caught him at gully off Rabada and mimicked the celebration Head himself had performed when Cummins dismissed Breetzke the previous day.

Harmer's introduction inside the first hour only heightened the sense of skittishness. Green glanced up at Inglis after bunting one past a newly-introduced silly point and Inglis did not hesitate on the single.

But the ball had trickled hardly a few metres past the helmeted Marques Ackerman who tossed the ball back to the keeper to have Inglis well short.

Australia devolved further when their response to Harmer dismissing two left-handers in three balls – Alex Carey caught reverse-sweeping, Cooper Connolly edging behind – was to send out another in Mitchell Starc above regular No.8 Pat Cummins.

But apparent concern about exposing the lower-order to South Africa's quicks had the effect of instead shielding Green, averaging 70 form his previous five Test innings, from the man who was now clearly the hosts' most dangerous bowler in Harmer.

After several turned-down singles to keep Green at the pace end and Starc at the spin end, the latter became Harmer's third victim in eight pre-lunch overs before lunch when he offered a ballooning bat-pad catch on the final ball before the break.

Cummins batted 90 balls in concert with Lyon, the softer ball taking the sting out of all the bowlers. But Harmer's genius was too much to stave off, trapping Cummins lbw from around the wicket before bursting through Josh Hazlewood's defences.

Qantas tour of South Africa 2026

All matches to be broadcast exclusively in Australia on Kayo and Fox Cricket

First Test: Australia won by 214 runs

Second Test: South Africa won by an innings and 31 runs

Third Test: South Africa won by 176 runs

South Africa Test squad: Temba Bavuma (c), Marques Ackerman, David Bedingham, Corbin Bosch, Gerald Coetzee, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster