South Africa take complete control in Johannesburg

VIEW MATCH CENTRE

South Africa continued their complete dominance of this match on the third day of the fourth and final Test against Australia at the Wanderers. A recovery of sorts saw Australia reach 221 all out having resumed on 110/6 at the start of the third day, thanks primarily to newly appointed captain, Tim Paine, who battled a broken thumb to top score with 62. Even with those runs Australia were still in real trouble.

Paine was well supported by Pat Cummins who made his maiden Test match fifty in a partnership with his captain worth 99 runs, the most productive stand of the Australians of this entire series. Cummins eventually departed lbw to Keshav Maharaj when he attempted a sweep shot and was dismissed after a successful South African review.

With Cummins gone it was left to Paine to get his side over the 200 mark and he looked to accelerate his scoring efforts. He got Australia past that milestone but it was that more attacking approach that eventually brought about his demise. Paine attempted to smash Kagiso Rabada over long on and Dean Elgar pulled off a fantastic catch running towards the boundary, diving and take the catch over his shoulder.

That gave South Africa a 267-run lead on first innings but they made the decision not to enforce the follow on. This would give their bowlers a chance to rest up and with almost three days left to play there was plenty of time for them to bat again and put Australia completely out of this game. A draw would be enough to seal a series win after all, and even with batting again a South African win was still the most likely result. However, Morne Morkel is an injury concern so we do not yet know if he will be able to bowl again in this match and this could damage their chances of victory.

South Africa were in no rush when they got their second innings underway and just looked to bat in the same way they had when the amassed 488 in their first batting effort. Aiden Markram, fresh from his career best 152 in the first innings, looked pretty well set before he edged a ball from Cummins to second slip where Peter Handscomb took the catch. He was gone for 37, but had passed 1000 Test runs in the process, the second fastest in terms of days from debut to reach that landmark.

While Cummins took that first wicket it was Josh Hazlewood that looked the most threatening of the Australian bowlers as he made the most of the up and down nature of this Wanderers pitch. He regularly troubled the South African batsmen who really struggled to score against him

At the other end Nathan Lyon was getting the ball to grip and turn, but it was doing so quite slowly and the batsmen were able to turn him into the leg side for runs with relative ease. It was when Lyon got one to bounce more than Hashim Amla expected that it brought him a wicket as South Africa's No.3 edged to Mitchell Marsh at leg slip.

Cummins had his second when he got a ball to bounce alarmingly and AB de Villiers edged it through to Paine for 6 (5).

Dean Elgar was the man that held things together after the fall of the de Villiers wicket, making a patient 39 from 158 balls. Faf du Plessis was at the other end and finished the day on 34 not out. The South African captain has struggled for form in this series so far, and he looked to be reasonably positive in this innings as his team made a dominate position completely unassailable.