South Africa v Australia: Five series-defining moments
With a heavy 492-run victory in the third and final Test in Johannesburg, South Africa registered their first-ever Test series win against Australia at home since their readmission into international cricket – the last time was all the way back in 1970.
As the cricketing summer ended for South Africa, one of the country’s favourite cricketers, Morne Morkel, bowed out of international cricket with 309 wickets to his name.
From Morkel's record 300th Test wicket to Kagiso Rabada's 11-wicket haul to the ball-tampering incident in Cape Town, the four-Test series had plenty of moments that altered its course, mostly in favour of the home side.
Markram's opening salvo in Durban
Although South Africa lost the first Test by 118 runs, Aiden Markram's counter-attacking century in the second innings set the tone for what was to come for him in the series. Chasing an improbable target of 417 runs for victory, South Africa were in trouble at 136/5 when Markram combined with Quinton de Kock to add 147 runs for the sixth wicket and gave his side a glimmer of hope.
While South Africa were eventually bowled out for 298, Markram's 143 proved to be the foundation for a successful series on a personal level – he would later post 81 in Cape Town and 152 in Johannesburg. In doing so, he became the second-fastest South African (in terms of innings) to cross 1,000 Test runs after Graeme Smith. He reached the landmark in 17 innings.
Rabada gets 11 in Port Elizabeth
After losing the opening Test in Durban, South Africa needed one of their big-match performers to step up in the second Test in Port Elizabeth. Kagiso Rabada, the youngest of the lot at 22, decided to be that man as he picked up 11 wickets in the match – his fourth 10-wicket match haul in Test cricket – and helped his team register an emphatic six-wicket win to level the series.
Rabada picked up 5/96 in the first innings, which included the wickets of Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith and Shaun Marsh, and went on to credit six more to his account in the second (6/54) – David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh and Mitchell Marsh being four of his victims – and helped restrict South Africa's target in the fourth innings to 101, which they achieved with six wickets in hand.
Morkel makes Cape Town a Test to remember
Morkel, who didn't play in Port Elizabeth but got back in once Lungi Ngidi was injured, needed three more wickets to reach the magic mark of 300.
Morkel accounted for four Australian batsmen in the first innings to record 4/87, and got 5/23 in the second to finish with nine for the match and earn the Player of the Match award. It was his first nine-wicket haul in Test cricket and helped him reach No.6 in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings for bowlers with his career-best rating points of 798.
He got his 300th wicket by dismissing Shaun Marsh in the first innings, and his five-wicket haul in the second innings destroyed the Australian batting order and helped bowl them out for 107 while chasing 430 for victory.
Smith, Warner and Bancroft sent home
During the Cape Town Test, Smith and Bancroft admitted to trying to alter the shape of the ball on the third day using what was found to be sandpaper.
The ICC handed out punishments to the two of them immediately, and Cricket Australia soon took the decision to suspend Smith and Warner, who was also involved in the act, for 12 months and Bancroft for nine months.
All three were sent home before the final Test in Johannesburg and Joe Burns, Matt Renshaw and Glenn Maxwell were flown in as replacements.
Du Plessis, Elgar and Philander deliver the final blow
A weakened Australia under a new captain, Tim Paine, faced a tough challenge as they tried to level the series in Johannesburg. The task became all the more difficult when they were bowled out for 221 in reply to South Africa's first-innings total of 488.
Faf du Plessis has scores of 15, 4, 9, 2*, 5 and 20 in the first three Tests and a was in need of a big knock. While he was dismissed for a first-ball duck in the first innings, du Plessis ensured that he didn't sign the series off with a string of low scores and scored a match-defining century in the second innings (120), combining with Dean Elgar (81) for a 170-run partnership for the fourth wicket that put the game well beyond Australia’s reach.
After setting a seemingly impossible target of 612, South Africa proceeded to bowl Australia out for 119, with Vernon Philander running through the batting in a spectacular spell on the fifth morning on his way to returns of 6/21.