There is everything to play for on the final day of the final Test of the series between South Africa and Australia, with the series, the No.1 rankings and points on the World Test Championship table on the line.
“It’s win or lose, I guess. No draw tomorrow,” Ryan Rickelton, South Africa’s wicket-keeper and one of two centurions from day four, said. “If you had to say that it’s going down to the third Test, day five, with all three results on the cards or two results on the cards, yeah, I wouldn’t have believed it. It’s been a special series.”
Rickelton later conceded that the third result, a draw which would mean a shared series, could become a possibility, especially as the pitch remains good for batting and has not deteriorated as much as expected. South Africa scored 247 runs in 87.2 overs on the fourth day, at a rate of 2.80 to the over, and lost six wickets, which suggests a day of hard-fought, tense Test cricket.