SA vs Aus - 3rd Test - It's as big as it gets for South Africa and Australia as Newlands welcomes early Dezemba

It’s Dezemba – the peculiarly South African state of mind that occupies the final month of the year in which everyone is in party mode – in October. Tour buses are already cruising the streets of Cape Town, carrying many Australians, who are enjoying an extended cricketing holiday and getting their money’s worth with goings-on both on and off the field.

It’s a series in a deadlock, after Australia shook South Africa out of a long Test hiatus at home with a 214-run thrashing in Durban before the hosts came back to record one of their most epic comebacks, an innings-and-31-run victory in Gqeberha.

It’s Cape Town, where the last time Australia were here, the character of their Test team cracked open and the series was, for all intents and purposes, lost. It’s also a place that has never hosted a Test match in October and where an early-November game saw a team – Australia, for the record – shot out for 47.

It’s where the mountain backdrop makes everything feel better and the fans fill the place.

“It’s definitely not just another game of cricket,” as Temba Bavuma, South Africa’s captain, put it.

This time, it really seems as though it’s much more than that.

“It’s exciting that we managed to get it to this point,” Bavuma said. “One-one, you come to Newlands. They’re not many better places to play cricket. And then in terms of the bigger picture, there’s an opportunity for us to get closer to the [World Test Championship] final. There’s still a lot of cricket that we have to play, Bangladesh, England, Sri Lanka and we give that respect. But it’s definitely not another game of cricket.”

The series, the No.1 ranking and perhaps even the fate of the WTC mace are on the line, which makes this as big as it gets, especially for South Africa.

As title-holders whom “everyone wants to have a go at,” as Bavuma put it last week, the finale presents the opportunity to put a full stop after their contest with the challengers, Australia, and assure themselves they are really the best. This may seem a tiring conversation for South Africa to keep having but it also seems like they can’t stop others from having it about them. Until they beat Australia (again, mind you), there will be questions over whether last year’s Lord’s win was as decisive as it should have been. The answer could come later this week.

Should there be a South African victory in Cape Town, South Africa will also take the No.1 ranking off Australia, who have held it since May 2024. Though Bavuma still rates the final as having “a little bit more to it from a sentiment point of view” because “it’s a once-off game, and you have to play at your best,” and because it’s the first trophy with the word ‘World’ in it that South Africa have lifted. But he still understands why the rankings potentially matter more. “It shows that you’ve consistently played well over a certain period of time.”

That’s exactly what Australia have held on to at times when they have been under pressure: that they held the top ranking, even if not always the trophy. So it highlighted a potential contrast when Pat Cummins, when asked how this contest ranks for him and his team, joked, “it’s definitely the biggest match this week for us.”

On a serious note, it is a much bigger week than Cummins, or anyone else, wants to let on. Before 2018, Australia had dominated in South Africa and then, in 2018, lost their heads, their credibility and their first series here since readmission. Part of the reason they are “desperate,” as Cummins put it, to win in South Africa is to draw a line under that saga, in redemptive ink.

The other part is obvious: beating the champions in their own backyard will not only put Australia one step closer to another WTC final but will probably also make them favourites for it and emphasise their continued strength as challengers for the top. “We desperately want to win this week and we’ll put everything into it,” Cummins said. “We’re definitely not thinking about tours ahead or Test matches that have come up. It’s all about this week. It’s a massive series and we’ve been talking about it for a long time.”

So have South Africa. Though their Kingsmead crash put a dampener on the mood, they were at their bounce-backable best in Gqeberha and the feeling is that momentum is with them. There’s also the reality that even though both previous matches were decided by huge margins, the cricket these two sides play is perhaps too close to call even by the protagonists themselves. “It was almost like it was inevitable it was going to end up 1-1,” Cummins said. “It feels like the cricket has spoken for itself in these first couple of weeks. Both teams have fired shots.”

Both have taken blows too. The batting line-ups have the same uncertainties and have demonstrated the same strengths: who will open, who bats No.5, they both have had one player go on to get a daddy hundred but is there enough depth. Given that Australia are most likely going to move Matt Renshaw, their most successful batter on the tour, away from the position he has been so successful at here, it may be fair to think South Africa have found more answers than their visitors but there are still questions. Marques Ackerman will partner Aiden Markram at the top, with Tony de Zorzi waiting in the wings, and training with the team this week, to reclaim his spot after an injury layoff. Both David Bedingham and Matthew Breetzke are trying to establish themselves at No.3 and No.5.

Their attacks are similarly matched with a bias towards big quicks and questions over how to fit in the spinner. Again, South Africa seem to have it figured out thanks to the presence of the two allrounders, Marco Jansen and Wiaan Mulder. That allows them to play four seamers and a spinner, whereas Australia cannot fit that many in, though they have the personnel. They won’t risk going a batter short to accommodate all of Mitchell Starc, Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon, though an attack of that make-up would have any line-up on their toes. Beau Webster offers some extra bowling, so there is a base covered. Nonetheless, South Africa may have a slight edge and only that.

Both sides have fabulous fielders with Steven Smith the gold standard at slip and Jansen and Simon Harmer not far behind in the outfield and at gully respectively. Both wicketkeepers, Ryan Rickelton and Alex Carey, are due a meaningful contribution with the bat. Both have thinking captains in Bavuma and Cummins, who are at different stages of building their legacies.

Perhaps the only real difference is the personality of the coaches, who have been only bit-part in the spotlight so far. While Shukri Conrad is larger than life, blunt with his words and sharp with his wit, Andrew McDonald comes across a touch more reticent and tactful in his engagements with the media. We may yet hear more from these two men. For now, the main characters have to run the show and they sound more than ready to.

“There’s a massive desire, especially for the older guys,” Bavuma said. “I think of the last series when we played in Australia, where they bullied us in their backyard, and they played unbelievable cricket. There’s that motivation for us to right those wrongs, and also to look after our home record. I don’t feel I have to motivate anyone to ensure that the result goes our way.”

It’s also a venue where no-one else needs incentivising either. Though still deep in the throes of upgrades for the 2027 World Cup, the venue is ready to welcome as many as can fit in, and the first three days are expected to have full houses. Day four and five fall on Friday and Saturday so if the game goes that deep, the pre-weekend and weekend crowd will be here too. They haven’t seen a series this beautifully poised since the 2021-22 summer, when India were locked 1-1 going into the final match at Newlands. For what it’s worth, South Africa won that game.

It was big then. It feels bigger now.

Firdose Moonda is Cricinfo’s senior correspondent for Africa and women’s cricket

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