Key events
WICKET! Maddinson b Jansen 0 (Australia 24-2)
Maddinson has been so patient as he settles into his first Test innings in a decade. But he finally goes searching for a run to get off the mark as he cuts with an angled bat and plays on to his stumps. In the end, he faced 33 deliveries without scoring.
10th over: Australia 23-1 (Maddinson 0, Labuschagne 5) Mulder is back on the legside even with a right-hander now at the crease. Labuschagne whips the ball off his pads for a boundary through mid-wicket. Mulder has the ball singing. But Labuschagne looks comfortable with the tune coming at a touch either side of 130kmh.
9th over: Australia 19-1 (Maddinson 0, Labuschagne 1) Jansen gets the ball to swing off middle and towards Labuschagne’s leg-stump before his front pad gets in the way. The umpire is quick to wave away the appeal but the South Africans convene and call for another review. Replays show the ball was doing far too much and missing leg-stump. South Africa don’t appear to be overly confident with their review discussions. Labuschagne picks up a leg-bye for Maddinson to face the final ball of the over – the opener leaves it and is still to get off the mark after facing 30 deliveries.
8th over: Australia 18-1 (Maddinson 0, Labuschagne 1) Mulder pitches outside leg to Head and the left-hander clips the ball off his pads to the deep mid-wicket rope. The ball was momentarily in the air, which excited the South Africans, but it was well wide of the fielder at mid-wicket. Mulder drifts down leg again, Head leans forward and swings away wildly, and Verreynne ensures the decision is sent for a review. Mulder picks up the big wicket of Head then targets Labuschagne’s heels to let Australia’s under-fire No 3 off the mark all too easily.
WICKET! Head c Verreynne b Mulder 9 (Australia 17-1)
Mulder drifts down leg again and Head swings away. There is little movement to the eye but keeper Verreynne is confident there is more than just a sound. South Africa are perhaps scarred by missing a wicket on review earlier, and this time the replay shows there was a slight edge on the way through.
7th over: Australia 13-0 (Maddinson 0, Head 5) Jansen tries to tempt Maddinson into a loose shot outside off. But the Australian opener is content to leave anything he isn’t forced to play. Just a no-ball for overstepping in the over.
6th over: Australia 12-0 (Maddinson 0, Head 5) Head remains untroubled and is happy to bide his time as Mulder barely breaches 130kmh. The South African seamer finds some inswing that allows Head to pick up a leg bye before Maddinson ends the over in much the same way to gully.
5th over: Australia 10-0 (Maddinson 0, Head 5) Head is immediately off strike with another leg bye off the thigh pad. Jansen is still to tidy up his line to the pair of left-handers. But that brings Maddinson back on strike and the returning opener is looking increasingly unsettled. He has replaced Jake Weatherald at the top of the order, other than for Matt Renshaw’s single Test innings cameo in the position against Bangladesh, and seems to be suffering from much the same issue by falling toward the off-side as he plays each shot.
4th over: Australia 9-0 (Maddinson 0, Head 5) Maddinson survives a huge shout as Mulder gets the ball to swing away from middle stump and towards the leg-side. The ball crashes into the returning opener’s front pad and South Africa briefly think about sending the decision for a review. There was two sounds.But that was the bat hitting the other pad. And replays show the ball pitched in line with leg stump and would have taken off the bails. The Australian opener gets a second chance.
3rd over: Australia 8-0 (Maddinson 0, Head 4) Maddinson misses an opportunity to get off the mark as Jansen again drifts down the leg-side but the opener fails to connect with a glance. Jansen works away outside the fifth stump before getting one to nip back in with some nice bounce and striking Maddinson in the midriff. Maddinson is comfortable leaving anything back of a length and well outside off.
2nd over: Australia 8-0 (Maddinson 0, Head 4) Mulder is thrown the new ball ahead of the returning Nortje and comes over the wicket. Head picks up an easy boundary as the ball shapes down the leg-side and the opener guides it down to the fine leg boundary. Mulder finds a straighter line but there is also a noticeable lack of swing for the right-arm seamer.
1st over: Australia 4-0 (Maddinson 0, Head 0) Jansen is only slightly off target with the first ball of the game as he drifts on to Maddinson’s thigh pad and concedes four leg byes. Verreynne dives hard to his right but is unable to reach the ball. The towering all-rounder finds his range just back of a length and movement away from the left-handed batter but is unable to lure Maddinson into a loose stroke.
Nic Maddinson is at the crease with new opening partner Travis Head at the non-striker’s end. Marco Jansen has the ball in hand and the first Test between South Africa and Australia is under way in Durban …
South Africa and Australia are lined up for the national anthems with first ball just a few minutes away.
The sun is belting down in Durban at the moment with the forecast for a high of 27C. But a hint of cloud is expected to drift across Kingsmead Stadium during the afternoon. Rain was forecast for day two but the latest forecast suggests that has cleared up.
Nic Maddinson will open for Australia alongside Travis Head. The senior partner of that duo had some choice words for the former greats who have criticised the current side for a lack of runs in recent times.
I think it’s unfairly judged a fair bit from a group of past players, pretty much, that put the bullet through a lot of players. But that’s what they’re paid to do. Some of them need a job, so they go after us and that’s totally fine. This group is strong enough to deal with those sort of things. That’s how it is.
It’s unfortunate sometimes to have some of that feedback from a generation of players that we have huge respect for, but that’s the caper.
South Africa XI
South Africa: Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, David Bedingham, Temba Bavuma (capt), Tristan Stubbs, Wiann Mulder, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje.
Bavuma confirmed the XI yesterday and that South Africa will turn to the spin of Maharaj and Harmer. Left-arm quick Jansen and the returning Nortje will be supported by seamer Wiaan Mulder. The South Africa skipper expects there to be plenty for the spinners later in the Test and Maharaj has a strong record at Kingsmead Stadium with 21 wickets at 22.66 in four matches at the venue.
Kagiso Rabada is sidelined for the Proteas by a hamstring injury which has opened the door for Nortje to be picked for his first Test – and first first-class game – in 1,317 days. He last played a red-ball game when lining up for South Africa against West Indies at Centurion in February 2023 and taking a five-for in the first innings. Lungi Ngidi is the only other South African missing from the XI that defeated Australia in the World Test Championship final last year.
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma admits he would have elected to bat if he won the toss and he confirms two spinners are in the XI.
It looks a nice wicket. Weather’s good as well, but with that being said, we’ll have to do the job with the ball. Try to exploit whatever moisture that is there in the wicket.
I think obviously with our bowling attack, our twin spinners, they’ve added a bit of extra dimension into our bowling attack. So if the conditions suit them, which we hope it would, looking at the wicket, they can come into the game. And saying that we do have the strength there in the fast bowlers.
Australia XI
Australia: Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Matt Renshaw, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (capt), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.
Maddinson completes what just days ago seemed like one of the more unlikely Test comebacks after overcoming testicular cancer diagnosed not long after the 2024-25 season. The 34-year-old returns after playing all three of his previous Tests in 2016 which included a debut against South Africa at Adelaide Oval.
He will partner Head at the top of the order while Renshaw drops to five in his second Test since rebuilding his career at Sheffield Shield level and working his way through Australia’s white-ball set ups. Labuschagne holds his spot after hitting a century in a warm-up game in Potchefstroom, and with Cameron Green sidelined by an abdominal strain picked up during the ODI series earlier in the tour. Webster takes Green’s place and will bat in the middle order while offering a blend of medium pace and off-spin.
Australia win the toss and elect to bat
Pat Cummins calls correctly and the team news includes the recall of Nic Maddinson a decade after the last of his three Tests.
Nice looking surface. A little bit of grass there. I suspect like most day one wickets there is going to be a little bit in it. But it looks like a good day. Sun’s out.
It’s always great coming up against South Africa, whatever the format. They got the better of us a year ago in the World Test Championship. We haven’t been here in South Africa for a while, but pretty excited.
[Maddinson] has really settled in with where his game’s at. He’s shown good form, feels like he’s well placed.
Australia’s bowling attack of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon is expected to be the same as lined up for the tourists in 2018. The batting, on the other hand, is much harder to nail down – but that hasn’t stopped Geoff Lemon from weighing up the case for and against the main contenders for the final spot or two.
Matt Renshaw has done good things against the white ball, but his preparation to be the country’s new opener in Durban has consisted of one innings against Bangladesh in Mackay. Marnus Labuschagne reassured with a warm-up century, but that game was so relaxed that he might have played in flip-flops. Cameron Green was an issue until two Test innings ago, then having finally produced a performance of note, got injured. That means Beau Webster will be bowling cover, with one of Cooper Connolly or Nic Maddinson to get Green’s job with the bat.
A choice between those two options is truly bizarre.
South Africa’s role in the ignominious 2018 series has largely been pushed into the background even as it should have been a celebrated first Test series victory on home soil against Australia since their readmission to international cricket. Daniel Gallan wonders what the scandal and fallout for Australia meant for the secondary protagonist.
For South African cricketers, administrators and supporters, the most surprising aspect of the Sandpaper scandal was not that it happened. After all, the ball had been suspiciously reverse-swinging during the first two Tests of that ill-fated series in 2018. The atmosphere had turned febrile after a stairwell bust-up between Quinton de Kock and David Warner in Durban and after supporters directed misogynistic abuse at Warner and his family in Gqeberha. Nathan Lyon had promised before the tour to “head-butt the line” of what was acceptable. Darren Lehmann, then Australia’s coach, came from an old school where bullying was sugar-coated with the phrase “mental disintegration”.
No, what surprised South Africans most was the scale of the fallout, and how one tiny piece of sandpaper could cause so much national angst.
Australia’s return to South Africa for a first Test series since 2018 is unlikely to put the ball-tampering scandal to bed. Especially while serious doubts remain over whether the full version of the events in Cape Town has ever been revealed. Geoff Lemon will be covering every day of this series for us. He is as well placed as anyone to look back at what happened at Newlands eight years ago – and what could come out in the future.
The slew of retrospectives has understandably given rise to sandpaper fatigue, audiences tired of hearing about an old story before a new series, while others do historical revisions. Various pundits have suggested that the bans for the players involved were an overreaction, a position that has merit given the prevalence of ball-tampering in the sport, but ignores the press conference in which Smith and Bancroft foolishly lied to cover theirs up. Other observers have argued that whatever the details, the story is so old as to be dead. “What’s left to come out after eight years?” asked Starc this week.
The answer is everything, because nothing ever really has.
Preamble
Martin Pegan
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the first day of the first Test between South Africa and Australia in Durban. This is a heavyweight clash between the top two teams in the current World Test Championship standings, and the two teams that met in the final of the last cycle little more than 15 months ago. The Proteas defeated the defending champions Australia in that WTC decider at Lord’s last year to claim a rare piece of silverware rid themselves of a choker’s tag. But the buildup to this series has inevitably looked much further back.
More than eight years have passed since Cameron Bancroft reached into his pocket at Newlands, pulled out a piece of sandpaper and exposed the fractures in Australian cricket that had been papered over across decades. That moment and the cover-up that followed led to the young opener and his more experienced batting partner David Warner, along with captain Steve Smith, being banned from playing cricket for as much as 12 months, while the culture reckoning that swept over the national team lasted much longer.
As Australia returns to South Africa for a first Test since the Proteas won that infamous series 3-1, the tourists’ culture has been transformed under captain Pat Cummins. Smith, Cummins and the other pillars of the bowling attack in Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon are back as Australia seek to finally lay the ghosts of 2018 to rest. For South Africa, skipper Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram and Keshav Maharaj return after also playing in the Cape Town clash eight years ago.
There is more on the line in the present day than just reopening – and perhaps healing – old wounds with Australia a couple of steps down the path of a 20-Test journey that will also take in a home series against New Zealand and tours of India and England. A return to a third consecutive WTC final would be a sure sign that stretch has been filled with success as well as going a long way to cementing the legacy of this renewed version of Australia under Cummins’ leadership.
South Africa have built on their triumph in the last WTC cycle with a 2-0 series victory in Zimbabwe, a 1-1 draw in Pakistan and then a historic two-Test series sweep in India last year. But this is the Proteas’ first red-ball international in more than 10 months and their first Test on home soil since January 2025. The two teams started sounding each other out with three ODIs last month. But this long awaited and highly anticipated Test series is undeniably the main event.
Toss and confirmed teams will be coming up shortly – with the first ball to be bowled at 9:30am in Durban / 6:30pm AEDT. In the meantime, get in touch with your thoughts and predictions by email or find me @martinpegan on Bluesky.
