SA vs AUS, 1st Test — Day 4 Stumps: Australia 390 & 314/6d, South Africa 102/4 Chasing 421 as Renshaw and Hazlewood Press the Advantage

Three evenings of bad light had taught Pat Cummins something, and on the fourth morning he acted on it. Australia did not bat to build a lead; they batted to spend one. Resuming on 33 for 0 with a lead of 139, they added 281 in 52.2 overs at better than five an over, declared at tea with Beau Webster and Cummins himself unbeaten, and left South Africa four sessions to make 421 or survive. By stumps, South Africa were 102 for 4 and the arithmetic had become a question of time rather than runs.

The fourth day was a study in two tempos. Australia scored their runs in a hurry because the surface allowed it and the clock demanded it. South Africa, set 421, played the only innings available to them: slow, careful, and already short of batters. Aiden Markram, 45 not out from an evening of 41 overs, is the man standing between Australia and a 1-0 lead.

Nic Maddinson, who made a 33-ball duck in the first innings, treated the second as a different game. He and Travis Head took the opening stand to 43 before Marco Jansen had Head caught by Temba Bavuma for 11, and then Maddinson simply kept going: 48 off 38 balls with six fours and two sixes before Anrich Nortje bowled him at 72 in the 11th over. Australia's fifty came in 7.5 overs and their hundred in 16.5.

Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne added 53 off 77, Labuschagne surviving a South African review in the 22nd over, and Australia took drinks at 111 for 2. Smith was caught by Jansen off Simon Harmer for 27, and Labuschagne, on 37 for the second time in the match, was caught by Bavuma off Keshav Maharaj at 157. None of it mattered to the scoring rate. Australia went to lunch at 174 for 4 from 36 overs, Matt Renshaw on 32 and Alex Carey on 5, having scored 141 in the session.

Carey and Renshaw added 48 off 84 before Nortje bowled Carey for 24 at 205. Renshaw reached his fifty off 75 balls, and at 47.1 overs was given out and reprieved when Australia's review was upheld. At drinks, 220 for 5 with Renshaw on 54 and Webster on 5, the lead was 326 and the declaration was a matter of when.

The last eight overs answered that. Webster and Renshaw put on 65 off 71 balls, and Renshaw had moved to 82 off 99, with seven fours and two sixes, when Maharaj caught him off his own bowling at 270. Then came Cummins: 32 not out from 12 balls, four of them sixes, in a 44-run stand with Webster that lasted 19 deliveries. Webster finished 39 not out from 43. Australia declared at the tea interval on 314 for 6 from 58 overs, a run rate of 5.41, and Harmer's 25 overs had cost 121. The lead was 420.

Ryan Rickelton's match continued to disappoint: 2 off 12 balls, caught behind off Josh Hazlewood with the score on 7. Markram and David Bedingham then built the stand that gave South Africa hope, 66 off 118 balls, Bedingham again the aggressor with eight fours in his 46 off 68. At drinks they were 41 for 1, and the fifty came in the 17th over.

Hazlewood broke it, Bedingham lbw at 73 in the 23rd over, and South Africa then lost three wickets for 13 runs in under ten overs. Bavuma, who made 3 in the first innings, was caught by Maddinson off Renshaw's part-time off-spin for 1 from 18 balls. Tristan Stubbs was caught behind off Cummins for 1 from 12. At 86 for 4, Wiaan Mulder joined Markram, and the pair saw out the last eight-odd overs to stumps at 102 for 4. Markram's 45 not out is the innings South Africa must build around.

The temptation after three days of lost light was to grind: bat into the final morning, set 500, and dare South Africa to survive four sessions. Cummins chose the harder, smarter version. By scoring at five an over his side lost nothing in target, 421 is a very long way beyond anything South Africa could realistically chase, and gained a whole evening session of bowling under a sky that had closed early every day. Four wickets in that session is the dividend.

Renshaw's 82 was the second innings of the match that mattered most after his own 190, and it had a different shape: busier, more inventive, scoring at better than 80 per hundred balls. He has 272 runs in the Test and, as of this evening, a wicket. Maddinson's 48 off 38 deserves its own line, not because of its size but because it set a tempo that every batter after him kept.

South Africa were never going to chase 421. The honest target was the close of play on Day 5, and losing four wickets in 41 overs makes that a long road. Rickelton has 0 and 2 in the match, Bavuma 3 and 1, Stubbs 32 and 1. Three of the top six have given the innings nothing, and the first-innings pattern of starts without conversion has repeated: Bedingham has 49 and 46 and no fifty.

Markram is the exception. His 45 not out has come without hurry, and if there is a draw in this match it goes through him and through Mulder, who batted 50 balls for 30 in the first innings and has 5 from the tail end of this one. Behind them are Kyle Verreynne, Jansen and the two spinners who added 87 for the last two wickets on Day 3.

Australia need six wickets in a day; South Africa need to bat 90 overs or thereabouts, and the light that has shortened every day so far is now their friend rather than Australia's. Hazlewood has the two top-order wickets so far, Nathan Lyon has a fifth-day pitch to work with, and Cummins has already shown he will use anyone, Renshaw included, to find a wicket. The first hour will tell us whether Markram and Mulder can make this a contest. The second Test follows in Gqeberha from October 18.