It would be unfair to say that Australia let a winning position slip on the fourth day of the third Test at Cape Town, only because that would undersell how Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder prised it away. Australia’s vaunted four bowlers, owners of 1,674 wickets at day’s beginning, could only raise that to 1,678 by day’s end. In the process, a lead of 40 became 287.
South Africa had been 40 for four in the first innings at Gqeberha and bounced back to win; they were effectively 40 for four in the third innings here, and now have a great chance to do the same. The unlikely basis was Rickelton, a franchise circuiteer who spends most of his year smiting runs or keeping wicket in 20-over blocks. In this series he was monstered in Durban by Josh Hazlewood, out for none and two while pinch-hitting as an opener, then made scant impression down the order with 31 in Gqeberha.
He looked like a modern cricketer become anachronism in this ancient form. Yet, while Rickelton strikes at 150 runs per hundred balls across his T20 career, his first-class rate is one third of that speed. There are strings to his bow that are not dyed royal blue by the global Mumbai Indians conglomerate.
That was the particular set of skills he employed here, disavowing the lead of his top order the day before in assuming that a placid surface was made for rollicking shots. Instead, he and fellow white-ball dasher Matthew Breetzke absorbed everything that Australia’s freshly rested bowlers could hurl at them. On a pitch without lateral movement, there was still good bounce for the short ball, and increasingly marked turn for Nathan Lyon out of the footmarks.
The pair dealt with both, while Rickelton showed a facility to punctuate defence with a single in most overs, keeping the innings at least rolling in first gear. The first session added 62 runs, the lead 102. Still, the lunchtime wicket of Breetzke looked to have turned things Australia’s way, finally impulsive as he pulled to long leg.
That ended a streak for Pat Cummins of 372 balls without a wicket, unprecedented in his career, despite some good spells along the way. But Rickelton was now set like cement, and Mulder joined him in that durability, to lunch and beyond. Lyon kept ripping his off-breaks, with an inside edge from Rickelton into Alex Carey’s shin behind the stumps, and umpteen balls that landed safely after deflecting off body or bat, but reward never came.
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