South Africa v Australia: third men’s cricket Test, day three – live

All but one of Australia’s batters spent a prolonged period at the crease as the tourists wrested back the momentum on day two at Newlands. Catch up on how it all played out, and much about what it means, with Geoff Lemon’s daily recap …

If Cape Town’s first day was a rollercoaster, the second was some more sedate form of transport, though it continued with ups and downs fitting its mountainous backdrop. Twice, South Africa produced double strikes to stall promising Australian positions; twice the Australians rebuilt. Finally, Josh Inglis and Alex Carey pushed Australia in front, 330 for four to South Africa’s all out 329, ready to surge on through day three with those six wickets left in hand.

Hello and welcome to live coverage of day three of the third Test between South Africa and Australia in Cape Town. Hump day in this series decider has a lot to live up to after a rollercoaster ride across the first two days as the Proteas, and then Australia, each had a turn at tightening their grip on the game.

Australia have edged one run ahead of South Africa’s first innings total of 329 and still have six wickets in hand as Josh Inglis (85 not out) grasps his opportunity after a late call-up in place of Steve Smith and Alex Carey (51 not out) returns to form. The tourists are in a strong position as they seek to build a commanding first innings lead. But we only have to look back to barely more than a day’s play ago to when South Africa were 327 for 6 and in sight of stumps to be reminded of how quickly the tables can turn in this three-match contest between two evenly matched teams.

Inglis and Carey will be back at the crease in about 45 minutes with the first ball to be bowled at 10:30am in Cape Town / 7.30pm AEDT / 8.30am GMT. In the meantime, get in touch with your thoughts and predictions by email or find me @martinpegan on Bluesky.