Sensational Smith, relentless quicks - Australia veterans serve reminder

Australia's modern Test side remain a fascinating one to unpick.

Viewed by many in England as there for the taking in last winter's Ashes despite a 4-1 win, they are also labelled too old by many observers at home.

The victims of recent shock defeats by West Indies and Bangladesh, they are still unbeaten in their past nine Test series.

But while their struggling batting line-up was bailed out by Matt Renshaw across the first two days of the first Test in Durban, they took control over South Africa on day three in an all-too familiar way.

Nine years after they first appeared together as Australia's bowling quartet, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon produced their latest relentless performance to dismiss South Africa for 284. There was even some magic from Steve Smith thrown in too.

Cummins took three wickets, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon two apiece, in doing so brushing off any doubts about their effectiveness at the start of a run of Tests against the world Test champions, in-form New Zealand, India and England.

The result is Australia's fabled foursome now have 607 wickets in Tests in which they have played as a quartet.

The next most successful bowling four-pronged attack is James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, who took 415 wickets in their 31 Tests together for England.

Much has been made of Australia's ageing side and a perceived lack of succession planning.

At 37, Starc is the oldest of the three quicks but his average pace of 141.21km/h in 2026 is higher than any of his past three years. He is also averaging his most swing in a calendar year since 2015.

The concern for Australia comes when they are not fit, with Hazlewood having missed all five of last winter's Ashes Tests and Cummins four.

Australia's issue right now is keeping each of their quartet on the field, because they appear as good as ever.

At 33-0, Australia lead South Africa by 139 runs.

Even with bad light halting play early again, they should have the time to press home an advantage across the Test's final two days.