South Africa have known many a false dawn in the pursuit of the sunlit uplands of cricketing triumph but finally the time may be nigh to bask in their glory. Improbably, impossibly, a Test title is within reach for Temba Bavuma’s men, defying the doubters, the odds and Australia to inch towards a glorious tale of redemption and renaissance.
Oh, Test cricket, you beautiful, beguiling thing. The conventional wisdom was of a third day that hastened towards an inevitable finish with Australia’s place on their perch still secure. South Africa, the critics said, shouldn’t even have been here; their route too soft, the road too straightforward. Come the crunch, Australia would put them back in their box, one of the big boys battering back the upstarts to remind them of their place in the pecking order.
