Cummins and his men are flying. Here’s why South Africa could do the unthinkable

Gqeberha: What’s the best and most-consequential batting ever seen in a Test match against Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc?

Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli in Australia are contenders, as is Ben Stokes at Lord’s in 2023. But it is arguable that no team has ever combined better against Australia’s “big three” than Dean Elgar, Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers at St George’s Park in 2018.

As Hazlewood alluded to this week, that game had plenty of reverse swing. But in a partnership that still sits vividly in this writer’s memory, Elgar and Amla somehow absorbed 46 overs together, during which the ball seemingly bent around corners for extended periods.

Only 88 runs were scored in that time, and eventually they succumbed to Starc and Hazlewood. But by weathering the reverse movement when the ball was still relatively new, they gave de Villiers a chance to unfurl one of his most spectacular centuries, against a projectile that was somewhat less threatening, and against bowlers not quite as sharp.

“It was important for us to absorb a little bit,” Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis said at the time.

“Australia are going to have times when they put you under pressure, and we absorbed brilliantly with Dean and Hashim, making sure the bowlers stay out there and bowl third and fourth spells. It set it up for an AB masterclass, which is the perfect situation for him to come in and transfer that pressure.”

From that point, South Africa held the upper hand in the 2018 series, and it was from a place of growing desperation that Australia’s tour collapsed into infamy. It’s worth noting that the current side, much older, wiser and better adjusted, would now see that for what it was – a sublime bit of team batsmanship, rather than cause for a touring team to panic.

Even so, the 2026 Proteas are casting around for similar inspiration in the city now known as Gqeberha. Amla, Elgar and de Villiers are all long-retired, and the closest thing they have to a batting star, Aiden Markram, only rejoined the team late on Friday night due to personal reasons.

David Bedingham, who fought gamely at No.3 at Kingsmead, gave an idea of the challenge the hosts feel they are facing.

“I was actually speaking to my friends about it, and in first-class cricket, you face a decent bowler and then there’s maybe another decent one, and then maybe you can cash in later with the third or fourth one,” Bedingham said candidly.

“But here, you get through six balls of Cummins, and then you look and it’s Starc. And then you get through their spell and it’s Hazlewood and Lyon,” Bedingham said.

“It’s tough, but we’ve faced them before, so hopefully we can just do it for longer periods of time.”

Similar things used to be said about the West Indian attacks of the 1980s and 1990s, when quality and pace lurked in every bowling change.

Australia’s squad looks united and jovial, aided by two rounds of golf at a pair of the numerous links courses dotted around the Eastern Cape region.