Australia vs South Africa, Adelaide Test day 4 live cricket updates

The victory was achieved on the second anniversary of Phillip Hughes’s death and both teams wore black armbands as a mark of respect.

There is no doubt that South Africa would have settled for this.

And so it was left to two of Australia’s three debutants, Renshaw and Peter Handscomb (1no) to pick off the remaining singles and seal a deserved victory.

Khawaja’s epic knock was also the first century by an Australian in the South Africa series and he has now scored 314 runs at 62.80 in five innings.

The selection panel, itself rejigged following chairman Rod Marsh’s sudden resignation, made five changes in total. The priority was to avoid a 3-0 series sweep on home soil. Take the last round of the Shield where Renshaw sealed his baggy green with a dogged century before making 50 at close to a run a ball in the second innings when quick runs were required. “The team supported him throughout and just the hundred that he got in this test match shows the person that he is and the character he has”. “I had to just keep myself grounded and not do something stupid”, Renshaw said.

Australia captain Steve Smith said the players drafted in for the third-Test victory over South Africa had energised the team and contributed to a “good start” to the new era of Test cricket in the country. As hindsight is a wonderful thing, these players certainly should be considered for Australia’s next Test against Pakistan next month should their form hold and Maddinson’s hit and miss nature continue. Criticism has died down this week. For the first time in a while, the team played with fervour and a genuine zeal; a departure from the manufactured bravado which has masked the team’s burgeoning insecurity recently.

Smith was unbeaten in his first 11 tests as captain and the Australians were ranked No. 1 in February.

South Africa’s next assignment is the visit of Sri Lanka, with a three-Test series starting on 26 December.

Khawaja’s place in the side is safe for the three-test series against the nation of his birth around the New Year despite his duck and he was named Man of the Match for contributing 145 of Australia’s 383 first innings runs. After that they head off to India for a four-match series, which may well be a bridge too far for this group of players. And Lehmann said it was reasonable for the selectors to go down the path of developing youth. “But the results dictate that as well”.

“This Test match we have bowled a lot better in partnerships. “And then (for) the players to grow out on the ground as well”.

The unflappable left-hander occupied the crease for 466 minutes after he was forced to open the innings after a miscalculation over David Warner’s time off the field for injury treatment when South Africa unexpectedly declared.

A security guard shoved an Australian media member into a glass door in an incident at Adelaide Airport, Cricket South Africa claiming the reporter in question had harassed Du Plessis.

Resuming the fourth day on 194 for six, a lead of just 70, South Africa lost Quinton de Kock in the fifth over of the day as Australia used a review to overturn a not-out lbw decision by Nigel Llong to hand Jackson Bird his only second-innings scalp.