Series set for epic finale as Aussie batters must stand up

Although doubts have been expressed in the last few days that the Cape Town speed gun is operating with flawless accuracy, late on day four of the third Test there appeared to be some validity to its claim that Mitchell Starc had breached the 150km/h barrier. 

Soon after, one couldn't help thinking of that speedometer figure — illegal in a car, faintly alarming in a sporting arena — and wince. One of Starc's typically brutish bouncers had spat up off the Newlands pitch and was rearing towards a Proteas batsman.

In the split second it took him to realise his gloves would soon be in the ball's path, and having prized his wicket all day, Ryan Rickelton got his hands out of the way on the understanding the ball would cannon into his ribs with that horrifying thud only a rare breed of cricketer accepts as his duty. And boy did it thud.

There was a time not long ago when the done thing in such situations was to grit one's teeth and pretend it hadn't happened. Think David Boon's thousand-yard stare, or Justin Langer grinning sans tooth. Not Rickelton.

He was on 92 by that point, hours into a game-turning innings, and knew that if a nasty bruise was blossoming, there was no point in pretending it wasn't so. Up came his shirt and sure enough, the mark was already ranking high on the Brian Close scale.

Rickelton showed it off to Travis Head at short leg, either for confirmation or possibly approval of its nastiness. Head seemed to offer both.

It is one of those unspoken paradoxes of Test cricket: the more two teams respect each other, the more they try to hurt each other, and vice versa. As they had the previous evening, and for the telling first two-thirds of the fourth day, Australia's bowlers had been throwing everything at Rickelton and none of it was working.

In the end, it took a run-out to remove him — moments after he brought up a century that slowly but surely ruined Australia's hopes of a quick kill. Rickelton already has a Test double century to his name.

He is a world champion. But here was the sort of high-stakes, backs-to-the-wall performance that can define a career.

As a result, from 4-140 at the start of the day, South Africa piled on 387 to convincingly rebut suggestions they'd roll over. For the third time in the series, a Test between these two proud cricket nations will go down to the fifth day.

The pressure is now all on Australia, who will need to chase down 288 runs to win and retain the status of world number one, with Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Simon Harmer licking their lips at the prospect of series-winning wickets.

That Australia's task is so onerous is mostly a result of Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder's 154-run partnership for the sixth wicket, which stretched across 53 overs after Matthew Breetzke's dismissal for a spiky, counterpunching 43 in the morning.

Mulder was no second fiddle. After Rickelton departed for a brave and controlled 101 from 219 deliveries, Mulder carried on with a faltering tail, scattering fielders and clubbing sixes to reach a superb 115 of his own.

The above numbers should not give the impression the Australian attack misfired, per se, nor that Australia lacked intent. Until the last minute of the day, they fielded with great gusto to create pressure and affect run-outs to make up for the lack of help from the pitch.

All day, Nathan Lyon bowled with guile and control, jagging the ball at right angles.

It was just that for almost as long, Rickelton and Mulder defied him with the disciplined application of a solid plan: put your ego to one side, get back and across, don't hit against the spin, concede Lyon's end in the knowledge that the quicks at the other end would not get as much help from the surface.

Of the latter, Starc, in particular, gave everything of himself and more, and as late as the final half-hour of play was literally bowling himself off his feet to try and take South Africa's final wicket.

His nine dismissals for the game on a pitch that has offered him little represented a superhuman endeavour.

Where Australia can be faulted, perhaps, is for squandering the second new ball. South Africa was 5-222 when it arrived and there was no repeat of Starc's first-innings clean-up job.

In a day of thankless toil, skipper Pat Cummins broke his wicket drought but otherwise rarely threatened, only claiming his second when Mulder holed out in the final over of the day.

Again, there were industrial quantities of interpersonal drama, although nothing that crossed the line. Hyped up and a little uncoordinated between the wickets, Breetzke tangled with Lyon and spoiled for battles with every other bowler, including a prolonged one-way conversation with Starc.

After taking the bails to run out Rickelton, Marnus Labuschagne sprinted down the pitch like a terrier in the Crufts dog show to let Mulder know it was his fault.

Of course, Labuschagne and others will need their bats to do the talking on the final day, and there is a sense that Rabada will not miss out twice in one game, even without his muse Steve Smith around to get his blood boiling.

A week ago, one might have asked: who will be Australia's Rickelton and Mulder? But all of a sudden, there are a few more convincing answers.

So, a gripping Test series — worthy in every way of its billing as a de facto world title — will now get its fitting conclusion.