Rickelton and Mulder centuries set Australia 288 to chase in Cape Town
Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder both scored centuries as South Africa set Australia 288 to win on the final day of the third Test in Cape Town on October 30, 2026. Their partnership turned a lead of 40 into 287 and left the match and the series to be decided on a fifth day.
Australia’s four frontline bowlers began the day with a combined 1,674 wickets and finished it with 1,678, unable to prevent the turnaround that mirrored South Africa’s recovery from 40 for four in the first innings at Gqeberha, where they had bounced back to win. Rickelton, described in the match report as a franchise circuiteer who spends most of his year smiting runs or keeping wicket in 20-over blocks, had struggled earlier in the series—monstered in Durban by Josh Hazlewood, out for none and two while pinch-hitting as an opener, then making 31 in Gqeberha—but here applied different, slower first-class methods; while he strikes at 150 runs per hundred balls across his T20 career, his first-class rate is one third of that speed.
On a pitch that offered little lateral movement but good bounce for the short ball and increasingly marked turn for Nathan Lyon out of the footmarks, Rickelton and Matthew Breetzke absorbed the work of Australia’s freshly rested quicks. The first session added 62 runs, taking the lead to 102, and the lunchtime wicket of Breetzke—pulled to long leg—ended a streak for Pat Cummins of 372 balls without a wicket.
Rickelton then consolidated and was joined by Mulder, the pair taking the partnership to 154 as South Africa’s lead climbed to 235 on a pitch that was wearing. Rickelton’s century arrived after a slow march through the 90s before he was run out for 101 when a change of shot from Mulder produced a full toss hit to Inglis at backward point; Inglis spotted Rickelton running while Mulder remained, and Marnus Labuschagne at the bowler’s end gathered the throw to complete the run out.
A late flurry of dismissals briefly dented the advantage: Marco Jansen holed out on the pull, Starc to Lyon for nought, then Lyon claimed his first wicket of the day when Simon Harmer shouldered arms and the ball turned sharply; Gerald Coetzee ran himself out for the same score, Labuschagne producing a sizzling direct hit from the cordon to the non-striker’s end. That left South Africa nine down and 251 ahead before Mulder and Kagiso Rabada added the runs to extend the cushion.
Mulder took the score from 82 to 115, often farming strike and targeting boundaries, before he was caught down the ground off Pat Cummins in the last over of the day while attempting a fifth six. The sequence of results left a neatly apportioned match that already had one full innings occupy the entire first day set to produce another full innings on the fifth.
A target of 288 is in place for Australia and the final day will determine both the match outcome and the series: at the last, it must tilt one way or the other, and with it the series.