Australia in command after superb bowling display in Durban

Pat Cummins led the way and had three of his bowlers rallying around him to push South Africa on the backfoot on a fast-moving Day 3 as Australia went to stumps with a lead of 139. Nic Maddinson pulled the first ball he faced for a four in the waning light of the final session, ending his 33-ball duck from the first innings. However, the day belonged to his bowling teammates, who bowled out the home team for 284.

From an overnight score of 27/1 in response to Australia's 390, Aiden Markram and David Bedingham made a swift start to the day. The pair played their shots, added more than 50 runs and looked set to see out the dreaded first hour's play. Mitchell Starc, who was hit by Bedingham for three straight fours, got Markram to make a false shot in his next over, which Matt Renshaw got at first slip. In the company of Bedingham, Temba Bavuma made a cautious start at the crease, but he was snuffed out 27 balls in thanks to an excellent catch from Steve Smith at first slip. Bavuma attempted a reverse sweep against Lyon but Smith moved to his right early and completed a fantastic take. Just a couple of overs later, Pat Cummins came back to deny Bedingham a half-century. The extra bounce from a hard length rendered the South African batter powerless, and he dropped the ball to Smith at first slip.

After that, Tristan Stubbs and Wiaan Mulder came back and batted for the remaining 16.2 overs, adding 56 runs. They took on spin by going after Lyon, and Mulder welcomed Travis Head with a six and a four first up. However, Cummins snatched their wings. He took out both the batters in the space of two overs: first Mulder fell in bizarre fashion - he looked to offer judgment to a short ball, but it lobbed off his bat and went to Cooper Connolly at square leg. Cummins then bounced out Tristan Stubbs too, with the ball flying off the top-edge of his bat and Josh Hazlewood covering good ground at deep square leg to take the catch.

As Smith pulled yet another rabbit out of his slip-catching hat, South Africa continued to spiral. Once again he anticipated a reverse sweep, moved across early and took a diving catch to send Kyle Verreynne packing for just 13. Marco Jansen threw his bat around in an attempt to counter-attack but that lasted for just 20 deliveries as he fell an over after Verreynne, hitting a Hazlewood delivery to Head at mid-off. South Africa was down to 197/8 at this point, a significant first-innings deficit.

The ninth-wicket pair of Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer saved some of those blushes by putting up a stubborn 52-run stand as Australia were made to work hard for the last couple of wickets. Even a Cummins short ball was defeated by Harmer, who swiveled pulled it in front of the square for a four. Maharaj batted out 44 balls and added 34 vital runs to South Africa's tally but was then dismissed by Starc, who lured him to drive away from his body and chip it straight to Cummins at mid-off. Even after this, Australia were made to wait as Anrich Nortje stood tall for a final-wicket stand with Harmer. They attempted to eat into the deficit as Harmer carted Beau Webster for a six and two fours in an over. However, Webster went on to take Nortje out to end the innings, giving Australia a lead of 106 runs.

Head and Maddinson got Australia to 33/0 in 5.4 overs, which was largely due to the former's daring play, but bad light ended that.