Cast your mind back to Kingsmead. A 214-run hiding, a batting card picked apart by Josh Hazlewood, and a week of hard questions about who had to go. Had you told anyone at a braai that night that this team would end October as the top-ranked Test side in the world, they would have handed you another boerewors roll and changed the subject.
That is the only honest way to read the Proteas Australia series decider. The 176 runs on Saturday tell you who won at Newlands, and our result report has every wicket. They do not tell you how this group got there. Three times in three weeks South Africa found themselves in a hole. Three times they climbed back out. That pattern is the story of the series, and it says more about this team than any single scorecard.
The Proteas Australia series decider began in Durban
Start with the low point. Australia made 390 and 314 for 6 declared at Kingsmead, South Africa managed 284 and 206, and Hazlewood took 6 for 49, a career best at the time. The first Test result left Temba Bavuma’s side 1-0 down with two to play.
The selectors did not tinker at the edges. Matthew Breetzke came in for Tristan Stubbs, and Ryan Rickelton was handed the wicketkeeping gloves. Kagiso Rabada, absent in Durban, was back for Gqeberha. Small changes on paper. Each one mattered by the end.
Then came hole number two. In a rain-hit Test at St George’s Park, South Africa were 110 for 6 in their first innings. Bavuma made 179, the highest score of his Test career, and shared 183 for the eighth wicket with Simon Harmer, a South African record for that wicket. From there it became 425 for 9 declared, Australia 99 all out, the follow-on, and an innings win.
Hole number three was Newlands itself. South Africa opened with a stand of 158, Marques Ackerman making 95 and Aiden Markram 78, and still finished on 329. That is 171 runs for all ten wickets once the opening stand was broken, with Mitchell Starc taking 6 for 72. Australia replied with 429, built around Josh Inglis’s 102 and Alex Carey’s 80, as our day-two report set out. A deficit of 100, in a decider, against the side that had been top of the rankings.
The key moment came on Friday, not Saturday
Saturday’s collapse will fill the highlight packages. Australia were two down after one over and 60 for 7 at lunch. But the decider was not won on Saturday. It was won across the two days before.
At the end of day three South Africa were 140 for 4, a lead of just 40, and the day-three report caught the mood of a Test drifting the wrong way. One more wicket fell on Friday morning, Breetzke at 181 for 5. Then Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder batted Australia out of the game: 154 for the sixth wicket, Rickelton 101, Mulder 115, and a final total of 387.
Think about what that partnership changed. Without it, Australia might have been chasing something closer to 150 on a fifth-day pitch, with their batting order intact and time on their side. With it, they needed 288, the kind of target that asks a side to bat for most of a day. Australia have the batters to do that. On this pitch, against this attack, they did not come close.
The insight: two attacks in one dressing room
Here is the part of the series that should worry the rest of the Test world. South Africa won the last two Tests in completely different ways.
In Gqeberha, the seamers did almost everything. Marco Jansen, Rabada and Mulder took 17 of the 20 Australian wickets between them. Harmer’s main contribution in that match was with the bat.
At Newlands, the spinner did the damage. Harmer took 4 for 104 in the first innings and 6 for 16 in the second, ten wickets in the match. His second-innings figures read 21.1 overs with 14 maidens. That is not a bowler waiting for mistakes. That is a bowler choking the scoring until the mistakes arrive.
Rabada sits across both. He missed Durban, where South Africa lost. He played in Gqeberha and at Newlands, and South Africa won both. On Saturday he took 3 for 39, including Travis Head as his 350th Test wicket, and by the reckoning of SA Cricket Mag and Sky Sports, nobody has reached 350 in fewer balls than his 13,808.
The batting tells a similar story of shared load. Bavuma carried Gqeberha. Ackerman and Markram gave Newlands its start. Rickelton and Mulder won day four. No single batter had to be the hero every time, and that is usually the mark of a side rather than a collection of players.
Our view: the selection calls after Durban deserve more credit than they will get. Giving Rickelton the gloves freed a batting place without weakening the side, and he answered with a Newlands century. The bigger lesson is temperament. A side that has been 1-0 down, 110 for 6 and 100 behind on first innings, and has won from all three, does not panic. That is something you cannot coach in a week.
Why it matters: the history behind the ranking
This group already had one famous day against Australia. South Africa beat them in the 2025 World Test Championship final at Lord’s. That win was a one-off match. This one is a full series, from behind, finished with a fifth-day performance that left no argument.
The reward is the top spot. According to Sky Sports and SA Cricket Mag, the Newlands win moves South Africa past Australia into first place in the Test rankings. For a team that left Durban hearing questions about selection and form, that is a remarkable answer in eighteen days.
It is also a series that belongs to Temba Bavuma as much as anyone. He captained a side that lost heavily in the first Test, held his nerve with the changes, made the innings that turned Gqeberha, and set the fields that squeezed Australia on Saturday.
What happens next
Every Test in this series counted towards the ICC World Test Championship, so the points from Gqeberha and Newlands carry forward into the race for the next final. The table matters, but the bigger test is whether this team can play like this away from home, on pitches that ask different questions of Harmer and Rabada.
For now, Mzansi can enjoy it. A side that was written off after Kingsmead finished the series as the best in the world, and it got there by refusing to stay down.
Frequently asked questions
Who won the South Africa v Australia Test series?
South Africa won the three-match series 2-1. Australia won the first Test at Kingsmead by 214 runs, South Africa won the second in Gqeberha by an innings and 31 runs, and South Africa won the third at Newlands by 176 runs.
How did Simon Harmer bowl at Newlands?
Harmer took 4 for 104 in Australia’s first innings and 6 for 16 in the second, giving him ten wickets in the match. The 6 for 16 came from 21.1 overs, 14 of them maidens, and is the best innings return of his Test career.
Are the Proteas number one in the Test rankings?
Yes. SA Cricket Mag and Sky Sports both say the Proteas have climbed to first in the Test rankings, overtaking Australia, after the Newlands win. The team’s official account celebrated it on Saturday.
When did Kagiso Rabada take his 350th Test wicket?
Rabada took his 350th Test wicket when he had Travis Head caught by Marco Jansen on the final day at Newlands, Saturday 31 October 2026. He got there in 13,808 balls, the fewest of any bowler, according to SA Cricket Mag and Sky Sports.
What was the turning point of the Newlands Test?
The sixth-wicket stand of 154 between Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder on day four. South Africa were only 81 ahead at 181 for 5 when it began, and by the end of the innings Australia needed 288 to win on the last day.