South Africa vs Australia live: Third Test, Day Four live scores, blog

Australia brought themselves close to another series in South Africa after bowling the hosts out in their first innings in Cape Town and will look to pile on the agony on the penultimate day of this final Test. Follow the action live from 7.00 pm AEDT.

It’s not too difficult to see the difference between these two teams – their bowling attacks.

Before the start of the series, the two bowling line-ups were deemed to be on an even keel, with off-spinner Nathan Lyon expected to give Australia the edge.

Almost three Test matches on, the South African spinners have out-bowled Lyon and yet the Proteas’ bowling unit is a distant second in the series.

Apart from that Dale Steyn spell in the second innings in Port Elizabeth, the South African bowlers have struggled to find their mojo in this series and struggled to make inroads.

Steyn’s injury on the first day only added to their problems.

Going into the fourth day, however, South Africa will have far greater worries than their bowling.

One way or the other, they can expect to chase a score of anywhere upward of 400 and, more vitally, they will be left with copious amounts of overs to keep out the Aussie bowling.

At stumps on the third day, Australia had garnered a 207-run lead in the first innings, decided not to enforce the follow-on and chipped in a further 27 runs to that score.

Where that has left South Africa is not the place most teams want to be in a deciding Test match.

With a clear forecast over the next two days, South Africa will do well to not repeat the mistakes of the third day of the game.

While aggressive batting isn’t too bad an option, there needs to be a method in madness. Hanging out the bat against the swinging deliveries outside the off stump isn’t the best way forward.

Interestingly, while the South African bowlers failed to extract reverse swing in the first innings, the likes of Ryan Harris, James Pattinson and even Shane Watson were successful in that very endeavour.

There’s a good chance then, that the Australian bowlers will repeat that showing going into the fourth and the fifth days of the game, and how the South African top-order bats will be a huge deciding factor.

Australia’s task with the bat is simple.

Bat around 45-50 overs and score around 225 runs, setting the opposition a target of 430 or so. In turn, they can get themselves about 130 overs to try and bowl South Africa and win the series.

So what escape routes do South Africa have?

One, they can hope Daley Steyn gets fit tomorrow and triggers what he did in Port Elizabeth, sending Australia crashing for anywhere between 125 and 150.

A target of 350 is much more achievable, and could push into the making the game more exciting for the neutral – although on current batting form on a deteriorating pitch, it may not be the easiest chase. Still, it affords the South Africans a chance.

The other option South Africa have is to try and dry up the runs. So while the wickets may not come at the start, by pushing the run-rate back, they can force Australia into batting longer into the day and in turn have much less time to bat in the final innings.

Still, the way they capitulated on the third day in less than 83 overs, they will need the Faf du Plessis circa Adelaide November 2012 many times over to help them save the game against bowling of this pedigree.

Join me for this fourth day of the third Test. Follow the live score of this game from 7.30 pm AEDT and post your comments below.