Australia enter history books with Test victory over South Africa inside two days

The last time Pat Cummins played South Africa, he toiled for 46.5 overs out of Australia’s 241.5, prising out nine wickets in the match while being set 612 runs to win and beaten by almost as many. It was Johannesburg in 2018, and punishment for the sandpaper debacle was first levied on the field. “We don’t always have to finish a Test in four days,” smiled South Africa’s future captain Dean Elgar.

In their next meeting in Brisbane this week, Cummins bowled a breezy 25 overs across two innings, picking up seven wickets on his way to starting this three-match series by captaining a win.

Cummins and his bowling colleagues had brought about something extraordinary: a Test match run and won in the first two playing days. Only once before in the game’s 145 years has this happened in Australia, when Don Bradman and Bert Ironmonger towelled up the West Indies at the MCG in 1931. Of the 2482 Test matches played across the world, 23 have been two-dayers. Nine of those were in the 1800s, five of the six in the last 20 years have had Zimbabwe or Afghanistan on the receiving end.

Yet here we were, with South Africa at the Gabba bowled out for 99 in their second innings, setting only 34 to win in the afternoon after wrapping up Australia’s first innings for 218 in the morning. The way Australia staggered there, four wickets down, even another 50 runs would have made the result interesting.

Naturally this will invite questioning of the pitch, emerald green and full of juice. There was plenty for the bowlers, with lavish seam movement and rapid bounce. But the idea that it was unplayable should be refuted by Travis Head’s 92 from 96 balls when Australia batted, not to mention the countering from Khaya Zondo in the third innings or