10/13/2026 08:07:00
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10/13 08:05 CDT Hazlewood cleans up South Africa as Australia wins Durban
cricket test by 214 runs
Hazlewood cleans up South Africa as Australia wins Durban cricket test by 214
runs
DURBAN, South Africa (AP) --- Josh Hazlewood's career-best 6-49 finished off
world champion South Africa and helped Australia win the first cricket test by
214 runs at Kingsmead on the final day Tuesday.
Hazlewood took four of the six wickets Australia was hunting for on day five.
A target of 421 was always improbable for the Proteas and, from 102-4
overnight, they were cleaned up for 206 less than an hour after lunch and
within five overs of Australia taking the second new ball.
Australia earned a fourth successive win at Kingsmead and gave South Africa,
playing its first test in 11 months, a first loss in five home tests.
Middle-order batter Matt Renshaw was easily the standout player. Australia was
in strife at 124-6 on day one but his 190 turned the momentum. He added 82 in
the declared second innings and netted the first two wickets of a test career
that began 10 years ago and needed a comeback three years ago.
"I'm pretty tired," Renshaw said. "Been a while since I played a five-day test.
Wanted to stay out as long as I could on day one. Got lucky in the second
innings, got edges away. I never expected to bowl or pick up wickets but I am
happy to do whatever the team needs."
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said they needed someone to bat like Renshaw,
and hopes his side can rally in the second of three tests starting on Sunday in
Gqeberha.
"We don't want to give (Australia) the opportunity to get back," Bavuma said.
"We'll need to have conversations. Guys have to go big in the first innings for
us, like Renshaw did for them."
Opening batter Aiden Markram led South Africa's fourth-innings resistance for
nearly six hours with a 237-ball knock for 75 before he was ninth man out.
Markram was caught behind off an inside edge to Mitchell Starc. He was
initially given not out but Australia reviewed.
Hazlewood broke the defiant stand between Markram and Wiaan Mulder that started
late Monday and endured for nearly two more hours on Tuesday.
Mulder was strangled down the leg side and wicketkeeper Alex Carey snatched a
low, one-handed catch. The end of Mulder's 110-ball innings for 29, after
resuming on 5, brought in Kyle Verreynne, who was dismissed on 1 three balls
later.
Renshaw also began a second bowling stint and Verreynne tried to cut him but
gave Steve Smith a slips catch and Renshaw his second wicket of the innings,
and of his career.
Smith did not take the field on Monday evening after he was hit on the helmet
while batting and underwent a concussion test. He came out to field on day five
after medical reports cleared him.
Proteas squeezed by Aussie bowlers
Markram and Marco Jansen safely reached lunch after a morning session in which
South Africa scored only 64 runs in 32 overs, banking on survival against an
Australia attack that was squeezing the Proteas on a fifth-day pitch that did
not break up as expected. Australia spinner Nathan Lyon bowled 20 overs without
a wicket but conceded just 32 runs.
South Africa hopes were pinned on Markram, who has a history of thwarting the
Australians in the fourth innings. He defied them for 143 in another lost cause
in Durban in 2018 and scored 136 to overcome Australia in the 2025 World Test
Championship final at Lord's. This was the first test between the teams since
then.
Markram in the morning became only the second batter in the match after Renshaw
to score a half-century and had 69 by lunch.
But he lost partners rapidly after Australia took the new ball in the 82nd over.
Jansen was beaten through the gate by a Hazlewood nip-backer on 35, and Simon
Harmer went in the same over to a riser that brushed his glove and shoulder and
that Carey had to leap high for. That gave Hazlewood his 15th test five-for.
"Hazlewood is known for being consistent but that undersells him as he can
reverse the ball, get the pace up, bowl anywhere," captain Pat Cummins said.
"He's the captain's dream."
Markram went in the next over and the match finished in the over after that
when Hazlewood claimed his sixth wicket of the innings.
Renshaw had 2-30 and Starc and Cummins a wicket each.
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