Day four of the third Test between South Africa and Australia has reached that peculiar stage where both teams are simultaneously winning and losing, all four results remain theoretically possible, and everyone is just trying to figure out where on earth they are in this game. South Africa reached 342-6 at the 122nd over, with Mulder on 75 and Jansen yet to score, as Lyon returned to the attack and promptly had a ball to Jansen turn and take pad, possibly bat, before flying past short leg. No dice, as they say.

As reader Will Ellen astutely observed, the role of time is very much coming into consideration here, a bit like Gary Cooper's High Noon. Both teams want to win. Both teams still can. South Africa would love six or seven overs at the Aussies before the end, but declaring or Bazballing themselves out seems unlikely, especially with Travis Head lurking as the joker in the pack that scares any team from dangling too tasty a carrot. It's beautifully poised, in the way that a tightrope walk over a shark tank is beautifully poised.

The day's central drama was Ryan Rickelton's outstanding hundred, brought up with a flick through square leg off Hazlewood that elicited a huge roar from the home crowd. It was a proper Test innings, played under extreme pressure: 218 balls, 12 fours, no sixes. We don't need sixes. Earlier, Mulder had pulled Hazlewood majestically for four, prompting the observation that for a man who almost broke Brian Lara's record, this might be his best Test innings. He then lapped and swept consecutive deliveries for four to lift South Africa's lead to 227. At the start of play they were effectively 40 for 4.

The afternoon session was wicketless for Australia, who tried eight bowling options in an attempt to break the sixth-wicket partnership that added 113 runs. Rickelton and Mulder batted with such composure that South Africa arguably became favourites to win the match. Mulder reached a fine half-century from 138 balls, driving Travis Head for four, and later passed his highest score since his 367 not out against Zimbabwe last year, the fifth-highest of his 27-Test career. In context, it was an invaluable innings: South Africa were in all sorts, effectively 81 for 5, when he came to the crease.

Australia's bowlers toiled without reward for much of the day. Nathan Lyon wheeled away for figures of 38-10-77-1, tidy but lacking in the final column. Mitchell Starc produced a beautiful bouncer that whistled past Rickelton's nose, and since the start of 2025 has taken 86 wickets at 18 apiece. How do you take 350+ Test wickets and then become even better in your mid-30s? The question was posed, and readers were quick to suggest Jimmy Anderson as the man to answer it, given his newfound free time.

The day's discussion meandered through the best Test performances despite illness (Dean Jones in the tied Test, Garry Sobers's century against England in 1973 reportedly completed with an epic hangover, Ian Botham in the Jubilee Test, Eddie Paynter coming straight from hospital to win the Ashes on the Bodyline tour) and the merits of Australia's four-man attack. Brian Withington argued it must be the best-balanced and most accomplished four-bowler unit for the ages, with Cummins and Hazlewood ahead of Lee and Gillespie, the X-factor of Starc, and Lyon as a top-drawer finger spinner. The counterpoint: Brett Lee averaged over 30, as does Lyon, and Gillespie at his best from 1997 to 2004 was a monster.

As the players wandered back onto the field after tea, the live reporter apologised for the relative poverty of today's coverage, being sick as a dog (weirdly, in the year 2026, possibly Covid for the first time) but soldiering on like an ersatz Gary Cooper. Readers sent sympathy and suggestions, including starting smoking or getting pregnant, both bizarrely protected populations. The match itself, meanwhile, continued to be an absolutely wonderful advertisement for Test cricket, the purest form of sport in the whole wide world. Imagine if this was a five-Test series.