Starc Strikes Twice as South Africa Close Day Three on 140-4, Just 40 Ahead in Cape Town Decider

Starc Strikes Twice as South Africa Close Day Three on 140-4, Just 40 Ahead in Cape Town Decider

Mitchell Starc's golden Cape Town Test continued on day three as the pace great struck twice to leave South Africa on 140 for four at stumps, holding a lead of just 40 runs in the series-deciding third Test at Newlands. Australia had earlier been bowled out for 429 in reply to South Africa's 329, with Josh Inglis's second Test century headlining the innings, before Starc went to work with the new ball.

Starc removed opener Aiden Markram for two, driving straight to Travis Head at mid-off, and David Bedingham top-edged a Josh Hazlewood short ball for 11. Marques Ackerman and captain Temba Bavuma then steadied the hosts with a 64-run partnership, but Starc broke it in the last session with a brute of a bouncer that followed Ackerman as he tried to uppercut on 62, the ball hitting bat and helmet on its way through to the slips. Nathan Lyon then bowled Bavuma for 35 just five minutes before stumps, when the Proteas captain tried to hit hard across the line against prodigious turn.

The match remains delicately poised, with a fourth-innings chase looming as tricky on a wicket offering plenty of turn. Starc finished with two for 29 to go with his six wickets on day one. The stakes could hardly be higher: the three-match series is level at 1-1, the winner will hold the world's No. 1 Test ranking, and South Africa have not lost a home Test series for almost six years.

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