11th November 2011 saw the two and half-day conclusion of one of the craziest Test matches in history. The match in question was the first Test between South Africa and touring Australia at Cape Town. It started as a normal Test before everything went out of bound on day two. Australia batted first and their captain Michael Clarke led the way with a magnificent hundred. He scored a brilliant 151 in the team total of 284 where the second-highest score was 44 by Shaun Marsh. Australia ended day one on 214/8 and finally were all out for 284 as Dale Steyn picked up four wickets and Morne Morkel and the debutant Vernon Philander picked up three wickets each.
The fun started when the South Africans walked out to bat. The first wicket fell in the seventh over and although Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla took the score to 49, Amla’s dismissal triggered a collapse. Jacques Kallis was out in the same over by Shane Watson. Few overs later Watson scalped Smith and Ashwell Prince on consecutive deliveries. The tail was cleaned up by Ryan Harris as South Africa were bowled out for just 96 within 25 overs. Watson finished with 5/17 and Harris had 4/33. Australia gained a first-innings lead of 188 as only two players from South Africa could reach double-figure.
It was still day two and Australian openers came out with a plan to extend the lead further and build on the advantage given by their bowlers. But the drama was just started; Watson was dismissed in the first over for four. Ricky Ponting was next batsman to go for a duck, first of the total four ducks in the innings and in no time Australia were 21/9 wickets and still five runs behind the lowest ever Test total of 26. Philander bowled a wonderful spell keeping ball right in the channel just outside off stump and the Australian batsmen obliged. Thankfully for them, the number nine Peter Siddle and number eleven Nathan Lyon saved their faced and took the team total to 47 by adding 26 runs in the 10th wicket. The number eleven Lyon top-scored for the Australians with 14 as the innings got folded in 18 overs.
The South African openers Smith and Jacques Rudolph came out to bat for the second time on that day. This was the first instance of parts of all four innings taking place on the same day. This time there was no drama. Rudolph was dismissed for 14 but Smith and Amla both scored centuries and the target of 236 was chased easily on the next day with eight wickets to spare and South Africa Tested victory in this extraordinary Test match after being 188 runs behind in the first innings.
Check out the scorecard here: Scorecard
