Australia end their African safari

Cricket is blessed with fantastic rivalries. From the Ashes and the - now rare, sadly - India-Pakistan clashes to much in between, there is plenty for an avid fan to get into. And the absorbing Australia-South Africa contests quite easily qualify on that front.

There were seven matches on the Aussies’ tour of South Africa (two T20Is, three ODIs and two Tests) and the winners column reads Aus, SA, Aus, SA, Aus, SA, Aus. A pretty even contest. In fact, Australia marginally come out on top thanks to their win in the third and deciding one-day match. A pity, then, that we were not treated to at least one more Test match between these great rivals.

The T20I matches were pretty close and exciting enough (they were both last-over finishes) and were followed by two one-sided 50-over games before a low-scoring third game gave the fans a closer fight to behold. But it is the Test series that will be remembered from this tour; two matches that displayed all that is beguiling in Test cricket, two matches that produced surprises from both competitors.

While the first Test finished on day three, the second went the full distance, with bad light threatening to call an early halt to the finale. It was a series where the ball shone more than the bat, but still brought delight to the cricketing public.

The two bowlers to have really come out this have been Vernon Philander and Pat Cummins. The latter might have stolen the limelight from Philander given the fact that he is still a teenager and was making his international debut on this tour, but the Protean has really shown himself to be a five-day player, never having played Test cricket before, although he has been given a few games in the limited-overs formats. Not for nothing was he named Man-of-the-Series and he was also the best player by Bowling Efficiency on the Castrol Index, with 14 wickets and an average of 13.92. He took two 5-wicket hauls (one in each Test) and was able to move the ball into or away from the batsmen seemingly at will.

Cummins bowled with real fire and not without a level of maturity that belies his young age. He only played three first-class matches before the second Test (he was not selected for the first) and was the youngest player to receive an Australian Test cap in nearly six decades. He bagged one wicket in SA’s first innings, that of Hashim Amla no less, but then raced through the batting line-up in the next, finishing with figures of 6/79.

He also took five wickets over the two T20I games and another five in the ODIs. His captain Michael Clarke has praised him and has also made it clear that the Australian management have to manage their star of the future. He has done tremendously well, but he is still young. Hopefully his Man-of-the-Match performance (coupled with the best Bowling Efficiency in the game) will be followed by many down the line.

The second match also saw large contributions with the bat made by Ricky Ponting, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson just when calls for them being dropped were getting ever louder. Johnson still needs to perform well with the ball (three wickets in 62 overs in the series will not impress anyone), but Cummins thanked him publicly for his help and advice while bowling.

The thrilling two-wicket win should do a lot for the confidence of the Australian team, but they will still have to live down their failure in the first match. They were able to bounce back immediately, but being bowled out for 47 when they really should have held the mental edge over their opponents, was a shocker.

On paper the Aussie batting looks the better bet over their bowling, but that is not how this series turned out. Clarke was the only one to score a century and one fifty from Haddin and Ponting does not guarantee them anything; they still averaged less than 20 in the series, with Haddin carrying one duck to his name, while Ponting had two.

There are worries at the top of the order as well. Shane Watson managed 88 in the first innings - just behind Phillip Hughes’ on the Castrol Index - of the first Test but only made seven runs from the remaining three innings of the series. Called on to bowl a lot, some have suggested that opening the batting is too much to be expected of the all-rounder.

Australia can come away from South Africa fairly impressed by their efforts, but there is still quite a distance between where they are and where they would like to be. Cricket Australia has just appointed Mickey Arthur as their first non-Australian coach and he will take up the role for the start of the Australia-New Zealand Test series, starting on 1 December. Following that, however, comes the even bigger challenge of playing India at home. We will have to wait and see whether Australia can have it their own way or whether it will be an Indian summer Down Under.