Cricket
Durban Test: day fiveAustralia stand six wickets from winning the first Test in Durban. Matt Renshaw, who hit 190 in the first innings, added 82 in the second, then Pat Cummins smacked 32 not out from 12 balls before Australia declared on 314 for 6. South Africa were set 421 and ended day four on 102 for 4, with Aiden Markram on 45 and still 319 runs short.
Day five is under way and the result was not known when this was written. Steve Smith was hit on the helmet by Anrich Nortje and did not field on day four, and Australia had not said whether he would play on. Josh Hazlewood took two of the four wickets to fall; Cummins took Tristan Stubbs.
Elsewhere, India beat West Indies by 14 runs in Indore on Sunday to lead the T20 series 2–1 (Abhishek Sharma 69 off 30 balls, Arshdeep Singh 3 wickets), and Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by 82 runs in Rawalpindi to win that T20 series 2–0. In Abu Dhabi, Bangladesh set Afghanistan 479 to win the one-off Test.
- 1st Test, Durban: Australia 390 & 314/6 dec; South Africa 284 & 102/4, needing 421 (end of day 4, Mon 12 Oct)
- India v West Indies T20Is: India lead 2–1 after winning by 14 runs in Indore (Sun 11 Oct)
- Next Tests: Gqeberha 18–22 Oct, Cape Town 27–31 Oct
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Cricket is a bat-and-ball game between two teams of 11. One side bats and tries to score runs, the other bowls and fields and tries to get ten batters out. A batter scores by running between the two sets of stumps or by hitting the ball over the boundary for 4 (along the ground) or 6 (in the air).
Formats vary in length. A Test match lasts up to five days with two innings per side and is regarded as the highest form. A one-day international is 50 overs a side (an over is six balls). Twenty20 (T20) is 20 overs a side and over in about three hours.
In a Test, a team can declare, which means stopping its own innings early to set the other side a target while leaving time to bowl them out. Australia did that today: 421 to win on the last day is a huge ask, and the realistic choices for South Africa are a record chase or a draw.
The Ashes between England and Australia is the best-known Test rivalry. Series between the big nations are often three Tests, as in this tour.