The 100th and 101st overs of South Africa's second innings were bowled by Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne. While Pat Cummins has shown a willingness to cycle through a range of options, that would probably not have been plan A for Australia on the fourth day at Newlands.
In the 73rd over of the day, they had only one wicket to show for their efforts. Then Josh Inglis flung himself at backward point to intercept Wiaan Mulder's reverse-sweep and created the run-out of Ryan Rickelton to end a stand of 154. It was not the first time Inglis had changed the course of an innings in the field: against England at the Gabba last season, he ran out Ben Stokes with a direct hit.
That moment of brilliance was the first of four wickets to fall for 16, including another direct hit run-out from a direct hit by Labuschagne to remove Gerald Coetzee, before South Africa were bolstered by a final-wicket stand of 36 between Mulder and Kagiso Rabada. But for Australia, good things had come to those who toiled. Importantly they had managed to keep reasonable control of the scoring rate, which meant the game never completely ran away from them.
"It's just trying to build up pressure, not let the scoreboard drift out too fast," Australia assistant coach James Franklin said. "Then, obviously, if you create an opportunity and take it and then you might bring the field back in and squeeze for two, three wickets in a row. We've seen that through this Test match, where when one falls, often another one falls very quickly after."
After the third day's play, the talk was how the pitch was changing character, after Temba Bavuma had been bowled by one that ragged out of the footmarks for Nathan Lyon. However, there was less threat as Australia laboured on Friday, and when the occasional one did spit, bounce or grip, the fortune largely went South Africa's way, not that Rickelton and Mulder didn't deserve it for their diligence, with the pair playing the spin superbly.
"We knew the longer that we batted, obviously the more frustrated they would get," Rickelton said. "I think maybe at a time they expected it to happen quite quickly, just based on the deteriorating wickets. But I think what we did really well is just home in on our partnership and really emphasise what the bowler was going to come with, emphasise really being present and not going too far ahead of ourselves."
Matt Renshaw thought he had Rickelton caught at slip on 39 but, when the umpires reviewed for a possible bump ball, replays showed it had turned past the edge of the drive. Lyon did still have one in him when Simon Harmer made the ill-judged decision to leave a delivery that turned back sharply from the footmarks. Harmer, though, will store that up for the final day.
Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Cummins went through a full range of tactics. There was little, bordering on nothing, for the quicks, including a lack of movement with the second new ball, and the older balls refused to offer more than the merest hint of reverse. Australia did not take a wicket through a conventional edge to the wicketkeeper or cordon in this match. The short ball was their go-to plan, although Rickelton and Mulder resisted temptation more than others.
In the final session Cummins, who had ended a 374-ball wait for a Test wicket when he removed Matthew Breetzke with a short delivery top-edged to long leg, briefly went into T20 mode with a series of slower-ball bouncers to try and induce a false shot. As he had done the previous evening, he also made frequent bowling changes, at one point five in five overs while trying to conjure a game-changing moment.
"I think that can sometimes be the fun part of cricket, designing tactics against oppositions," Franklin said. "You've got to be pretty agile as a bowling group to be able to shift your tactics as you move through Test matches, locations, different countries. I think we've been able to find those ways [to take wickets], albeit there's been periods of play where it's been hard to find that wicket."
Starc caused some uneasy moments with the short ball, including striking Rickelton in the rib-cage, and never ceased in his efforts, with the follow-up bouncer registering 141kph. At the start of his 22nd over, Starc reached for his right calf, which had appeared to be an issue the previous day, although it hadn't hampered him sending down the bouncer that removed Marques Ackerman.
He kept feeling it during a three-over spell from the Kelvin Grove End late on the fourth day as he removed Marco Jansen with a short ball that was pulled to deep square leg. While Franklin said he wasn't aware of any problem with Starc, three back-to-back Tests with short turnarounds was bound to bring some toll.
Starc remained on the field and settled under the catch at deep midwicket when Mulder clubbed Cummins into the leg-side to end South Africa's innings on the stroke of stumps. Australia's bowlers and fielders had dug deep to keep their side in the match. Now the fate of the series rests with the batters.