Steve Smith now has 223 catches in Test cricket, three more than Joe Root in second place for non-wicketkeepers

Australia's modern Test side remain a fascinating one to unpick.

Viewed by many in England as there for the taking in last winter's Ashes despite a 4-1 win, they are also labelled too old by many observers at home.

The victims of recent shock defeats by West Indies and Bangladesh, they are still unbeaten in their past nine Test series.

But while their struggling batting line-up was bailed out by Matt Renshaw across the first two days of the first Test in Durban, they took control over South Africa on day three in an all-too familiar way.

Nine years after they first appeared together as Australia's bowling quartet, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon produced their latest relentless performance to dismiss South Africa for 284. There was even some magic from Steve Smith thrown in too.

Cummins took three wickets, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon two apiece, in doing so brushing off any doubts about their effectiveness at the start of a run of Tests against the world Test champions, in-form New Zealand, India and England.

At 82-1 in response to Australia's 390, South Africa appeared well in the Test on a relatively good surface.

Australia's bowlers searched for early swing and Aiden Markram and David Bedingham countered with a second-wicket partnership which progressed at almost 4.5 runs per over.

It was then, at the 20-over mark, captain Cummins reverted to Australia's tried and tested - Lyon one end, the quicks rotating at the other.

Having bowled 34% of their deliveries full in the first 20 overs, Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins dragged back their lengths. There were only 19 deliveries pitched fuller than six metres between the 20th and 60th overs.

With deliveries easy to hit scarce, Markram and Bedingham attempted forced back-foot drives and edged to slip for 37 and 49 respectively.

South Africa were 82-1 after 20 overs (left graphic) but were 214-8 after Australia dragged their lengths back between the 21st and 60th overs (right graphic)

Wiaan Mulder was caught in two minds and bounced out by Cummins. Tristan Stubbs top-edged the Australia captain to fine leg.

In Australia's first innings, Renshaw, who ground out a superb 190, faced 52 deliveries pitched as short and played a pull or hook shot to four of them. He scored runs with only one of those shots - when he had 176 runs to his name and had faced 368 balls.

The contrast to Renshaw's application could not have been greater.

Six overs after Stubbs was caught, Marco Jansen, who had struck six fours in quickly reaching 26, also tried to pull Hazlewood off a fuller length and was tamely caught at mid-off.

The quality of the bowling and fact the Proteas are playing their first Test since November were other factors in South Africa's slide.

At the other end, off-spinner Lyon bowled 19 overs at less than three runs per over.

The 39-year-old had a more worn pitch to utilise than South Africa's spinners and found significantly more turn and threat.

He also had the sprawling Steve Smith to his advantage.

Both of Smith's catches off Lyon, first to dismiss Temba Bavuma and then Kyle Verreynne, were feats of anticipation. He saw both right-handers shape to reverse sweep, gambled and clung on at close range. The first was good. The one-handed second was spectacular.

"He's an absolute freak," said Lyon. "He practices that in training.

"He is an incredible thinker of the game but the way he moves, premeditates, for those types of catches.

"There are not many people in the dressing room that would be able to pull off those two catches."

In between, Smith's leaping catch at second slip after Cummins found Bedingham's edge took the 37-year-old back above Joe Root as the non-wicketkeeper with the most catches in Test history on 223.

While he ended the day with three more catches than Root, he still has a catch percentage about 77%, which sits below the format average.

He creates, and occasionally drops, chances such as these - chances others would not have created.

The result is Australia's fabled foursome now have 607 wickets in Tests in which they have played as a quartet.

The next most successful bowling four-pronged attack is James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, who took 415 wickets in their 31 Tests together for England.

"Each of these players will go down as a legend of Australian cricket," said former Australia bowler Jason Gillespie on ABC Radio.

"Starc got hit for a few early but I didn't mind that.

"Hazlewood was very good, as he always is. Cummins was hostile. He looked fresh."

Much has been made of Australia's ageing side and a perceived lack of succession planning.

At 37, Starc is the oldest of the three quicks but his average pace of 141.21km/h in 2026 is higher than any of his past three years. He is also averaging his most swing in a calendar year since 2015.

The concern for Australia comes when they are not fit, with Hazlewood having missed all five of last winter's Ashes Tests and Cummins four.

Australia's issue right now is keeping each of their quartet on the field, because they appear as good as ever.

Even with bad light halting play early again, they should have the time to press home an advantage across the Test's final two days.

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