Dean Elgar:
“It’s good to end the tour like this. Touring Australia is never easy. But obviously the message to the group last night was we have got to go out and fight on day five and I think it’s going to help us in the future. It’s going to lead us down the right road. If you think about it, there’s only three or four guys that have toured here in the past. The rest was all brand new experiences. I think the learnings from that is these guys might be playing here again in a couple of years time and obviously there are a lot of learnings out of that. But Australia is a tough place to tour if not the toughest in the world. There’s a few negatives but also a lot of positives especially out of today. I know I’m the captain but I’m also a runscorer and I know that hasn’t worked out of late but I know I’ll be back. I don’t go lying down. I know my character and I know I’ll come out stronger.”
Pat Cummins:
“The wicket was still pretty good. We knew we were up against it. Keep putting some balls in some good areas, hopefully the luck turned. But that wasn’t the case, they batted beautifully. We were probably up against it. We had 150 overs to try and take 20 wickets on a pretty good batting surface. Really proud of all the efforts. I thought Nathan Lyon was outstanding. He bowled close to 60 overs for less rewards than he deserved. I think the most pleasing thing is similar to last year’s Ashes, everyone contributing. I’m really happy with how everyone is travelling. I think everyone can hold their heads up high.”
The player of the match is Usman Khawaja:
“I’m just enjoying the good times at the moment. [The SCG] can be a grinding wicket, a slow wicket, spin is always in the game so you need to have your options against spin. It’s not rocket science, if you bat well and you do it for a long time you’ll usually succeed out there. I would love to have a double ton next to my name but at the end of the day it’s a great way to showcase cricket and what cricket stands for. You want to go out there and you want to make milestones and achieve certain goals but at the end of the day it’s about winning and you’ve got to do what’s best. I think any children watching out there, or anyone watching how Australia plays their sport, it’s always team first and I think that’s very important when you are playing a team game.”
Player of the series is David Warner:
“It was a fantastic performance by the whole team. Each individual had their own performances. We would have all liked to bat a bit more. But credit to our bowlers. Our bowlers were fantastic. It didn’t go our way. Hopefully this Sydney weather is better next year.”
Australia vs South Africa Highlights today. 3rd Test, Sydney Cricket Ground, Sunday 8-1-2023, South Africa tour of Australia 2022/23.
Australia chose to bat.
Australia team: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Matthew Renshaw Alex Carey (wk), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
South Africa team: Dean Elgar (capt) Sarel Erwee, Heinrich Klaasen, Temba Bavuma, Khaya Zondo, Kyle Verreynne, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Simon Harmer, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje
Head to Head In Test’s: 100
Australia Won: 54
South Africa Won: 26
Australia Test Rankings: 1st
South Africa Test Rankings: 3rd
Form guide
(Last five completed matches, most recent first)
Australia WWWWL
South Africa LLLLW
Match Timings: 11:30 PM GMT | 10:30 AM Local
Umpires – Chris Gaffaney, Paul Reiffel
TV Umpire – Richard Kettleborough
Match Referee – Richie Richardson
Reserve Umpire – Donovan Koch
Match number – Test no. 2488
