Hazlewood's career-best six-for sinks South Africa in Durban


Josh Hazlewood picked four of the remaining six South African wickets en route to his best bowling figures in Tests as Australia wrapped up a 214-run win early in the second session on Day 5 in Durban. Hazlewood kickstarted the proceedings on Day 5 with the wicket of Wiaan Mulder and also put the finishing touches with the final wicket, of Anrich Nortje. Between that, Aiden Markram attempted to do what Faf du Plessis did in Adelaide 2012, but most of the other lower order batters did not get the memo. South Africa eventually lost their first Test under captain Temba Bavuma. The fourth innings of South Africa's defeat began late on Day 4, when they lost four wickets. Markram and Wiaan Mulder showed some gumption of fight at the end, which spilled over to almost all of the morning session on Day 5 to offer a flicker of hope to the home team. Hazlewood trampled on it again in this game when he caught Wiaan Mulder behind down the leg side after they had fought for 109 deliveries and 29 runs. Hazlewood created an opening for his team by breaking a 204-ball stand. Steve Smith took a third blinder of the game in the slips to send back Kyle Verreynne and give Matt Renshaw a second wicket. At 156/6, it appeared as though the game was over until Marco Jansen arrived and did everything in his power to halt Australia's march toward victory. He batted with Markram for 103 deliveries, propelling South Africa into the second session after the morning session. However, Hazlewood returned as the opposition to South Africa's cause. He achieved a remarkable nip backer with a seam angle of 1.4 degrees to break Jansen's defense and knock his stumps back, propelling Australia to victory. He surprised Simon Harmer in the same over with a sharply rising delivery that also got in. Harmer ended up edging Carey behind because he couldn't get out of harm's way. Hazlewood picked up his 15th five-wicket haul in Tests with this. The absolute final nail in South Africa's coffin was drilled in by Mitchell Starc in the following over, when he got Markram to inside edge a ball to Carey behind the stumps. Markram was dismissed after a review by an umpire, who gave him 75 out of 237 balls. Hazlewood hit a short ball to Nortje, who could only hit it as far as Nathan Lyon at midwicket, to conclude the game. Hazlewood won the match with a score of 6/49, surpassing his previous best of 6/67, which he set against India in Bengaluru in March 2017.