Something remarkable this way comes. And not only because, for the third time in as many Tests in the series, a fifth day is upon us. That’s happened in South Africa just once this century. And not for almost 32 years have none of the three Tests been drawn.

The deciding match of South Africa’s enthralling rubber against Australia, which has produced, organically, better marketing than the creaking old format could hope to buy in a world drowning in T20, is likely to buck both aspects of that trend on Saturday.

Australia need 288 runs. South Africa need 10 wickets. Ninety overs, at the minimum, are left in this rivetting contest. Even T20 natives who struggle to understand why a match should need four innings and five days to reach a conclusion should find that equation irresistible. This is Test cricket as it is meant to be played. And still is. Often enough to care about the stuff, anyway.

“If you had to say that it’s going down the the third Test, day five, two results on the cards, I wouldn’t have believed it,” Ryan Rickelton told a press conference. “It’s been a special series. It’s ebbed and flowed properly in all three games. Both teams have edged ahead and the other one have clawed back. There have been some mistakes made and some really good things done. It’s been a cracking series.”

It feels like an age since we reached stumps on Thursday with South Africa 40 ahead but denuded of their top four. Another age passed while Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder built South Africa’s lead on Friday.

They batted together from the ninth over before lunch to an hour after tea, adding 154. Then Rickelton ran and Mulder didn’t. We know what happens next in that scenario.

“It was really good until he ran me out, then I was quite pissed off,” Rickelton joked.

The pair have shared many a dressing room as former St Stithians College pupils and current Lions teammates.

“We have played a lot of cricket through the teenage years together and for the Lions and South Africa,” Rickelton said. “We have spent a lot of time together. We know each other’s games really well and we know the type of players we are.”

So Rickelton was sacrificed, but not without adding to his personal Cape Town lore. He scored a century in each of his first three first-class matches here. In this, his fourth, he batted for more than five hours and faced 219 deliveries for his 101. What was it about Newlands that seemed to bring the best out in this Joburg boykie?

“It’s flat. It’s a lovely pitch to bat on. And I enjoy being here; not just the ground but the essence of Cape Town.”

It was a strikingly disciplined performance, particularly for someone who had gone 13 completed innings without a century. Rickelton was in the 90s for 37 balls, several of them tempting slower bouncers bowled by Pat Cummins with a deepish short leg in place. He demurred each time, pulling defensively with soft hands to send the ball safely to earth.

South Africa had looked like making Australia chase significantly more than 300 before, when they were 225 ahead, Rickelton got out. But, a scant 36 deliveries later, they had also lost Marco Jansen, Simon Harmer and Gerald Coetzee and added only 16 runs. One more wicket and that would have been that.

Rickelton and Mulder had kept the tension taut. Once the string was snapped it was limp, and stayed that way. Until, that is, Mulder approached his century. But all he had to help him get there were the modest batting skills of Kagiso Rabada. Several runs were refused, by both batters, in the cause of keeping the innings alive.

Mulder managed nonetheless, driving Nathan Lyon through cover for the two runs he needed. He was punching the air before the second was completed. Once he had grounded his bat he removed his helmet and disappeared into the outfield towards The Oaks. He lifted his bat and his face into a sky slightly smudged by clouds, and stayed like that for a golden, private moment. His father, Pieter Mulder, died in April.

Three of Mulder’s first four innings in the series were ended by errors he made facing short deliveries. It was thus no surprise that the Australians probed that pattern. But Mulder had learnt his lesson and spent much of his innings rendering bouncers harmless by ducking under them.

“Wiaan is naturally an attacking batter and technically sound,” Rickelton said. “But sometimes he can get too far from himself. So it was about trying to keep him in the moment. Like it is with all of us — stay present and emphasise the partnership. That and the time we spent out there was more important than individual runs. We tried to keep ourselves accountable in that aspect.

“He’s a classy cricketer. Some of the shots he played today, not many can. I’m really chuffed for him and that we represented each other well and put on a good partnership.”

Mulder went after the bowling once his hundred was secure, pulling Cummins for six and slog-sweeping Lyon for another half-dozen. He tried to smash Cummins for six more over long-on, but was caught on the cushions for 115 with what became the last ball of the day.

South Africa’s dismissal for 387 left Australia what would be the second-highest successful chase at this ground. Currently No. 2 is the 236/2 the South Africans made to beat the Aussies in November 2011. But top of that list is Australia’s 334/6 in March 2002. Yes, Australia; these guys.

This remarkable series remains rudely alive. It will not go gentle into that good fifth day.