• Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder hit hundreds for hosts

• Australia face last-day chase to clinch Test and the series

It would be unfair to say that Australia let a winning position slip on the fourth day of the third Test at Cape Town, only because that would undersell how Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder prised it away. Australia’s vaunted four bowlers, owners of 1,674 wickets at day’s beginning, could only raise that to 1678 by day’s end. In the process, a lead of 40 became 287. South Africa had been 40 for 4 in the first innings at Gqeberha and bounced back to win; they were effectively 40 for 4 in the third innings here, and now have a great chance to do the same.

The unlikely basis was Rickelton, a franchise circuiteer who spends most of his year smiting runs or keeping wicket in 20-over blocks. In this series he was monstered in Durban by Josh Hazlewood, out for 0 and 2 while pinch-hitting as an opener, then made scant impression down the order with 31 in Gqeherha. He looked like a modern cricketer become anachronism in this ancient form.

Yet, while Rickelton strikes at 150 runs per hundred balls across his T20 career, his first-class rate is one third of that speed. There are strings to his bow that are not dyed royal blue by the global Mumbai Indians conglomerate. That was the particular set of skills that he employed here, disavowing the lead of his top order the day before in assuming that a placid surface was made for rollicking shots. Instead, he and fellow white-ball dasher Matthew Breetzke absorbed everything that Australia’s freshly rested bowlers could hurl at them.

On a pitch without lateral movement, there was still good bounce for the short ball, and increasingly marked turn for Nathan Lyon out of the footmarks. The pair dealt with both, while Rickelton showed a facility to punctuate defence with finding a single in most overs, keeping the innings at least rolling in first gear. The first session added 62 runs, the lead now 102.

Still, the lunchtime wicket of Breetzke looked to have turned things Australia’s way, finally impulsive as he pulled to long leg. That ended a streak for Pat Cummins of 372 balls without a wicket, unprecedented in his career, despite some good spells along the way. But Rickelton was now set like cement, and Mulder joined him in that durability, to lunch and beyond.

Lyon kept ripping his off-breaks, with an inside edge from Rickelton into Alex Carey’s shin behind the stumps, and umpteen balls that landed safely after deflecting off body or bat, but reward never came. Mulder took the occasional chance attacking spin. Rickeleton kept picking off rare bad balls from the quicks, driving down the ground when overpitched, backing himself on the up once the new ball showed no signs of seam.

The pair tormented the Australians until well into the final session, Rickelton’s century coming after a slow march through the 90s, the partnership reaching 154 and South Africa’s lead an increasingly daunting 235 on that rapidly wearing pitch, before his departure set off a late burst of activity. Much of it involved the livewire Marnus Labuschagne, out of runs but still a red-cordial kindergarten class in the field, getting vast turn with his leg-breaks as Mulder kept sweeping him outside leg stump, where the only risk was a gloved catch.

Yet when Mulder changed tack, repeatedly reverse-sweeping that same line while aiming for the exposed off-side fence, a full toss that would normally disappear over square leg was instead hit to the only fielder in an acre, Inglis at backward point, who spotted Rickelton running and Mulder standing still. Labuschagne at the bowler’s end was quick enough to gather the throw: run out for 101.

With tired Aussies and 70 minutes to go, things were set up for a Marco Jansen blitz, but he followed the team trend of holing out on the pull, hitting Starc to Lyon for nought. Lyon finally got his first wicket for the day when opposing off-spinner Simon Harmer shouldered arms on 1, big turn doing the trick, then Gerald Coetzee ran himself out for the same score, Labuschagne bobbing up again with a sizzling direct hit from the cordon to the non-striker’s end.

Nine down and 251 ahead, South Africa’s lead suddenly looked light. But Mulder fixed that with Kagiso Rabada as support, also taking care of the small personal matter of moving his score from 82 to 115, farming strike for long periods between targeting boundaries. He was finally caught down the ground from a cross-bat shot at Cummins in the last over of the day, trying to hit a fifth six.

A neatly apportioned match that already had one full innings occupy the entire first day will now have another full innings occupy the fifth. A target of 287 is perfectly balanced for a match that has been so even. At the last, it must tilt one way or the other, and with it the series.