What a few days it has been in the life of Matt Renshaw. His comeback to the Test team had consisted of one innings, edged to slip for eight, before he made the trip to South Africa, where his job as opener suddenly changed to batting five.

His first two days of the first Test in Durban were spent compiling his epic 190 to rescue Australia. Then came his fourth day, hammering in the nails on a declaration by top scoring again with 82. Pulling out at 316 for six, Australia set South Africa 421 to win, then took four wickets for 102 by the close; Aiden Markram on 45 will be the main obstacle to an Australian series lead on the final day.

Australia are six wickets away from victory after another dream day – with bat and ball – for Matt Renshaw

10th over, Australia 71-1 (Maddinson 48, Labuschagne 5) The Maddo Express keeps rolling, loaded heavy with receipts. South Africa turn to spin, Maddinson puts one foot down the track and lofts Harmer down the ground for six. This is a spectacle. Follows up with a couple more hits down the ground for two runs apiece. His score keeps rattling the loose shingle numbers on the board.

9th over, Australia 59-1 (Maddinson 37, Labuschagne 4) Another edge, Labuschagne this time, getting lucky against Jansen, down through the cordon for three runs, hauled back just in time. That brings Maddinson back on strike… and he immediately whacks another one! Again width, and he plays the same shot he kept trying in the first innings, except that this time he hits the ball. Top edgy, over the cordon, four.

• Fowler pulled out of Australia squad for ‘personal reasons’

• Attacker is now back in Australia with injured NRL star post-surgery

Injured rugby league player Nathan Cleary has expressed deep appreciation to Matildas forward Mary Fowler, his partner who flew to Australia to spend time with him as he recovers from major surgery.

Fowler withdrew from international duty with the Australian national team, who lost 4-2 to Germany in a friendly on Saturday, and has been spending time with Cleary in Sydney.

• Australia 390 & 33-0; South Africa 284

• Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins and Lyon share nine wickets

As a fractured news environment demonstrates, observations can be made from just about any perspective. One view of Australia’s Test team could focus on age, with the principal bowlers all having more than 33 years to their names. Another could focus on them all having more than 300 wickets.

At the first Test in Durban, an unprecedented achievement by Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon is continuing, one that they began in Mackay two months ago: being the only quartet in history to walk on to Test fields as members of the 300 club. By the end of day three they had taken another nine, South Africa bowled out for 284, trailing by 139 runs by the time bad light stopped play with Australia 33 without loss.

The Australian surfing champion was monstered by a great white shark while competing against fellow Aussie Julian Wilson in the 2015 world tour event final at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa. The attack was broadcast live on TV. Here, in an extract from his memoir, All Heart, he relives the encounter

I’m locked in on my take-off spot in the J-Bay lineup, scanning the horizon, biding my time. Assessing my position against the rippling lines of the oncoming set, I decide to move slightly further inside.

As I move, there’s a big splash behind me. Glancing over my left shoulder, I catch a glimpse of a huge dark shape in the water. A jolt of fear grips me. What the hell is that?

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12th over: South Africa 37-1 (Markram 24, Bedingham 13) Beautiful batting from Markram. Hazlewood was fractionally too straight, no more than that, and Markram put him away through midwicket with an understated flick of the wrists.

How can Aiden Markram have a Test average of 36? The guy is so good.

• Kenyan breaks Melbourne Marathon record by two seconds

• ‘I’m happy to run with the gen Zs,’ 41-year-old says

Marathon’s greatest competitor, Eliud Kipchoge, has sent a message to the next generation declaring that he’s not done yet.

The 41-year-old Kenyan revelled in his Melbourne Marathon debut on Sunday, breaking the race record and delighting thousands of fans at the MCG finish.

Old habits resurface as Australia fritter away advantage and allow All Blacks to mount aerial assault at Eden Park

Les Kiss stood forlornly in the middle of Eden Park wearing a thousand-yard stare. The past 10 Wallabies coaches had all been where he was now, shaking their heads and cursing after a failed attempt to storm the fortress of New Zealand rugby. This was Kiss’s first loss as Australia coach and the little bloke was nursing a big hurt.

His side had arrived on a six-game unbeaten streak, fresh from stomping the world champions South Africa a fortnight before. Conversely, their old enemy were facing a fourth consecutive defeat after falling three times to that same Springboks side. After 25 years of Trans-Tasman pain, the Bledisloe Cup finally looked within reach.

• Renshaw’s century was his first in Tests for nine years

• Lyon helps build second-highest ninth-wicket partnership

If the choice to ask Nic Maddinson to open in Durban was a bust, the upside for Australia was that it pushed Matthew Renshaw down to number five. From there, the Queenslander returned from 10 years on the periphery to the centre of the spotlight in the first Test against South Africa, with an innings of 190 that saved Australia from peril, settled them into stability, then lifted them to dominance.

Staunch support from the lower order was the other part of the equation, as Renshaw batted through two extended sessions until he was last man out, just after tea, with Australia’s 390 followed by South Africa’s 27 for one before stumps.

• New Zealand 50-19 Australia to continue unbeaten run at Eden Park

• Les Kiss’s side start bright but given reality check in second half

New Zealand preserved rugby’s established hierarchy with a 50-19 blowout victory over Australia that secures the Bledisloe Cup for a 24th year and pushes the All Blacks’ unbeaten run over the Wallabies at Eden Park into a fifth decade.

The Wallabies lost touch with their hosts in the second half despite a valiant but futile defensive performance led by the captain Harry Wilson, who had scored a try just before half-time to keep his side in the contest.

• Updates as the All Blacks welcome the Wallabies to Eden Park

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Out come the Wallabies into the arena. The response, as you might expect, is muted. The Eden Park floodlights are starting to take effect as a beautiful evening transitions into a gloaming.

Tonight’s referee is the Cardiff-born, former Belgium international, now Irish Rugby Football Union official Andrew Brace.

• Pat Cummins’ side resume their first innings at Kingsmead

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69th over: Australia 198-6 (Renshaw 51, Cummins 39) Jansen sees how Nortje is operating and he wants a piece too. The ball is old, why not? Unsociable bouncer at Cummins, who tries to get over it like he did previously but instead wears it inside the curve of his shoulder. Then good fielding behind point denies him a run from the yorker, which is how he escaped Nortje. All of that makes Cummins uncomfortable enough to play and miss outside off stump, but the edge doesn’t come. He’s not daunted though: fifth ball of the over, dropping back past the bowler, you could forgive a lower order player for not belting through for a single. But Cummins does.

68th over: Australia 197-6 (Renshaw 51, Cummins 38) Nortje is firing up, and Renshaw is staying cool. Cummins starts the over, getting a nasty short one that he just about rides the bounce of, then a full straight one that he squeezes out behind square well enough to get off strike. Renshaw though looks absolutely perfect as he defends a mid-level short ball, then goes under a bouncer, then swishes his bat over a wider line to leave.

• Opener’s painful duck gets tourists’ series off to bad start

• Renshaw and Cummins keep hosts’ attack at bay

If we accept that sporting tenures are results-based, then the Australian selectors George Bailey and Tony Dodemaide should be conferring with the coach Andrew McDonald to submit a mass resignation. The opening moments of the first Test in Durban were enough to return the predictable harvest of one of the most bizarre selection decisions ever made for the national XI, with Nic Maddinson bowled for a torturous 33-ball duck, early impetus for Australia’s slide to 187 for 6 by the time bad light ended play.

Maddinson should not have lasted half that long, nailed on the pad by Wiaan Mulder after 15 balls but spared by umpire error and a timid South African non-review. Even that huge slice of luck never looked like becoming anything more. His innings went nowhere, shuffling, defensive, missing opportunities on his legs, dealing in extras. His only shots were a few cuts hurled at wild width, all air-swings until the bottom edge that took out his stumps.

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The sun is belting down in Durban at the moment with the forecast for a high of 27C. But a hint of cloud is expected to drift across Kingsmead Stadium during the afternoon. Rain was forecast for day two but the latest forecast suggests that has cleared up.

Nic Maddinson will open for Australia alongside Travis Head. The senior partner of that duo had some choice words for the former greats who have criticised the current side for a lack of runs in recent times.

I think it’s unfairly judged a fair bit from a group of past players, pretty much, that put the bullet through a lot of players. But that’s what they’re paid to do. Some of them need a job, so they go after us and that’s totally fine. This group is strong enough to deal with those sort of things. That’s how it is.

It’s unfortunate sometimes to have some of that feedback from a generation of players that we have huge respect for, but that’s the caper.

• Former Test opener is writing a new book released next month

• Australia captain Cummins confirms conversation with Khawaja

Pat Cummins has suggested he is unfazed by the prospect of the sandpaper scandal being raised in Usman Khawaja’s autobiography, which will be the first from any Australian player who played in that 2018 Cape Town Test.

Cummins confirmed that Khawaja had called to inform him he would be writing the book, which will be released days after the end of Australia’s first Test tour of South Africa since the infamous match.

The Test series shapes as one of unforced errors and modest scores with both sides unconvincing with the bat and relying on their bowling attack

Lost among the looking back to Australia’s Test tour of South Africa in 2018, there lies a similarity to the team about to take on that challenge in 2026. The previous side relied on a primo bowling quartet of Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, along with David Warner’s power as opener and the middle-order ballast of Steve Smith. The rest of the batting was makeshift: Cameron Bancroft the recently added opener, Usman Khawaja with at that stage a parlous record away from home, and the Marsh brothers an entirely unknowable quantity at five and six.

This time around, the same four bowlers have burnished their careers by a further 998 Test wickets, the proven batting still consists of one aggressive left-handed opener plus Smith, and Australia otherwise remain makeshift.