Cricket South Africa v Australia: second men’s cricket Test, day one – live Updates as the Proteas host Australia at St George’s Park Play start time in Gqeberha is 10am local/7pm AEDT/9am BST Any thoughts?

with an email LIVE Updated 2m ago Geoff Lemon (now) and James Wallace (later) Sun 18 Oct 2026 08.42 BSTFirst published on Sun 18 Oct 2026 08.20 BST Share Key events 2m ago Teams 7m ago Australia win the toss and bowl 17m ago Preamble Pat Cummins before South Africa meet Australia on day one of the second Test at St George’s Park in Gqeberha.

Follow for live scores and cricket updates from SA vs Aus.

Play start time is 10am local/7pm AEDT/9am BST.

Steve Smith is playing after some concern following his head knock in Durban.

South Africa Aiden Markram Marques Ackerman David Bedingham Temba Bavuma * Matthew Breetzke Ryan Rickelton + Wiaan Mulder Marco Jansen Simon Harmer Anrich Nortje Kagiso Rabada Australia Nic Maddinson Travis Head Marnus Labuschagne Steve Smith Matt Renshaw Alex Carey Beau Webster Pat Cummins Mitchell Starc Scott Boland Josh Hazlewood Pat Cummins has no hesitation in bowling first, something he’s done more than most captains.

He cites the fact that it’s a damp morning, that the wicket will be freshest today, and rather burying the lede, that they have once again dropped their spinner to play four fast bowlers, with Scott Boland coming in for Nathan Lyon.

Temba Bavuma says, “We were undecided, but a decision has been made on our behalf.” Understated as ever.

For his team, Marques Ackerman will debut, Matthew Breetzke comes in to help the batting, and then there’s Rabada.

So that means Verreyne and Stubbs miss out from the batting side of things, and interestingly Keshav Maharaj is the spinner dropped rather than Simon Harmer.

Maharaj bowling left arm is very much the senior bowler, but Harmer the off-spinner may have been preferred with so many Australian left-handers.

Interesting given left-arm spin has been effective against Australian sides for a while now.

Hello, cricket pals.

Get ready for something spicy.

And wet.

Spicy and wet.

The tom kha soup of cricket.

It’s coming to your table very shortly, direct from Gqeberha, which you may know historically as Port Elizabeth.

Here’s the deal.

Australia in South Africa, tough away trip but they’ve got a record doing it, very competitive and tense history between the teams, not to mention some… uh… stuff that happened last time that was spoken about exhaustively in the first place.

And amid all this context, Australia rolled up and grabbed the first Test in Durban despite a batting collapse on day one.

Point two, South Africa will revamp their side quite substantially, and oh oh oh oh, Rabada’s back.

Last time we had this tour, Australia also won in Durban but then got torn up by Rabada in Gqeberha.

This time he’s coming off a hamstring injury, so point one will be whether he can bowl at his best and get through without aggravating it.

South Africa have to grab this game to stay in the series, and there are precious World Test Championship points / chunks of win percentage on offer.

Shall we?

Geoff will be here shortly to take you through the first half of the day, but for now remind yourselves of how Australia took a 1-0 series lead with victory on day five of the first Test in Durban.