South Africa bowled Australia out for 111 on the final day at Newlands, winning the series-deciding third Test by 176 runs to take the series 2-1 and move to the top of the ICC Test team rankings, with Simon Harmer taking a career-best 6 for 16 to finish with a maiden 10-wicket match haul of 10 for 120.
Australia had been set 288 to win after Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder's second-innings centuries stretched South Africa's lead into a defendable target, but the tourists never got close, folding for 111 as Harmer's off-spin found turn and bounce that the earlier days of the Test hadn't shown. Kagiso Rabada backed him up with 3 for 39, including two wickets inside his first over of the innings, to leave Australia reeling from the very start of the chase.
Harmer's six-wicket spell gave him match figures of 10 for 120, the first 10-wicket haul of his Test career, and it came in the match that decided the series rather than in a dead rubber — the kind of performance that tends to be remembered well beyond the scorecard. It is also a continuation of a strong series with the ball for South Africa's spin and seam combination, after Rabada had already reached 350 Test wickets earlier in this same innings, the fewest balls taken by any bowler in Test history to reach the mark.
Australia had won the series opener in Durban by 214 runs, South Africa hit back with an innings victory in Gqeberha, and the Newlands Test swung repeatedly across all five days before South Africa's bowlers settled it emphatically on the final morning. The 2-1 series win is South Africa's reward for recovering from an opening defeat to close out the decider at home.
The result also lifts South Africa to number one in the ICC Men's Test Team Rankings, displacing Australia, who had held the top spot coming into the series. For a Proteas side already defending the World Test Championship title, reaching the top of the rankings on the back of a series win over Australia adds further weight to their standing heading into the rest of the home season.
Simon Harmer's 10-wicket match haul makes him the standout bowling pick from either attack, with Kagiso Rabada's new-ball burst and record-breaking landmark adding further bowling value; Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder's second-innings centuries remain the pick of the batting performances from the match.
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Scores, bowling figures, and the ranking change in this article are verified against same-day and freshly re-checked reporting as of November 1, 2026.
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