Pat Cummins blames Australian batting after losing the Cape Town decider

Chasing 288 to win on the last day, the Aussie batters came a cropper and folded for just 111.

A fantastic Test series came to an end on Saturday as South Africa beat Australia by 176 runs in the third and final game to win the rubber 2-1 at Cape Town. At the start of Day 5, Australia needed 288 to win and, considering the pitch was not behaving that badly, the visitors were in with a chance, to all intents and purposes. However, in a horrendous batting display, Pat Cummins’ men fell by the wayside. Kagiso Rabada removed the Aussie top-order in the blink of an eye, after which spinner Simon Harmer played his part to a tee, taking six wickets of the remaining seven. As a result, the visitors could go as far as 111 all out.

Australia came up with a poor batting show in their second innings. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

At the post-match press conference, Cummins, while acknowledging that the day-five pitch wasn’t going to be an easy prospect, admitted that his batters let the team down. “A few really poor decisions. I know it's a day-five wicket, but I don't think it was drastic. There were runs to be scored out there. There were lots of balls to face – a few decisions that the boys would like back,” he told reporters.

"(Our) start in the first couple of overs, where you're behind it – maybe you're chasing a little bit harder than maybe when you turn up and think 'this is how you think the day is going to go'. So we've got to get better. It's happened a few times … we thought that chase was very achievable.

Deep Dive

Why did Australia lose the Cape Town Test despite taking a 100-run first-innings lead?

How did Kagiso Rabada and Simon Harmer cause Australia's fourth-innings collapse?

What did Pat Cummins say about Australia's batting after the Cape Town defeat?

Powered ByAsk HT

"I think we're a better side than what we have been playing lately. There are clear improvements to be made."

It was Cummins who had won the toss and put the Proteas into bat. He, kind of, agreed that he had made a wrong call but explained the thought process behind his decision. It was because he thought the opening-day pitch was going to do a lot more than it eventually did. "We probably thought it was going to do a little bit more on day one than it did. But you don't win the toss and think you're going to bowl the opposition out for 100 or 200.

"We knew it was going to be high scoring, but we thought we could get 10 wickets on day one. That'd put us right ahead of the game … You'd love to replay things and see how they would have worked out in the counterfactual (scenario), but you just don't get a chance," he said.

But then Australia lost this game not because of their bowling. It’s because of their batting, particularly in the second innings. Despite a poor start in the opening session on day one, they had managed to bowl the hosts out for 329. Then they went on to take a 100-run lead but really poor batting in the second innings undid all that they had done earlier.

Marnus Labuschagne once again failed with the bat. Earlier in the series, Nic Maddinson and Beau Webser were questioned too. Reacting to the calls for change, Cummins said: “Always the case after losing a series – and it's probably fair. If we lost two games in a row, I think it's fair to be asking those questions. We'll be asking them internally as well.

"We are a very good side, but I think we need to get a little bit better if we want to get back to number one and where we think we can be. Maybe that's a change of style, maybe it's change of personnel in some instances. Give us a couple of weeks (and) we'll work it out."