Australia v South Africa: A Rivalry of Fast Bowling

Australia South Africa cricket is the most evenly matched of Australia's major Test rivalries and the least often played. Through the 2025 World Test Championship final the two countries had met in 101 Tests, Australia winning 54, South Africa 26, with 21 drawn. Strip out the pre-1970 matches, when South Africa were a much weaker side for most of the period, and the modern record is close to level. It is also the only fixture in which Australia trail on the one-day ledger.

The short answer to why it feels different from the Ashes is that it is a bowling rivalry rather than a batting one. Both countries prepare hard pitches with carry, both use the Kookaburra ball, and both have spent most of the last thirty years building Test attacks around three or four fast bowlers. The matches that people remember from this fixture are almost all collapses: 47 all out at Newlands, 85 all out in Hobart, a Test finished inside two days at the Gabba, a target of 117 defended in Sydney.

The other thing that shapes it is a 23-year hole in the middle. South Africa were excluded from international cricket over apartheid from 1970, and the two countries did not play a Test between March 1970 and December 1993. Everything about the modern fixture, including the intensity of it, comes out of that gap. This guide covers the whole contest from an Australian point of view: the record, the isolation years, the series that mattered, why the fast bowling is the story, and what is scheduled next.

The head-to-head in three formats

The Test record is the one most often quoted and the one that flatters Australia most, because it includes decades in which South Africa were barely competitive. In one-day cricket the picture reverses. In Twenty20 internationals Australia are clearly ahead but the sample is small.

• Australia wins
• South Africa wins

Tests5426

ODIs5257

T20Is199

Test figures are through the 2025 World Test Championship final. One-day and Twenty20 figures are the most recently published totals and exclude ties and abandoned matches, so the bars do not sum to matches played. Re-check before quoting.

Show the numbers

Australia v South Africa head-to-head by format

Item	Australia wins	South Africa wins
Tests	54	26
ODIs	52	57
T20Is	19	9

The one-day figure is worth pausing on. Australia lead the head-to-head against England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the West Indies in one-day cricket by clear margins. South Africa are the exception. Part of that is the run of South African sides between roughly 1994 and 2015, who were built for fifty-over cricket and stacked with all-rounders. Part of it is that the two countries play a lot of their one-day cricket in South Africa, where the ball holds up and the grounds are smaller.

Before isolation: 1902 to 1970

The first Test between the two was at the Old Wanderers in Johannesburg in October 1902, when an Australian side stopped in South Africa on the way home from an Ashes tour of England. For the first half of the twentieth century this was not a serious contest. South Africa did not beat Australia in a Test until 1910-11, and they did not win a series against them at all before the 1960s.

The turning point that Australian supporters of a certain age still mention is 1952-53. South Africa arrived in Australia with a young, unfancied side and drew the series 2-2, the first time a rubber between the two countries had not been won by Australia. Russell Endean's unbeaten 162 in the final Test at Melbourne set up a six-wicket win and the shared series. It was a genuine shock at the time.

South Africa's first series win over Australia came in 1966-67 at home, and by the end of the decade they had assembled the strongest side in their history.

1969-70: the series that ended an era

Australia toured South Africa in early 1970 and lost all four Tests. Graeme Pollock made 274 at Kingsmead in Durban and 517 runs across the series. Barry Richards, playing the only Test series of his life, scored more than 500 runs of his own. Mike Procter took wickets at will. The margins were enormous, and the Australian side that lost was not a weak one.

That series is the pivot of the whole rivalry, for two reasons. It established that South Africa at full strength could beat anybody, and it was the last thing they did for 22 years. Ten of the eleven South Africans who played the final Test at Port Elizabeth in March 1970 never played Test cricket again. Richards finished with four Tests. Pollock finished with 23. Whatever the numbers say about how good they were, the honest answer is that nobody found out.

• 23Years between Tests, 1970 to 1993
• 0Tests South Africa played in that period
• 4Barry Richards Test matches, all in 1970
• 2Australian rebel tours of South Africa in the 1980s

Structural counts describing the break in the fixture, not a measurement of playing strength. The Test count is Australia v South Africa only and does not include unofficial rebel tours.

Twenty-three years without a Test

Australia were scheduled to tour South Africa in 1971-72. The tour was abandoned. From that point South Africa were outside international cricket entirely, and the Australian relationship with South African cricket ran through two other channels: county and Currie Cup contracts for individual players, and the rebel tours.

Two Australian sides toured South Africa in the mid-1980s, in 1985-86 and 1986-87, under Kim Hughes. Cricket Australia's predecessor body banned the players involved for several years. The tours drew a hard line through Australian cricket at exactly the moment Allan Border was trying to rebuild a Test side after the retirements of the Chappell-Lillee-Marsh generation, and they cost him bowlers he could not spare. The residue of that period is still present in how the two cricketing cultures talk about each other.

December 1993: the fixture restarts

South Africa returned to Test cricket in 1992 and toured Australia in 1993-94. The first Test of that series, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground over Boxing Day, was the first Australia South Africa cricket Test in more than 23 years. It was drawn. If you want the atmosphere of the moment, the Boxing Day Test guide on this site covers what that fixture means in an Australian summer.

The three-Test series that followed was the perfect restart: drawn in Melbourne, won by South Africa in Sydney by five runs, won by Australia in Adelaide. Honours even, and the fixture had a story again within a fortnight.

Sydney 1994: five runs

The second Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January 1994 is the match that gave the modern rivalry its shape. Shane Warne took 12 wickets in it, including 7 for 56 in South Africa's first innings, and Australia needed only 117 to win.

They were 4 for 63 overnight. Allan Border was bowled by Allan Donald in the first over of the fifth morning. Fanie de Villiers, a swing bowler with none of Donald's pace, took 6 for 43 and match figures of 10 for 123, and Australia were bowled out for 111. Five runs. It remains South Africa's narrowest Test win by runs, and it is the template for everything that follows in this fixture: a low target, a good pitch, and a batting side that could not get there.

Johannesburg 1994 and the Warne-Donald years

Australia went to South Africa two months later. The first Test at the Wanderers was lost heavily, and it produced one of the ugliest confrontations of the decade when Warne sent off Andrew Hudson after bowling him. Both boards fined players. The series finished 1-1.

For the rest of the 1990s the two sides met often enough to build genuine dislike. Warne against Daryll Cullinan became a running story and a cruel one. Donald against the Australian top order was the fast bowling contest of the period. The 1997-98 series in South Africa, won 1-0 by Australia, and the 1999 World Cup, which produced two matches that neither country has forgotten, took it to its peak.

The 1999 World Cup and the tie at Edgbaston

Australia and South Africa played twice in the 1999 World Cup in England: a Super Six match at Headingley, which Australia won off the second-last ball through Steve Waugh's century, and the semi-final at Edgbaston. The semi-final was tied. South Africa needed one run from four balls with one wicket standing. Lance Klusener drove and ran, Allan Donald did not, and Donald was run out with the scores level. Australia went through on the earlier result and won the final.

That match did more damage to South African cricket's self-image than any defeat, and it hardened Australian confidence about the fixture for a decade.

Australia's decade on top, 1997 to 2006

Between 1997 and 2006 Australia won six consecutive Test series against South Africa, home and away, several of them 3-0. This was the Glenn McGrath, Warne, Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting side at full power, and South Africa were rebuilding after the retirement of a generation and the Hansie Cronje affair.

It is worth noting how the wins were built. Glenn McGrath's method, relentless off-stump accuracy at a length that made South African batters play, worked as well at the Wanderers and Newlands as it did at the Gabba, because the pitch types are close cousins. That is a recurring feature of the rivalry: Australian bowlers travel to South Africa better than they travel almost anywhere else, and South African bowlers do the same in reverse.

The 438 game

On 12 March 2006 at the Wanderers, in the fifth and deciding one-day international of the series, Australia made 434 for 4. Ricky Ponting made 164 from 105 balls with 13 fours and nine sixes. Michael Hussey made 81, Simon Katich 79, Adam Gilchrist 55. It was the first 400 in a one-day international and it looked like the end of the argument.

South Africa made 438 for 9 with a ball to spare. Herschelle Gibbs made 175 from 111. Graeme Smith made 90 from 55. Mark Boucher finished it. Mick Lewis conceded 113 from his ten overs, which was then the most expensive analysis in one-day international history. The match aggregate of 873 runs was a record.

50%50%

• Australia 434 for 4434
• South Africa 438 for 9438

The two innings totals from the fifth one-day international at the Wanderers. Australia batted first and lost. Two totals from one match are a record, not a measure of either side's general strength.

Show the numbers

Johannesburg, 12 March 2006

Item	Value
Australia 434 for 4	434
South Africa 438 for 9	438

2008-09: South Africa finally win in Australia

South Africa toured Australia in December 2008 and won the first Test at the WACA Ground in Perth by six wickets, chasing 414. Graeme Smith made 108 and AB de Villiers 106 not out. That target is still one of the largest ever chased successfully in a Test.

It was not a straightforward tour. Mitchell Johnson had taken 8 for 61 in South Africa's first innings in the same match, career-best figures, and South Africa had collapsed from a strong position to 281. They chased 414 anyway. In Melbourne, Dale Steyn took 5 for 87 and 5 for 67 for match figures of 10 for 154, South Africa won again, and the series was gone at 2-0. Australia won the dead rubber in Sydney.

It was South Africa's first Test series win in Australia and it ended Australia's run of 16 years without losing a home series. Australia immediately went to South Africa in early 2009 and won 2-1, which is a fair summary of how volatile this fixture is.

Cape Town 2011: forty-seven all out

On 9 November 2011 at Newlands, 23 wickets fell in a day. Australia were bowled out for 47 in their second innings, having been 21 for 9, the lowest Australian Test total since 1902 and one of the lowest in the history of the game. Vernon Philander, on debut, and Morne Morkel did most of the damage.

The strange part is that South Africa had themselves lost nine wickets for a very small score earlier the same day, having been in a commanding position. They still won by eight wickets. The match is the extreme example of the central feature of Australia South Africa cricket: two batting orders that are technically well drilled against pace, playing each other on surfaces that reward the bowler who gets it right, with almost no margin between control and collapse.

2012-13, 2014 and 2016-17: the swinging decade

South Africa won in Australia again in 2012-13, a series remembered in Australia for Faf du Plessis batting most of the final day at Adelaide Oval to save the second Test on debut, and then for a heavy South African win in Perth.

Australia went to South Africa in early 2014 and won 2-1. Mitchell Johnson, continuing the form of the 2013-14 Ashes, took 12 for 127 in the first Test at Centurion and 22 wickets in the series. It was the most sustained piece of fast bowling by an Australian in this fixture since McGrath.

South Africa came back in 2016-17 and won the first two Tests. Australia were bowled out for 85 in 32.5 overs in Hobart, Vernon Philander taking 5 for 21 in conditions made for him, and lost by an innings and 80 runs. Australia won the day-night Test at Adelaide to make the series 2-1, and the selection panel rebuilt the batting order afterwards.

Series	Venue country	Result	Turning point
1993-94 (3 Tests)	Australia	Drawn 1-1	De Villiers takes 10 for 123 in Sydney
1993-94 (3 Tests)	South Africa	Drawn 1-1	Heavy South African win at the Wanderers
2005-06 (3 Tests)	Australia	Australia 2-0	Ponting and Hussey pile up runs
2008-09 (3 Tests)	Australia	South Africa 2-1	414 chased at Perth
2008-09 (3 Tests)	South Africa	Australia 2-1	Immediate away answer
2011-12 (2 Tests)	South Africa	Drawn 1-1	Australia 47 all out at Newlands
2012-13 (3 Tests)	Australia	South Africa 1-0	Du Plessis saves Adelaide on debut
2013-14 (3 Tests)	South Africa	Australia 2-1	Johnson takes 22 wickets
2016-17 (3 Tests)	Australia	South Africa 2-1	Australia 85 all out in Hobart
2017-18 (4 Tests)	South Africa	South Africa 3-1	Sandpaper at Newlands
2022-23 (3 Tests)	Australia	Australia 2-0	Gabba Test finished in two days

Newlands 2018 and the sandpaper

Australia's 2018 tour of South Africa was hostile before it reached Cape Town, and it ended the careers of three players in their current form. During the third Test at Newlands, Cameron Bancroft was filmed working on the ball with sandpaper. Steve Smith and David Warner stood down during the match, Tim Paine took over, and Cricket Australia handed down twelve-month bans to Smith and Warner and a nine-month ban to Bancroft.

South Africa won that Test and the series 3-1. The cricket has been almost entirely swallowed by the affair, which has its own detailed page on this site. What it did to the fixture was practical as well as symbolic. Australia did not play a Test at Newlands again for years, and the two boards spent a long time repairing the relationship.

2022-23: two days at the Gabba

South Africa's most recent full Test tour of Australia, in December 2022 and January 2023, went 2-0 to Australia. The first Test at the Gabba was over inside two days: South Africa 152 and 99, Australia 218 and 35 for 4, Australia winning by six wickets. The pitch was rated poor by some observers and adequate by others, and the argument about it ran for weeks.

The Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground was the opposite: Australia 575 for 8 declared, David Warner making a double century in his hundredth Test, South Africa dismissed twice for 189 and 204, Australia winning by an innings and 182. The Sydney Test was drawn. Pat Cummins took the most wickets in the series and Warner took the player of the series award.

Lord's 2025: the World Test Championship final

The two sides met at Lord's between 11 and 14 June 2025 in the final of the third World Test Championship cycle. South Africa won by five wickets. Aiden Markram made 136 in the fourth innings and was named player of the match. Kagiso Rabada took nine wickets across the two innings.

It was South Africa's first global title since the 1998 Champions Trophy, and the first time a country with a long-standing reputation for losing knockout matches had won one against Australia. From an Australian point of view it was also the end of a cycle: the same core group that had won the previous final and the 2023 Ashes and World Cup did not get a third crack at it.

Why it is a fast bowling rivalry

The evidence is in the names. South Africa's leading Test wicket-takers of the modern era are all quicks: Dale Steyn finished with 439 Test wickets at 22.95, Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini before him, Rabada after. Allan Donald took 330 Test wickets at 22.25 and 272 in one-day cricket. Vernon Philander built an entire career on a length that Australian batters found unplayable in the right conditions.

Australia's answer over the same period runs through Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. When Australia have beaten South Africa it has usually been because one of those bowlers had a series like Johnson's in 2014. When South Africa have beaten Australia it has almost always been because Steyn, Philander or Rabada found a surface that suited them.

There is a structural reason for the symmetry. Both countries prepare pitches on similar clay profiles with genuine carry, both play in hot dry conditions where the ball scuffs rather than swings conventionally for long, and both use the Kookaburra ball, which offers about 20 overs of hard-seam movement and then goes quiet. The result is that a bowler who succeeds in one country usually succeeds in the other. Neither side has ever needed to be a great player of spin to win this fixture, which is not something you can say about Australia against India.

1. 1March 1970South Africa complete a four nil series win over Australia at Port Elizabeth in what turns out to be the last Test of the era.
2. 21970 to 1971South Africa are excluded from international cricket over apartheid and Australia's scheduled tour is abandoned.
3. 31985 to 1987Two unsanctioned Australian sides tour South Africa and the players involved are banned at home for several years.
4. 41991 to 1992South Africa are readmitted, play a one-day series in India and then take part in the 1992 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
5. 5December 1993The two countries play their first Test in more than 23 years at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and draw it.
6. 6January 1994South Africa win at the Sydney Cricket Ground by five runs and the modern rivalry is properly under way.

The sequence of events between the last Test of the old era and the restart. Dates are as published in contemporary records. This is a chronology, not a judgement about the politics.

The white-ball record and why South Africa lead it

South Africa's edge in one-day internationals is real and it is not an accident. Between the mid-1990s and the mid-2010s South Africa built fifty-over sides around genuine all-rounders, most obviously Jacques Kallis, and around fielding standards that Australia spent years trying to match. They also played a large share of the fixtures at home, where the ball comes on and the boundaries are shorter than at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Australia have generally had the better of the meetings that mattered most. The 1999 semi-final, the 2007 World Cup semi-final in St Lucia and the 2023 World Cup semi-final in Kolkata all went Australia's way. That pattern is now well enough established that it gets mentioned every time the two sides meet in a knockout game.

In Twenty20 internationals Australia lead comfortably. Before the three-match series in Darwin and Cairns in August 2025 the record stood at 17 wins to 8 from 25 matches, and Australia won that series 2-1.

The women's fixture

Australia's women have been the dominant side in world cricket for most of the last decade and the record against South Africa reflects that. The two met in the final of the 2023 Twenty20 World Cup at Newlands, in front of a home crowd, and Australia won. South Africa reached that final and the semi-finals of several other tournaments off the back of a rapid professionalisation of their domestic game, but they have not yet converted one against Australia.

Several South African players have appeared in the Women's Big Bash League, which is one of the main routes by which the two systems now interact.

What is next: the 2026 tour of South Africa

Australia are scheduled to tour South Africa across September and October 2026. The published schedule lists three one-day internationals in late September, a tour match at Potchefstroom in early October, and three Tests: Durban from 9 October, Gqeberha from 18 October and Cape Town from 27 October. The Tests count towards the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle.

The Cape Town Test carries an obvious subplot given what happened at the same ground in 2018. Tour schedules do get revised, so treat those dates as indicative and check Cricket Australia's published calendar before making plans.

Where it sits among Australia's rivalries

Below the Ashes and below the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in commercial terms, and above almost everything else in competitive terms. The Ashes has the history and the crowds. India has the money and, in recent cycles, the sharpest edge. South Africa has the closest scoreline.

There is also no trophy. Australia and South Africa play for a series result and nothing else, which is unusual among Australia's regular fixtures and probably contributes to the sense that the rivalry is less formalised than it should be. If you want the comparison points, the Ashes page sets out how differently a named trophy shapes a series.

How to follow the fixture from Australia

When South Africa tour, the Tests go to the main grounds and the white-ball matches often go to the northern venues in the pre-summer window, as they did at Darwin and Cairns in August 2025. Tickets are far easier to get than for an Ashes or India summer, and day-of-match availability is common outside the Boxing Day and New Year Tests.

Broadcast follows the standard Australian arrangement for men's international cricket, which the viewing guide on this site sets out in full, including the anti-siphoning position and which matches are free to air. For tours of South Africa the time zone is friendly by Australian standards: play at the Wanderers or Newlands starts in the Australian evening, so a Test session runs across prime time on the east coast.

The practical advice for a first-time viewer is to watch the first hour with a new ball. In this fixture more than any other Australian contest, that hour usually decides the match.

Further reading on this site

For the conditions that make the bowling contest what it is, the guide to why Australian batters play off the back foot covers the technical side from the batting end, and the companion piece on spin bowling in Australia explains why neither country has ever built a Test attack around a slow bowler in the way that India or Sri Lanka do.

For background, the history of Australian cricket and the origins of the game in Australia give the long view, and the grounds guide covers the venues that host the Tests. If you want the full record, the site's Australia hub and cricket section link to everything.