The
South Africa national cricket team
The South Africa national cricket team, also known as the Proteas, represents South Africa in men's international cricket and is administered by Cricket South Africa (CSA). South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council ...
toured Australia in the 1993–94 season to play three
test matches against
Australia in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
Sydney and
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
. These were played from 26 December 1993 to 1 February 1994. The tour was the first made by the South Africa cricket team to Australia in 30 years and was undertaken as the
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
system was being dismantled in South Africa and the country transitioned to democratic government.
Kepler Wessels
Kepler Christoffel Wessels (born 14 September 1957) is a South African-Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer who captained South Africa after playing 24 Tests for Australia. Since retiring he has been a lawn bowls competitor.
He ...
captained the South Africans in the first two tests. After a hand injury,
Hansie Cronje
Wessel Johannes "Hansie" Cronje (25 September 1969 – 1 June 2002) was a South African international cricketer and captain of the South African national cricket team in the 1990s. A right-handed all-rounder, as captain Cronje led his team to vi ...
replaced him for the third test.
Allan Border
Allan Robert Border (born 27 July 1955) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the captain of the Australian team. His playing nickname was "A.B.". He played 156 Test ma ...
was Australia's captain for the series.
Before the test series, the South Africans played four matches in the
tri-nation ODI tournament with Australia and
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. After playing a warm-up match against a
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
eleven, they played in the yearly
Boxing Day test
The Boxing Day Test match is a cricket Test match held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, involving the Australian cricket team and an opposing national team that is touring Australia during the southern summer. It begins annually on Boxing ...
at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground, which ended in a draw. The second test played at the
Sydney Cricket Ground saw South Africa claim a five run victory before Australia came back in the third test at
Adelaide Oval
Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the city centre and North Adelaide. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby le ...
winning by 191 runs to tie the test series at 1–1.
Mark Taylor finished as the series' leading run scorer with 304 runs. Fellow teammate
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, whose career ran from 1991 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a right-handed batsman for Victoria, Hampshire and Australi ...
ended taking the series' most wickets with 18.
Background
The
South Africa national cricket team
The South Africa national cricket team, also known as the Proteas, represents South Africa in men's international cricket and is administered by Cricket South Africa (CSA). South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council ...
toured Australia in the 1993–94 season to play three
test matches against
Australia in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
Sydney and
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
from 26 December 1993 to 1 February 1994. This was the first tour made by the South Africa cricket team to Australia in 30 years and was undertaken as South Africa's
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
system was being dismantled and the country transitioned to democratic government.
Kepler Wessels
Kepler Christoffel Wessels (born 14 September 1957) is a South African-Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer who captained South Africa after playing 24 Tests for Australia. Since retiring he has been a lawn bowls competitor.
He ...
captained the South Africans in the first two tests. After a hand injury,
Hansie Cronje
Wessel Johannes "Hansie" Cronje (25 September 1969 – 1 June 2002) was a South African international cricketer and captain of the South African national cricket team in the 1990s. A right-handed all-rounder, as captain Cronje led his team to vi ...
replaced him for the third test.
Allan Border
Allan Robert Border (born 27 July 1955) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the captain of the Australian team. His playing nickname was "A.B.". He played 156 Test ma ...
was Australia's captain for the series.
The Australians and South Africans had different set-ups before the historic tour. The Australians had competed in a
three-test series with
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
winning the series 2–0 after taking test wins at
Hobart and
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
.
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, whose career ran from 1991 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a right-handed batsman for Victoria, Hampshire and Australi ...
was the leading wicket-taker for the series with 18 wickets. On the flip side, the South Africans competed in the
1993 Hero Cup in India with the same squad they were sending to the tour of Australia. After finishing the round-robin stage in second place, they were eliminated by the host nation.
One of the talking points that Rick Allen of ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'' mentioned was
Brett Schultz, who had taken twenty wickets in the
Sri Lankan tour but a knee injury had forced him out of the series. In the preview to the test series, the media saw as a battle between the pace of South Africa and the spin duo of Warne and
Tim May.
Squads
Tour matches
South Africa vs. The Prime Minister's XI
The opening match of the tour for South Africa was against the
Prime Minister's XI in
Manuka Oval
Manuka Oval is a sporting venue in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It is located in Griffith, in the area of that suburb known as Manuka. Manuka Oval has a seating capacity of 13,550 people and an overall capacity of 16,000 people, althoug ...
. The Prime Minister's XI took home the victory by four runs over the South Africans, who still had some fitness worries leading into the match. Hansie Cronje was the top scorer for South Africa with 60 runs. Despite a late flurry of runs, South Africa did not match the required run rate early on and late tail-end wickets by Australia secured the victory.
South Africa vs. Victoria
The South Africans' next tour match was a four-day game against
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground. Batting first, the South Africans were bowled out for 261 on the opening day with
Brian McMillan
Brian Mervin McMillan (born 22 December 1963) played 38 Test matches and 78 One Day Internationals for South Africa from 1991 to 1998. He was rated by many as the best all-rounder in the world in the mid-1990s, and won South African Cricket ...
the top scorer with 55, while Victoria bowler,
Damien Fleming
Damien William Fleming (born 24 April 1970) is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for the Australian national cricket team and domestic cricket for Victoria. He played in 20 Tests and 88 ODIs from 1994 to 2001 and ...
took six wickets. The following day, Victoria could not take command. The youngster
Brad Hodge was top scorer with 80 as Victoria lost four wickets for a single run before
declaring on 8/330 only half an hour before lunch on the third day. Also on the third day, an angry McMillian described the pitch as a "beach" after injuring his knee, which forced him out for the first two tests. Rubber mats had to put in place on the run-up areas. Bowling South Africa for 178, Victoria chased down the target of 110 with six wickets to spare.
Darrin Ramshaw was top scorer for Victoria with 42.
South Africa vs. Queensland
After playing four matches in the
tri-nation series, South Africa went to Queensland to play in the final warm-up match before the first test. Batting first, South Africa scored 7/335 in their first innings. This included a 242 run partnership between Hansie Cronje and
Darryl Cullinan after they were 3/38 when the partnership arrived; they broke the Australian record for the fourth-wicket partnership. In response, only
Stuart Law and
Ian Healy
Ian Andrew Healy (born 30 April 1964) is an Australian former international cricketer who played for Queensland domestically. A specialist wicketkeeper and useful right-hand middle-order batsman, he made an unheralded entry to international ...
settled in with 56 and 41 respectively, with the Queenslanders being bowled out for 183 on the second day.
Fanie de Villiers
Petrus Stephanus "Fanie" de Villiers (born 13 October 1964), is a retired cricketer who played 18 Test matches and 83 One Day Internationals for South Africa as a right arm fast-medium bowler and right hand batsman between 1992 and 1998.
He ...
was the pick of the bowlers with 3/34 with all of his wickets being in the top order. Not forcing the follow on, South Africa scored 8/224 in the second innings with
Andrew Hudson scoring 105 in what was his first respectable score of the tour from six innings. The match would end in a draw, though, but not before
Trevor Barsby
Trevor John Barsby (born 16 January 1964, in Brisbane), nicknamed "Tank" is a former Australian first class cricketer who played for Queensland.
Barsby was an aggressive batsman, usually opening and often with Matthew Hayden. He is one of a s ...
almost scored a century as he fell one run short after falling
leg before wicket
Leg before wicket (lbw) is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed in the sport of cricket. Following an appeal by the fielding side, the umpire may rule a batter out lbw if the ball would have struck the wicket but was instead in ...
to de Villiers.
South Africa vs. New South Wales Invitational XI
Initially, this match was not on the tour schedule, but after the
1994 eastern seaboard fires tore through New South Wales, a match was arranged between the South Africans and an invitational eleven that featured Allan Border. For South Africa this was a practice match before the tri-nation series final against Australia and after
Daryll Cullinan
Daryll John Cullinan (born 4 March 1967) is a former South African first-class cricketer who played Test cricket and One Day Internationals for South Africa as a specialist batsman. He was regarded as the most gifted batsman of his generation ...
scored 95 in South Africa's 5/247. Chasing down the target, after a 59 from
Mark Waugh
Mark Edward Waugh (born 2 June 1965) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer, who represented Australia in Test matches from early 1991 to late 2002, after previously making his One Day International (ODI) debu ...
, the invitational team collapsed as they lost six wickets for 25 runs to give South Africa the win by 19 runs. In
Richard Snell's second spell he took four wickets to extinguish the hosts team's chances of winning.
Test series summary
1st Test
As the first test between these two sides in Australia since the
1963–64 tour, the opening test of the series was a momentous occasion. Leading up to the test,
Jonty Rhodes
Jonathan Neil "Jonty" Rhodes (born 27 July 1969) is a South African professional cricket commentator and former Test and One Day International cricketer. He is regarded as one of the greatest fielders of all time and was the first South African ...
was declared fit and ready to go after being unable to face fast bowling for twelve days because of an injury to his hand sustained during the
One Day International (ODI) played in Sydney. The opening two days of the test saw barely any action on the field with rain being a constant feature. After winning the toss, Australia got to 2/71 from the overs played during the first day with only
Michael Slater
Michael Jonathon Slater (born 21 February 1970) is an Australian former professional cricketer and former television presenter. He played in 74 Test matches and 42 One Day Internationals for the Australia national cricket team.
Early life
S ...
and
nightwatchman Shane Warne being the wickets to fall. In the case of Warne's wicket, it was Fanie de Villiers first wicket in test cricket as he and
Gary Kirsten debuted for the South Africans.
The second day saw no play for the first time in Melbourne since the
1970–71 match against England when that whole test was abandoned. Estimates of revenue from the first two days was around $600,000 because of the loss of ten of the twelve hours of scheduled play. The following day saw another 128 minutes being played for only 69 runs before rain affected the rest of the day. The
Australian Cricket Board
Cricket Australia (CA), formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board (ACB), is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the 'Australian Board of Control for International Crick ...
had discussions about the test being turned into an ODI (One Day International). After the final two days, the match ended in a draw. During the match, Mark Taylor scored his 12th century becoming the second player after
Martin Crowe
Martin David Crowe (22 September 1962 – 3 March 2016) was a New Zealand cricketer, Test and ODI captain as well as a commentator. He played for the New Zealand national cricket team between 1982 and 1995, and is regarded as one of the count ...
to score centuries against seven different test nations. He would go on to score 170 as he and Mark Waugh (84) led Australia to declare on 7/342. For South Africa, Craig Matthews was the pick of the bowlers with 3/68. After ending the day on 1/59, South Africa finished the test on 3/258 with Cronje scoring 71 and Kepler Wessels, who had to be on pain-killing tablets the previous day, ended on 63
not out
In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress.
Occurrence
At least one batter is not out at t ...
as the match finished in a draw.
2nd Test
The series' second test match saw changes only to the Australian side as they went with the same twelve players but with McGrath replacing Reiffel in the lineup. South Africa went with the same eleven from the first test. This was despite Brian McMillian testing his knee in the nets hoping for a call up to the team as he was picked as the 12th man. Wessels got through training and kept his spot on the team. On the opening day, South Africa won the toss and elected to bat. Initially, the decision was a good one, with the South Africans being 1/91 with Kirsten (67) and Cronje (41) setting a 90-run partnership. But with the crowd of 32,681 urging him on, Warne took 7/22 in a 78-ball spell as South Africa collapsed to be all out for 169.
After surviving the first day on 1/20,
[ Australia slow-marched their way towards South Africa's score with Slater (92) being in a 104-run partnership with captain Allan Border (49) that took four hours. During this time, Slater got hit on his right hand three times from the small plates of grass on the Randwick End with Border also getting hit in the eye as he attempted to sweep over Symcox' bowling. In an interview that day, Slater said, "The wicket is deteriorating quite quickly, and quite powdery." '']The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...
'' described the pitch as more disintegrated than a fourth-day Shield strip. South Africa wasn't without trouble with Wessels having to be on the field for a short while due to a dive from second slip as it split the webbing inside the hand.
Australia batted for close to three hours on the third day before being bowled out for 292. This was helped by Damien Martyn
Damien Richard Martyn (born 21 October 1971) is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer, who played Tests and ODIs. He played for the national team sporadically in 1992–1994 before becoming a regular ODI player from 1999 to 20 ...
, who delivered with his square cuts and pull shots for his 59. South Africa, though, had six chances going down during the innings which added to the four from the previous test. In bowling, de Villiers was the pick of the bowlers as he took 4/80 from 36 overs while Allan Donald
Allan Anthony Donald (born 20 October 1966) is a South African former cricketer who is also the current bowling coach of Bangladesh national cricket team. Often nicknamed 'White Lightning' due to his lightning quick bowling, he is considered ...
also took four wickets. South Africa's she second innings saw some resistance with Kirsten and Cronje keeping Shane Warne away from wicket-taking opportunities. After Kirsten was bowled by Craig McDermott
Craig John McDermott (born 14 April 1965) is a former Australian cricketer. Between 1984 and 1996 he played 71 Tests for Australia, taking 291 wickets. Following the end of his playing career, he was the bowling coach for the Australian team fo ...
, Wessels (18) was brought up the order to bat at four. Despite the injury to his hand, which would later rule him out of the rest of the series, he defended his wicket for 41 minutes, getting South Africa to 2/94 by day's end. After an early collapse of 3/9 on the fourth day, Jonty Rhodes (76*) steadied the ship as he lasted three and a quarter hours, wearing down Warne and counter-attacking McDermott. His innings featured seven boundaries, which included a six over the square leg fence. Small contributions from Dave Richardson (24) and Allan Donald (10) got the score to 239, which set Australia a target of 117. Warne again being the pick of bowlers with 5/72 as his bowling performance of 12/128 had the best second performance by a bowler at the SCG ( Sydney Cricket Ground).
Chasing 117 for victory, Australia got off to 1/51 before de Villiers took three wickets from five balls as he got David Boon
David Clarence Boon (born 29 December 1960) is an Australian cricket match referee, former cricket commentator and international cricketer whose international playing career spanned the years 1984–1996. A right-handed batsman and a very oc ...
(24), Tim May (0) and Taylor (27) to put Australia at 4/63 at the end of the day. Only Mark Waugh avoided giving de Villiers his hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...
when he clipped the ball to mid-wicket for a three. The first over of the final day saw Border's wicket fall for seven off Donald to put Australia at 5/63. After the wickets from Warne, Healy and Waugh fell, Australia was now 8/75 with two wickets left. McDermott played his natural game on his 29*, while at the other end Damien Martyn (6) held firm at his crease. For 106 minutes he kept his wicket alive, bringing the target to only seven runs needed before driving a catch in the covers. The last wicket fell only eight balls later to give South Africa the win by five runs and their first test win at the SCG.
3rd Test
Heading into the test, the teams played in tri-series finals, which Australia won 2–1. On the day of the third final, the Australian touring squad confirmed their spot in the Austral-Asia Cup The Austral-Asia Cup was a One Day International cricket tournament held at Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
The Arab cricketer, enthusiast and millionaire Abdur Rahman Bukhathir brought cricket initially to Sharjah in the mid-1980s and he maste ...
that was to be played after the South African tour. After winning the toss and electing to bat, Australian players Taylor, Slater and Boon all recorded half-centuries before getting out trying to raise the tempo of their innings. At the end of the day, Australia ended at 4/240 with Donald being the only multi-wicket taker with two wickets. After ending the first day on 32, Steve Waugh played with impressive confidence on his way to 164 runs as he and Allan Border broke the Australian record for the fifth wicket partnership against South Africa with 208. During that partnership though, Border became the first cricket player to get to 11,000 tests runs on his way to 84 as he got Australia to declare at 7/469. In response, South Africa only just avoided the follow on
In the game of cricket, a team who batted second and scored significantly fewer runs than the team who batted first may be forced to follow-on: to take their second innings immediately after their first. The follow-on can be enforced by the team ...
as they scored 273 for their first innings. Andrew Hudson was the South African's top scorer with 90 as he got them to 2/173 with Gary Kirsten (43) and Peter Kirsten (79) contributing. This was undone, though, by an inspirational spell from Steve Waugh who took four wickets in his spell. This was due to not taking the new ball at the end of the 80th over with Border keeping Waugh on.
Not forcing the follow on, the Australians struggled in the second innings with only Taylor (38) and Boon (38) resisting the South Africans as they limped to 6/124 before Border declared with 25 minutes after the third session of Day 4. The final hour of the fourth day saw Warne pick up two wickets for only two runs as the South Africans chasing 320 to win the series ended the day on 3/18 as Cronje and Kirsten both fell for single figures. Fanie de Villiers (30) and Kirsten (42) held the Australians out with a three-hour partnership for 82 runs as their opponents made 12 changes of seven different bowlers before de Villiers fell from a catch from Paul Reiffel
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
* Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
at mid-off. That wicket would see a collapse as the South Africans lost their remaining seven wickets for only 29 runs to be bowled out for 129 and give Australia the win by 191 runs. During this collapse, Warne who got his 100th test wicket, while Healy claimed his 200th victim in test cricket with a splendid diving catch of McDermott.
Statistics
After the three tests were played, Australian batsman, Mark Taylor ended the series with the most runs with 304 runs from five innings which included his 170 in the drawn test match at Melbourne. He finished ahead of fellow team-mate, Michael Slater (185 runs) and South African batsman Gary Kirsten (175 runs) who rounded out the top three. In the bowling area, Australian spinner, Shane Warne ended up as the leading wicket taker of the series with 18 wickets which included a 7/56 from the first innings in the Sydney test match. He finished ahead of fellow team-mate, Craig McDermott with South African pace bowler, Allan Donald rounding out the top three.
Most runs
Most wickets
References
External sources
Cricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:South African cricket team in Australia in 1993-94
1993 in Australian cricket
1993 in South African cricket
1993–94 Australian cricket season
1994 in Australian cricket
1994 in South African cricket
International cricket competitions from 1991–92 to 1994
1993-94