South Africa face the daunting task of batting throughout the final day of the second Castle Lager Test on Tuesday if they are to save the match and stay in the series.
When bad light stopped play about ten minutes after tea on Monday, South Africa, chasing 410 to win, were 29-0 and faced the prospect of playing on an uneven pitch on Tuesday.
Australia declared their second innings closed on 307-4 about half an hour before tea. Resuming on their overnight score of 125-1, Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden put on another 91 runs in the morning session, to go to lunch on 216-1.
The South African bowlers kept things tight, but never seemed likely to break the partnership.
After lunch, both batsmen reached their 100 — the 30th for Ponting and the 26th for Hayden. Ponting wrote his name in the record books, becoming only the second batsman after Sunil Gavaskar to score a century in both innings in a Test match on three occasions.
Ponting achieved this in the space of just eight Tests — first against the West Indies at the Gabba in Brisbane last year and then against South Africa in his 100th Test in Sydney in January. He is the 61st player to score two centuries in a Test match.
The pair reached a flurry of milestones in a short space of time, with Hayden the first to reach his century. He had been at the crease for just under five hours, and faced 209 balls. Immediately after that, the two reached a partnership of 200, and then Ponting went to his record-breaking century. He had batted for just less than four hours, and faced 166 balls.
But South Africa had first reason to celebrate immediately after that, when Hayden edged a delivery from Makhaya Ntini to be caught behind by Mark Boucher for 102. Ponting went soon afterwards, when he skied a Shaun Pollock delivery and was well caught by Nicky Boje for 116.
Adam Gilchrist, who went cheaply in the first innings, came in up the order with apparent instructions to make runs fast — he hit 22 runs off one Andre Nel over, with five fours and a two.
The hot-headed Nel was seen to exchange words with the Australian and may well be up before a disciplinary hearing as a result. But Nel got his revenge in the next over, when he took a difficult catch on the boundary off Boje to get Gilchrist out for 24 off just nine balls.
Gilchrist’s wicket prompted the Australian declaration.
AB de Villiers and Graeme Smith safely negotiated the 20 minutes before tea in increasingly gloomy light. After tea, Ponting used Andrew Symonds and Shane Warne, in an attempt to keep play going, but after two overs and one ball had been bowled, the umpires called the players off the field. At that stage, De Villiers had 17 and Smith 10. — Sapa