Renshaw in the frame for Test return at the SCG

With a Test still to play, Australia has beaten South Africa for the first time at home since 2005-06, confirming how far this side has come in performance and culture.

Travis Head, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc celebrate after the run out Khaya Zondo. Picture: Michael Klein.

With a Test still to play, Australia has beaten South Africa for the first time at home since 2005-06, confirming how far this side has come in performance and culture.

Mitch Starc and Cameron Green, however, are injured and selectors were on Thursday night considering calling in Queensland batsman Matthew Renshaw and a second spinner to boost the squad.

Renshaw played the last of his 11 Tests in 2018 and has accumulated 491 runs, including an undefeated 200 against NSW at an average of 81.83 for Queensland, and made 81 and 101 in the Prime Minister’s XI game against the West Indies.

He recently declared himself “ready” for a return to Test cricket.

Called on to send down his occasional leg spin in the second session of the fourth day at the MCG, Steve Smith bowled Lungi Ngidi to wrap up the match with an innings and 182 runs to spare.

Nathan Lyon took three wickets in the innings to draw level with Kagiso Rabada as the leading wicket-taker of the year on 47.

Starc bowled through pain, made a critical breakthrough, and will now assess whether the detached ligament in his middle finger needs an operation or extended rest.

And captain Pat Cummins finishes a 12-month period in which his team lost only one Test and were undefeated in all series.

Presumably David Warner’s epic double century in his 100th Test and Alex Carey’s maiden hundred were noted in the celebrations that followed the win.

Starc and Green will both be absent for the third Test in Sydney with finger injuries. Josh Hazlewood is fit to come in, but coach Andrew McDonald hinted that Lance Morris may be included. Ashton Agar is a spinning option if the square is as dry as it appears.

“I’m pretty sure we’ll add another spinner to the mix (but) Greeny is pretty close to being irreplaceable as a top-order batter that gives you another bowling option,” Cummins said later.

South Africa’s top order summoned what resistance it could on the final day _ and that was not much. Temba Bavuma’s 65 and Kyle Verreynne’s 33 furthered suggestions they at least are batsmen of potential, but Bavuma’s involvement in two dispiriting run outs docks points from his effort.

Travis Head threw down the stumps of Khaya Zondo (1) and Starc aimed at the heart after Marnus Labuschagne had fielded the ball to finish off Keshav Maharaj (13).

Full marks to the Australians for their intent in the field and their pressure with the ball, but the standard of cricket from the visitors, bowling aside, was poor. Captain Dean Elgar admitted later they’d been on the end of a “hiding” and the “negatives outweigh the positives”. Australian cricket is, as Cummins observed post match, in a sweet spot against a side which has always been its version of a RAT.

David Warner with the Mullagh Medal for man of the match performance. Picture: Michael Klein.

Ricky Ponting’s side lost the three-Test series to them 2-1 in 2005-06, Michael Clarke’s was ambushed 1-0 in 2012-13 and Steve Smith’s suffered a 2-1 drubbing in 2016-17.

South Africans feel at home here and got Australia at a particularly weak point on all three occasions, but the outcome of the series is something of an irrelevance.

Of course a side with this much batting and bowling power would thrash an opponent whose fortunes are failing.

There was, however, a moment in the morning’s play which gave pause for thought on how far Australian cricket has come.

Starc was forced to stop twice in his bowling action when non-striker Theunis de Bruyn had wandered from his crease well before the bowler got there.

In the shorter formats one does such to gain an advantage, in a Test that’s going down the gurgler at a rate of knots the only possible explanation can be that the non-striker is just not engaged.

Still, a bowler is well within his rights to run out the batsman with or without warning. Starc has been on record to say he wouldn’t, but he was obviously annoyed. It is, after all, a game of Test cricket. You expect your opponent to be a little more engaged.

Rarely one to get angry, and possibly annoyed because he is bowling injured, the Australian had a terse exchange with the South African.

“Just stay in your crease, it’s not that hard,” he said. “The line is there for a reason.”

Starc said later that he’d warned the batsman the night before and was stunned to find him “halfway down Punt Rd”.

“He said ‘I’m not doing it on purpose’ and I said ‘I’ve got to keep my foot behind the line so you can at least keep your bat behind the line’. There’s no need for it, I keep saying ‘I’m not going to take the stumps but you could at least keep your bat behind the line’.”

And that’s about as heated as it got.

It was a minor incident given the history of the two teams and that’s the point here. Remember the ugliness of the last time they played? Remember the abusive exchanges, the angry words, the physical confrontations?

Remember all the talk of another “line”?

While the Starc vs de Bruyn exchange may have sparked a few explosive click-bait farts on social media, if this was as close to controversy the series gets then you can see how much things have changed. Nothing to set the dogs barking here.

There was some criticism from the cheap seats over Cummins’ decision to send Green and Starc out to bat with injured hands, but he defended that move yesterday.

“The medical team were really comfortable that the injuries couldn’t get any worse. If they got knocked a couple of times it wasn’t going to lengthen their time frames anyway,” he said. “Both were itching to get out there. It took our lead from 250 up to 400, which is a huge difference.”