Hazlewood's career-best 6 for 49 sinks South Africa in Durban
Aiden Markram's fighting 75 in vain as South Africa slipped to their first Test loss under Temba Bavuma
Josh Hazlewood picked four of the remaining six South African wickets en route to his best bowling figures in Tests as Australia wrapped up a 214-run win early in the second session on Day 5 in Durban. Hazlewood kickstarted the proceedings on Day 5 with the wicket of Wiaan Mulder and also put the finishing touches with the final wicket, of Anrich Nortje. Between that, Aiden Markram attempted to do what Faf du Plessis did in Adelaide 2012, but most of the other lower order batters did not get the memo. Eventually, South Africa suffered their first Test defeat under captain Temba Bavuma.
South Africa's undoing in the fourth innings began late on Day 4 when they lost four wickets. Markram and Wiaan Mulder showed some gumption of fight at the end, which spilled over to almost all of the morning session on Day 5 to offer a flicker of hope to the home team. Not for the first time in this game, Hazlewood trampled on it: he had Wiaan Mulder caught behind down the leg side after he'd fought it out for 109 deliveries for his 29 runs. Hazlewood broke a stand that lasted 204 balls, and found his team an opening. Steve Smith took a third blinder of the game in the slips to send back Kyle Verreynne and give Matt Renshaw a second wicket.
At 156/6, the writing seemed to be on the wall until Marco Jansen arrived and put his best foot forward to stall Australia's victory march. He batted alongside Markram for 103 deliveries, taking South Africa past the morning session and into the second. But once again, Hazlewood arrived as the antagonist to South Africa's cause.
He got an exceptional nip backer - that seamed in 1.4 degrees, to breach Jansen's defence and knock his stumps back to set Australia on their way to victory. In the same over, he surprised Simon Harmer with a sharply- rising delivery that also seamed in. Harmer couldn't get out of harm's way and ended up edging to Carey behind. With this, Hazlewood picked his 15th five-wicket haul in Tests.
The absolute final nail in South Africa's coffin was drilled in by Mitchell Starc in the following over, when he got Markram to inside edge a ball to Carey behind the stumps. It took an umpire's review to send Markram on his way, for a fighting 75 off 237 balls. A fired-up Hazlewood then completed the proceedings with a short ball to Nortje, who could only hit the ball as far as Nathan Lyon at mid-wicket. Hazlewood finished with 6/49 - bettering is previous best of 6/67 against India in Bengaluru in March 2017.
Brief scores: Australia 390 (Matt Renshaw 190, Pat Cummins 43; Wiaan Mulder 4-68, Marco Jansen 3-68) & 314/6 decl. (Matthew Renshaw 82, Nic Maddinson 48; Anrich Nortje 2-56, Keshav Maharaj 2-56) lead South Africa 284 & 206 (Aiden Markram 75, David Bedingham 46; Josh Hazlewood 6-49, Matt Renshaw 2-39) by 214 runs
