‘His moment’: Renshaw’s decade-long Test journey comes full circle with epic redemption

In the third coming of Matthew Renshaw as a Test cricketer, the versatile batter demonstrated the importance of resilience and perseverance with a critical century against South Africa that could yet swing the series Australia’s way.

It may not have been as the opener he was initially recalled as in Mackay in late August, but in a patient and disciplined innings the Queenslander demonstrated his capability against both the new ball and the old ball in Durban.

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After Australian skipper Pat Cummins called on the nation’s batsman to adopt an old-school approach to their craft on the eve of the highly-anticipated series, Renshaw heeded the captain’s call in a superb innings against the initial tone of the Test

Just under a decade after making his maiden Test century at the SCG against Pakistan, Renshaw steered Australia out of significant trouble and into a dominant position when making a career-best 190 in an innings lasting almost eight hours.

In posting the second century of his career just under a decade after his maiden ton against Pakistan at the SCG in 2017, the 30-year-old faced 397 balls, the most by an Australian since Usman Khawaja in 2023.

“It’s a weird one,” he said.

“I think once (I had) a few years out of the team and had an opportunity in 2023 and didn’t take it, you probably think that you’re never going to get this opportunity again. It was pretty emotional. It was pretty special.”

Former Australian captain Alyssa Healy touched on the difficult times Renshaw has experienced and noted his ability to persevere should serve as a lesson for younger compatriots.

“You think about him as a player over that (last decade and) he’s a different player and a more mature player,” she said on Kayo Sports.

“He went away and worked really hard at his game against spin, and he’s been rewarded in this Test match for that batting at five and when the spinners are starting.

“It’s a great story, and probably a great lesson for all the younger guys out there. It doesn’t have to happen at 21 or 22. It might take you a while to get going.”

The left-hander arrived at the crease with Australia at 3-84 after lunch and soon after lost Steve Smith as his partner to leave the tourists in a perilous position and one from which the opening Test could easily have been wrenched away.

As the clouds started to arrive and the sky darkened over Kingsmead Oval on Friday, Renshaw conversely started to shine a light on the importance of placing a price on his wicket, of not batting as though there was a ball that had his name on it.

He shelved his cover drive mindful of the spice in the wicket, viewed tempting balls outside off-stump with suspicion and was prepared to shift the turn the strike over only when it served to do so.

Combining with Cummins for Australia’s highest seventh wicket partnership at Kingsmead, the 30-year-old played conservatively yet with conviction through their stint together as the skipper proved an extremely valuable ally.

Then when South Africa made inroads once taking the second new ball, tempting Cummins into a false stroke and then removing Mitchell Starc not long after, Renshaw upped the aggression without going over the top.

Fours started to flow more freely, but he did not bat recklessly, instead choosing the right ball to attack while rotating the strike to protect a stoic Nathan Lyon, who has always been prepared to dig in with the bat.

Speaking after play, Renshaw said the team “would have bitten your arm off” to so much as make 350, having been 6/124 shortly after lunch on Day 1 in Durban.

“It was just about playing that situation,” he said.

The moment came with a superb flick off the legs from a delivery from Anrich Nortje, who was dangerous with the ball on Friday, and the joy was reminiscent in both the left-hander and also in the Australian’s watching on.

“When I hit the ball, I was just screaming at it, ‘Go. Go. Go.’” Renshaw said.

“It all hit me all at once.”

Former South African quick Vernon Vilander, who is covering the game for Fox Cricket, said it was a superb performance.

“This is his moment ... he has done his role perfectly, supported by the lower order,” he said.

“He’s got reward for all the hard work he’s done from yesterday and today. He had to work so hard for a Test return.”

But Renshaw, who was stranded on the Devil’s number of 87 for a period, was not finished yet. He continued to boss the South African attack, judicious in both his batting and in farming the strike late in an over to offer protection to the lower-order.

There was one nasty moment when, on 131, he was struck by a bullet-like delivery from Nortje that reared like a stallion and struck him on the grill.

But that did not detract from the fun he was having in the middle - when consulting with Lyon between overs they would often join the karaoke songs being belted out by fans in the outer - and nor did it rattle his composure.

The partnership with Lyon swelled to 134 - the second-highest ever for an Australian ninth-wicket partnership, and just 20 short of the record set by Syd Gregory and Jack Blackham all the way back in 1894.

Renshaw did the lion’s share of the scoring, and amusingly revealed after play he had to rein in the champion all-rounder’s shot selection on several occasions throughout the stand.

“I had to calm him down a few times,” he said.

“A few times he got out of his bubble, playing a few big drives.

“I walked down and I was like ‘Nathan ... let’s just keep going’.

“He called for gloves one time and just said ‘Yeah, tell Ron (Andrew McDonald) I’m sorry’.

“He likes to tell me what to do, but it’s the way that he’s telling himself how he wants to play - play straight, look straight, if it’s a bouncer react.

“And I’m like ‘Yeah, that’s what I’m doing.’”

On passing 150, he raised his bat to all corners of the ground and pushed on to tea in an extended middle session that lasted 2hr 45min before finally falling to Simon Harmer in the first over after tea.

Fellow left-hander Simon Katich, who scored a century in Durban in 2009, praised the approach of Renshaw and said it rendered ridiculous the notion every player will receive a ball that “has their name on it”.

“I’ve been hearing that a lot from the domestic cricketers and the game, probably not just here in Australia, but all around the world and a lot of us have got sick of hearing it because it’s a cop out,” Katich told foxsports.com.au.

“Yes, you’re going to play on surfaces that are going to do a bit. You expect that when you’re playing at this level, that you’re going to play guys that move the ball. Otherwise, they’re not going to get to this level.

“So I think you know it’s a mindset thing, so I think he’s proven ... with the right mindset, you can play well in these sorts of conditions and swing it back around to the bowler.”

Earlier when commentating for SEN, Katich said the discipline with which he batted should serve as a template for others in the top order, with Cummins having implored his batsmen to remember the value of putting a price on his wicket.

“They have all got the ability to do it. It is just a shift in mindset. His technique has been tested at all stages in this innings ... and he is finding a way to get through, and I think a lot of that comes down to his mindset,” Katich said on SEN radio.

“I like him as a player. When he first came in, I liked him as a player, even though others thought he was too defensive.

“I think that is what this team has needed and been crying out for. If he can own the area outside off-stump against the new ball, he will become a very good player.”

After his initial stint in the Test team as a highly-promising batsmen, Renshaw prospered against Pakistan and India, before showing good discipline in a knock in tricky conditions in Bangladesh, only to experience a lean run in Sheffield Shield.

When left out after that, he was confused and upset and has spoken of putting on weight and becoming obsessed with checking the scores of rivals.

But fatherhood has helped distract him and he is now content and mature as a cricketer, despite strangely being in a somewhat familiar position as the youngest man in the Australian team over a decade after his debut.

“I think all the stuff that I’ve done in the past 10 years has probably led me to this moment,” he said.

“I think I wouldn’t be where I was without all the failures. We’re quick to judge failures, but I think some of the best, or definitely some of the best learnings, has come from those failures.”

Fox Cricket’s expert pundit Kerry O’Keeffe said the innings demonstrated that Renshaw could prove a mainstay in the Australian side for years to come.

“He looks as if he’ll serve Australia well in all forms. He could be a three-format star for the next five or six years. He’s 30, and he’ll go to 35 or 36,“ Kerry O’Keeffe said.

“Australia have uncovered one. They knew they had him. They just wanted him at the peak of his powers and he is at the moment.

Mark Waugh was highly critical of the decision-making of the Australian selectors when it came to choosing Nic Maddinson, but he said the recall of Renshaw had been proven correct after he put the Aussies on the front foot in the opening Test.

“We’ve got a dart that’s found the bullseye,” he said.