Steadfast Rickelton sets the agenda as South Africa refuse to go quietly

Ryan Rickelton has never played a first-class match at Newlands in which he hasn't scored a century.

The sample size is small and this is only his fourth red-ball match at the venue, but his returns tell you he feels right at home. Three of Rickelton's four hundreds at Newlands have come in the second innings, and when he has reached three figures at this ground, his team has never lost.

"It's flat," is his reasoning, and he's right, especially for this match, but it's more than that.

On this occasion, it was that Rickelton was batting with South Africa's backs all but superglued to the wall. He came into bat after Temba Bavuma had fallen in unbelievable fashion, when he swiped across the line to be bowled by Nathan Lyon in the final minutes of day three. South Africa were effectively 31 for 4 and fighting to stay in the game, stay in the series and stay true to the title of world champions.

Rickelton edged the first ball he faced, which pitched outside off and spun away, through the slips for four. Then he had to face Mitchell Starc. He clipped one past short leg for four more and survived the day on 8 off six balls but looked far from convincing. "That's eight less that we have to get tomorrow," is what Rickelton said South Africa's coach Shukri Conrad had told him when he got back to the dressing-room.

In his own mind, he would have had to get many more.

Rickelton came into this Test with backing, after succeeding Kyle Verreynne as the designated wicketkeeper following South Africa's 214-run defeat in Durban, but under pressure himself. In 14 Test innings before this one, he had only scored one half-century, and in this series he had not got past 42. He would have known the responsibility that lay with him on day four.

How he planned to deal with it was shown in the fourth over of the day. Starc sent down a bouncer and Rickelton ducked, bat tucked away, eyes to the ground. That was how he planned to blunt what Australia hoped would be their biggest threat, especially as it has worked against several South African batters in this series.

"We've seen a lot of short-ball dismissals throughout the series from a South African batters' perspective," Rickleton said. "I'm generally one that plays a short ball, but it wasn't worth it for me, especially with a trap. It just takes one to hold or go through a little bit quicker and the ball's in the air. So, I just put it away. I was willing to take a couple on the body, but I didn't really want to play the short ball."

He ground his way to 92 before he took his hardest blow. Mitchell Starc, with a 28-over second ball, banged it in short, Rickelton thought of playing and then shouldered arms so he took it in the ribs. "It was a bit sore," he said. But it was part of his plan to wear Australia down.

"I know those big quicks, they charge in, they put three or four overs under their belts and if they get nothing from the batter, it really just drains them and doesn't incentivise them to keep going," Rickelton said. "If you keep looking for it, they're going to come in and if they get a sniff, the three of them are really good at extracting whatever they can out of that wicket. I tried to really put the pull and the hook away, just with the trend of the series."

He also had the perfect partner to witness that. Wiaan Mulder was among those South Africans who had fallen to the short ball, including in this match. In the first innings, he was caught behind off a Starc bouncer which he edged to Alex Carey. All told, before this innings, Mulder had been dismissed three times off the short ball and only scored 14 runs off and faced 62.

It's little surprise the second ball Pat Cummins bowled to him was short. Mulder left. In his next over, Cummins went again. Mulder was in two minds as he almost played it late, but then let it hit his glove and fall away. Then Starc came at him. Mulder ducked. After facing 42 deliveries off the old ball, Mulder had only 16 runs. Rickelton was on 48 off 101. The pair were patience personified.

"It was never about scoring runs or getting too far ahead of ourselves. It was having our plan and really sticking into it," Rickelton confirmed.

And that's where his task became even more immense. Rickelton has played as an opener and knows what it takes to get through a new ball. Mulder has played at No.3, and also has the ability to bat for long periods of time. Since accepting his role as a bowling allrounder, however, he has adjusted to batting lower down the order. It was for Rickelton to remind him of what he is capable of.

"Wiaan was sometimes starting to breach out of his plan," he said. "So it was just to keep pulling each other in. We knew the longer that we batted, the more frustrated they'd get. What we did really well was just hone in on our partnership and really emphasise what the bowler was going to come with, emphasise just really being present and not going too far ahead of ourselves.

"We had to be willing to absorb for a long period of time," he added. "It can get frustrating sometimes when you're not scoring. So, it was to emphasise a lot on that with Wiaan and with Matty (Breetzke) as well: 'Just hang in there, hang in there. The runs will come.' The longer we grounded out, obviously, the more Australia started to feel it."

Mulder eventually reined it in and knuckled down. He and Rickelton added 92 wicketless runs in the middle session, which is where South Africa controlled the game. Rickelton spent 37 balls in the nineties and had to wait until after tea to bring up a century. That he did it with Mulder, his old school team-mate, made it even more significant.

Shortly after that, Mulder reverse-swept Marnus Labuschagne, Rickleton thought it had beaten Josh Inglis at backward point and ran, but it hadn't. With Mulder unmoved, Rickelton had to sacrifice himself. "It was really special until he ran me out. And then I was quite pissed off," Rickelton said in jest.

There's a joke in South Africa that all the best players tend to come from the same handful of schools. In this Test match, it proved more than just an urban legend. Rickelton, Mulder, Marques Ackerman (who scored 62) and Kagiso Rabada were all students at St Stithians, while Rickelton, Mulder and Rabada are also domestic team-mates at the Johannesburg-based Lions.

"We have played a lot of cricket coming through the teenage years together, the Lions and for South Africa as well," Rickelton said. "We know each other's games really well. To be able to be out there together and to put on a big partnership, and for him to be there for my milestone, was really special. I'm sad I wasn't out there for him, because he played incredibly well today and deserved it too."

Instead it was another alumni, Rabada, who was at the crease when Mulder drove Lyon through cover and brought up his fourth Test hundred. As Mulder saluted the sky, ostensibly for his late father Pieter who passed six months ago, then pointed to the hospitality area where his new baby daughter, born less than two months ago, was stationed, Rabada applauded from his end.

Eventually the two came together, and the embrace said what Rickelton did afterwards: "We're not a team packed with massive names or superstars, but we swim hard for each other and we fight hard for each other. We really try to do right by each other as well."

They have one more day, and a huge one, in this series to show that.