The South African cricket team toured Australia for cricket matches during the 2005–06 season. South Africa had already played two One Day International series during this season, beating New Zealand 4–0 at home before travelling to India and drawing the series there 2–2. The team had been playing 14 successive ODIs (tour matches excluded) before arriving in Australia, with their last Test match against West Indies in April and May 2005. South Africa played one first class warm-up match, one three-day warm-up match without first class status, and one one-day match before they embarked on the three-Test series, which began on 16 December and ended on 6 January. They also participated in the 2005–06 VB Series, a three-team one-day tournament, along with Australia and Sri Lanka, where they finished last.
The hosts Australia, meanwhile, came off a win in the Frank Worrell Trophy Test series against West Indies in November, where they won all three matches in the series. They also spent a week in New Zealand playing three ODIs for the Chappell–Hadlee Trophy while South Africa played their first warm-up games; Australia won that trophy after winning two of the three ODIs.
South Africa started with a draw, batting out 126 overs in the fourth innings to draw the match at the WACA, though they finished on a total of five for 287, well short of the winning target of 491. In the second Test match, South Africa trailed by 44 on first innings, but a century from Matthew Hayden took Australia to a lead of 365 before declaring, and Shane Warne took four wickets in the second innings as Australia bowled their way to a 184-run win. South Africa came back to earn a lead of 92 on first innings in the third Test at the SCG, but after 70 fourth-day overs were lost due to rain South Africa declared in the first session of the fifth day to give themselves a chance of victory and a series win. However, Ricky Ponting hit 143 not out to become the first batsman to hit centuries in both innings of his 100th Test, and in the process took Australia past the winning target to secure a 2–0 win.
Squads
South Africa: South Africa Squad, from Cricinfo, URL accessed 23 December 2005 Graeme Smith (c) Mark Boucher (wk) Nicky Boje Johan Botha AB de Villiers Herschelle Gibbs Jacques Kallis Justin Kemp Garnett Kruger Charl Langeveldt André Nel Makhaya Ntini Shaun Pollock Ashwell Prince Jacques Rudolph Botha was added for the third Test after Ntini suffered a knee tendon injury in the second.Ntini doubtful for final Test published by Cricinfo on 29 December 2005Australia Test: Australia Squad, from Cricinfo, URL accessed 23 December 2005 Ricky Ponting (c) Adam Gilchrist (wk) Nathan Bracken Stuart Clark Matthew Hayden Brad Hodge Michael Hussey Justin Langer Brett Lee Glenn McGrath Andrew Symonds Shane Warne Langer suffered a hamstring injury before the second Test and Phil Jaques replaced him. Stuart Clark, who had been left out of the team for the first Test, was dropped from the squad for the second and replaced by Stuart MacGill.Jaques replaces Langer for MCG, from Cricinfo, published 20 December 2005
Tour matches
Western Australia v South Africans, 5 December–7 December
Western Australia beat the South Africans by an innings and 48 runsWestern Australia v South Africans at Perth, 5–7 December 2005, scorecard from Cricinfo, URL accessed 23 December 2005
South Africa began their tour on 5 December, 11 days before the first Test match, with a three-day tour match against Western Australia, who were still without a win in the first class form of the game. However, an elbow injury to Jacques Kallis and a finger injury to Graeme Smith weakened the tourists' batting, and Adam Voges hit 101 for Western Australia, putting on 156 in 43.2 overs with Marcus North. Western Australia were three for 73 at lunch after André Nel, Shaun Pollock and Charl Langeveldt had grabbed a wicket each, but Nel and Langeveldt were both taken for four runs an over, with only Langeveldt getting any further wickets, to end with four for 104. Nicky Boje also got one wicket before Justin Langer declared the innings closed on eight for 391. South Africa added 71 in the first 21 overs, but first class debutant Shawn Gillies, born in Jamaica, then had two wickets in his first over in first class cricket. Cricket Australia's report described Gillies' bowling as "continually troubling the batsmen".Warriors a chance for outright win , media release from cricket.com.au, published 6 December 2005 Ben Edmondson then took the next three wickets either side of the tea break, and spinner Beau Casson rounded it off with four wickets, leaving South Africa all out for 179. Following on 212 behind, South Africa's batsmen yielded eight catches, with three wickets falling in six overs after lunch on day three, and Ashwell Prince's 49 remained their top score thus far on tour as they were bowled out for 164 in the second innings. Beau Casson took another four-wicket-haul, ending with eight wickets for the match (though number five Justin Kemp was his highest-batting victim), while Steve Magoffin ended with three for 37. Gillies was only called upon to bowl four overs, conceding 17 without taking a wicket, as Western Australia recorded their first first-class win of the season. Graeme Smith, South Africa's captain, claimed that he did not think the result was "a concern", and was confident his side would do "the hard work going into the first Test".South Africans crash to innings defeat, from Cricinfo, published 7 December 2005
Cricket Australia Chairman's XI v South Africans, 9 December
South Africans beat Cricket Australia Chairman's XI by eight wicketsCricket Australia Chairman's XI v South Africans in Perth, 9 December 2005, scorecard from Cricinfo, URL accessed 23 December 2005
Western Australia XI v South Africans, 11 December–13 December
Western Australia XI drew with South AfricansDecember 2005.html Western Australia XI v South Africans at Perth, 11–13 December 2005, scorecard from Cricinfo, URL accessed 23 December 2005
The third match of the South Africans' tour was also against Western Australia, but this time against a team containing only two of the players they had played the previous week, and none of the players that had players the Warriors' recent Pura Cup game. Yet, the Western Australia team outscored them on first innings after 145 from 20-year-old Luke Pomersbach, which gave them a lead of eight before declaring. Jacques Rudolph then made a double ton for the South Africans, who scored 395 runs despite four wickets from Matthew Petrie, and Western Australia lost one wicket in reply before time ran out and the match ended in a draw.
Test series 1st Test
After three warm-up matches, with one win, one draw and one loss, the South African team was ready for the top-ranked Australians, though they had to make do without Jacques Kallis. After the early wicket of Matthew Hayden who mis-timed a shot to Jacques Rudolph in the gully on his second ball, Australia batted to lunch with no further loss, and having added 96 in the first 26 overs before lunch they continued with 15 in four overs after it – before Justin Langer top edged a shot to Graeme Smith, and Makhaya Ntini had his second wicket.
He was to get more – after Shaun Pollock had removed Ricky Ponting lbw for 71, Brad Hodge and Mike Hussey batted together until tea, with the score on three for 175. But Ntini took three wickets with thirteen balls, had Hodge, Hussey and Adam Gilchrist all caught, and despite a stand of 33 between Shane Warne and Brett Lee, Australia were bowled out for 258 after André Nel took a brace including Nathan Bracken and Glenn McGrath in the 76th over.
South Africa batted for seven overs before stumps on day one, and Brett Lee was taken out of the attack after two of them, having conceded 15 with two no-balls; he came back to bowl 20.2 overs on the second day, more than any bowler bar Shane Warne, and got five wickets on the day, his sixth career five-wicket-haul. Cricinfo journalist Siddartha Vaidyanathan claimed that the "pendulum [of control in the game] oscillated to and fro"Boucher and Lee set up tense contest, by Siddartha Vaidyanathan, published on Cricinfo 17 December 2005 on the second day, as South Africa first cut 55 runs off the target in 12.3 overs, before a wide one from Bracken found the edge of Graeme Smith's bat and went to the hand of Ponting at second slip for 34.
The next 14 overs saw slower scoring, as de Villiers and Gibbs put on 44, before Gibbs inside edged for 21. It was Gibbs' fifth innings at number three in the order, and he has still not passed 50 at this position. None of the following three batsmen in the order managed to pass 30, either, and Jacques Rudolph and Justin Kemp came and went in single figures to see South Africa were six for 185, and still needed 73 for a first-innings lead.
Those runs were taken by Shaun Pollock and Mark Boucher, who put on 77 together in a stand described as "sizzling" by Vaidyanathan – the two hit six fours in four overs after tea, before Lee returned to have Pollock bowled off the inside edge. Boucher put on 18 in the next half-hour with André Nel, and Makhaya Ntini hit 12 from ten balls as South Africa closed on 296, with a lead of 38. Those runs were exactly matched by Australia, but once again Hayden was dismissed for a sub-25 score, as he top edged to wicket-keeper Boucher for 20. Brett Lee was left as nightwatchman, and Langeveldt bowled a no-ball to level the scores two balls before the end of the day.
Australia's middle order performed much better in the second innings than in the first, however. After Lee had been dismissed for 32, Australia were two for 86, and after Ponting survived a catch off a ball that was incorrectly deemed a no-ball according to TV replays, Ponting made his way to 53, and by tea Australia were four for 185 with Hussey and Hodge at the crease.
Hodge, in his third test, who had contributed with a two-hour 41 in the first innings, survived a dropped catch on 13 – and never looked back. He added an unbroken 126 with Hussey before stumps on day three, made his century off 198 balls on the fourth morning despite Hussey departing in the second over of the day, and took a further 134 balls to make it a double. Ponting then declared, and tea was taken with an Australian total of eight for 528 – which set a target of 491 for South Africa, which would have been a world record chase. With both openers out before the end of the fourth day, South Africa needed a further 406 runs to win for their last eight wickets.
With a victory out of the question, South Africa entered the fifth day with only one objective: survival. The Proteas' remaining eight batsmen would have to bat out ninety overs in over six hours. Gibbs was dismissed 12 overs into the morning session, caught low-down at slip by Warne off the bowling of Brett Lee for 33, and just before the luncheon interval Ashwell Prince was also dismissed after an innings lasting 55 minutes and yielding eight runs. Warne was the perpetrator, and he got his fifth wicket for the match as South Africa went into lunch with the score at four for 140.