On this day in 2011: Australia clinch a thrilling 2-wicket victory over South Africa

Whenever Australia and South Africa collide, thrilling matches are bound to take place irrespective of the format. Both the teams were involved in one such game back in 2011 when the Aussies, led by Michael Clarke, toured South Africa and ended their stay in the country with a thrilling win on this day.

After losing the first Test of the two-match series, the visitors had to desperately win the second one to level the series. This was also the Test debut for Pat Cummins. After winning the toss, South Africa were bundled out for 266 on the first day thanks to the Aussie bowlers with almost all of them chipping in with wickets.

Australia openers, Shane Watson and Phil Hughes, then gave the team a brilliant start of 174 runs only for the rest of the line-up to get bowled out for 296. Dale Steyn was the wrecker-in-chief with the four-wicket haul. After conceding a 30-run lead, South Africa batted superbly and were sitting pretty at 237/3 at one stage. But Cummins rose to the occasion and picked up a sensational six-wicket haul to bundle the hosts for 339 runs.

The target of 310 runs was not easy to get at all for Australia and at 19/2, nobody gave them a chance. But then Khawaja and Ponting resurrected the innings with half-centuries. Even then there was a mini-collapse again and they lost six wickets with 95 runs still away from the target.

Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson joined hands on the final day then to help the team claw its way back in the game. The stunning 72-run stand blew away South Africa and despite losing two wickets at the fag end, Johnson kept his cool along with Cummins to stitch an unbeaten 18-run stand to seal a memorable win for Australia. Cummins, the debutant, was named the Man of the Match for his excellent performance even as the series ended in a draw as well.

A reminder that Australia haven’t chased down 250+ to win a Test since Pat Cummins hit the winning runs on debut vs SA in 2011… #BANvAUS pic.twitter.com/PW5wz4x6Ud

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) August 30, 2017