South Africa vs Australia – Nortje Test comeback proves worth the wait

His first ball, in the 12th over, was a medium-paced bouncer of around 78mph/126kph that Steven Smith could easily duck under. After that, it was all business. His second ball was much faster, at 88mph/141kph and nipped, bounced and hit Smith on the back thigh. Even though he had played 89 white-ball matches between red-ball games, it was clear Nortje still thought of Test cricket as part blood-sport.

Two deliveries later, he hit Marnus Labuschagne in the ribs. Labuschagne’s own cry of ‘oooohh’ was almost louder than those heard from the sparse crowd. Brute force, express pace and a dangerous bouncer are three things that make a great fast bowler but in his next over, Nortje was tantalisingly close to finding Smith’s edge with a beauty that moved away and teased the drive. In the one after that, he just about grazed Labuschagne’s nose with a snorter of a bouncer.

And yes, even though it was only three overs, he did wonder if he would ever get a wicket. “I thought I wasn’t going to get a wicket for the next few weeks, the way it was passing the bat,” Nortje said at the post-play press conference.

It actually took Nortje only a spell-and-a-half, but more overs than he has bowled in a match since his last Test – three years and eight months ago – before he was back among the Test wickets. In his 10th over, he went fast and full, Alex Carey was beaten by pace as he tried to drive and nicked it to second slip.

Like London buses – or more aptly, like twins, since Nortje’s wife Micaela gave birth to a pair five months ago – a second wicket came quickly. Three balls later, Nortje had Beau Webster caught behind off what was his best ball of the day. It came down at 91mph/146kph, seam-up and moving away, and though Webster moved across and played close to his body, he could not avoid an edge.

Matt Renshaw edged him short of third slip and Pat Cummins defended awkwardly. He had Australia unsure but he was in the sixth over of his second spell. Ideally, bowling the way he was, he might have been kept on for a seventh but Bavuma opted to save him for later and Nortje did return, late in the day, for a truncated spell.

In fading light, Renshaw confirmed that Nortje was coming at them quickly. The speed gun registered his last two deliveries at 89mph/144 kph and 90mph/145kph, evidence enough that he could come back for spell after spell after not playing Test cricket for so long. In total, Nortje bowled 13.2 overs on day one, more than in his last two ODIs combined, and proved to himself he still has what it takes to play in the longest format.

“I haven’t officially bowled as many overs [as today], but I have tried to obviously do similar things in the nets,” Nortje said. “It’s never the same. You can’t simulate it as much.

“There were stages where you’re just a little bit out of breath. But it’s Durban and at least the other boys are also out of breath too,” he added, joking about the weather in South Africa’s most humid city. “But it was good. I enjoyed it. The spells were nice. I would have liked to finish the spell at the end as well, but obviously light dictates. It was good to be out there.”

Nortje is not centrally contracted and has a history of injury. Until recently, Test cricket had seemed a bridge too far. There was a stage when even playing for the national team appeared a thing of the past. Between September 2023 and May 2024, Nortje didn’t play an international but was active in the IPL and it appeared that the T20 circuit was a more suitable fit for him.

But appearances can sometimes be misleading. Nortje said he has “always wanted to play Test cricket” but that “the opportunities and the timing and the things were not always great.”

“It’s nice to get it to work out and to be on the park, to play for the country again, especially wearing the baggy [green cap]. It’s a bit worn out just from laying around at home. I enjoy the hard graft. I’ve always said that the second, third, maybe the fourth spell is the point in the game that I enjoy the most, where you have to try and dig deep and try and get something out for the team. Test cricket is the best format there is.”

Renshaw, who is undefeated on 46, made no secret of his hope that Australia could get Nortje to come back for a fourth and even fifth spell, where he will really be tested. Apart from match fitness, Nortje’s new action is also in the spotlight, especially after he remodelled it in the hope of helping himself prevent more injuries in future.

To the naked eye, it doesn’t seem as though Nortje has changed much and he explained it as a switch on feel. “The action, the angles and the flow of the arms, those were three things,” he said. “To correct it, I told myself that if I try and go back to what I did in 2020, it was probably going to end up going back to muscle memory and I’m probably going to do the same thing [and injure myself].

“I want to change things up a little bit in the sense that it almost feels like a new action. It looks the same, but it doesn’t feel the same, especially with the bottom of the body. It’s mostly angles of the run-up, angles of the jump, and then the arms, how the flow was. It didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel like there’s power behind it.”

Watch any of the 79 deliveries Nortje bowled at Kingsmead on Friday and the one you’d say about all of them – except perhaps the first – is that they were sent down with force. It’s taken Nortje 1,317 days to get back into Test match mode, but it has been worth the wait.