Aiden Markram scored his second century of the series as South Africa reached 313/6 by the close of play on day one of the fourth Test against Australia at the Wanderers, in Johannesburg, on Friday.
Despite a strong start by the hosts as they reached 247/2, Australia fought back late in the day to take the wickets of Markram, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers in the space of 52 runs.
Temba Bavuma (25 not out) and Quinton de Kock (seven not out) were at the crease at stumps.
After Du Plessis had won the toss Markram set out on his way to his fourth Test century – a career best 152 off 216 balls with 17 fours and a six. Both he and De Villiers (69 off 119 balls, 7 fours and a six) have gone past 400 runs for the series with no other batsman having reached 300 to date.
Markram also has an average of 63 for the series, a career average in the mid-50s and needs only a further 34 runs to reach his first 1 000 career runs in his 10th Test match.
The Proteas gave far and away their most polished top order performance for the series, making more than 300 on the day and having four of their first six partnerships in excess of 50 topped by the 105 that Markram and De Villiers put on for the third wicket.
The Australian fightback was launched by Pat Cummins (3/53) who has been consistently their best bowler and their leading wicket-taker when he dismissed Markram and Du Plessis with successive balls.
He was then backed up by new cap Chadd Sayers (2/64), who took the place of the injured Mitchell Starc, who dismissed De Villiers and night watchman Kagiso Rabada in the space of three balls.
