Australia claimed a big innings and 284-run win against the Proteas on Saturday on day three of the once-off Test at the WACA in Peth.

While the Australians managed the big win, the guts and determination of the South African batters in a losing cause was certainly something to be admired.

Still needing 432-runs to avoid an innings defeat, the Proteas resumed their second innings on 67/3 with Delmi Tucker and Tazmin Brits at the crease.

After scoring a golden duck in the first innings, Tucker dug her heels in and scored a patient 64-runs of 181, while Brits, who is normally aggressive with the bat, scored 31 off 127.

The allrounder, Chloe Tryon, also scored 64 and she took 153 deliveries as she tried to keep the innings together.

Through the efforts of mainly Tucker and Tryon, South Africa managed to grind to 215-runs before being bowled out.

Annabel Sutherland, who scored 210-runs in the Australian innings was the pick of the bowlers with 2/11 in 8 overs, while the spinner Alana King was brilliant as well with 1/15 in 13.2.

Sunderland was named as the player of the match as she also took 3/19 in the first innings.

The vice-captain, Tryon, told OFM Sport that they are naturally disappointed with the results, the fight shown by the team was a big positive and it speaks volumes of their character.

“I even think with Masabata Klaas was amazing for us, to have them 12/3 was great, so there are a lot of positives we can take out of this,” said Tryon.

“You want different roles from the players and I think Tazmin was amazing, the way she and Delmi had so much patience out there.

“Like you said, it was gutsy - that shows a lot of character. From having our backs against the wall, to come up like that tells you a lot about a player.

“We would have loved to push it through to tomorrow, but there were a lot of learnings and positives that we can take from that.”

It was certainly a massive learning curve for the Proteas who were playing in just their third Test. Better batting by the top-order and more sustained pressure throughout with the ball would have made the South African a lot more competitive.

The Proteas will return back to South Africa now, and while they lost the multi-format series, they managed to achieve the unthinkable by earning historic firsts wins against Australia in the T20 International as well as One-Day International cricket, and this in the world’s leading teams’ own backyard.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport