Day 3 at Newlands, October 29, 2026, produced a moment Australian cricket had never seen before. Wicketkeeper-batter Josh Inglis brought up 102 runs against South Africa in the third Test at Cape Town, becoming the first Australian to have scored more than one century in all three international formats. He reached the landmark with a reverse sweep off Simon Harmer, having faced 132 balls and hit 11 fours along with two sixes.
Australia were 184 for 3 when Inglis walked in, Cameron Green having just departed for 65. He and Alex Carey built a partnership of 185 runs for the fifth wicket before the total moved to 185 for 4. Harmer eventually had Inglis caught for 102, by which point Australia had moved ahead of South Africa’s first-innings total of 329 and secured a valuable lead.
For this match, Australia made four changes to their XI, bringing in Inglis, Cooper Connolly, Nathan Lyon and Cameron Green. Inglis had last appeared in a Test during the 2025 Ashes, a gap of nearly a year. A fractured finger, picked up while playing the ODI series against South Africa, had kept him out of the first two Tests of the current series, making his century on return all the more significant.
Why does this hundred place Inglis apart from all other Australians?
Inglis now holds multiple centuries in Test cricket, ODI cricket and T20 Internationals, a combination no Australian batter had previously completed. Two ODI hundreds and two T20I centuries, added to his two Test tons, give him the full set across formats.
Aaron Finch accumulated 17 ODI centuries and two T20I hundreds across a long international career but never reached a three-figure score in Tests. Apart from Finch, Glenn Maxwell is the other prominent name who came close yet fell short. Maxwell has five T20I centuries and four in ODIs. However, in Test cricket, he could score only one ton.
What is the background to Inglis’s second Test hundred?
Inglis scored his maiden Test century against Sri Lanka in 2025, that innings coming at Galle. The Newlands knock is his second in the format and arrived in only his third Test appearance against South Africa.
Inglis, returning from injury to a third Test against South Africa, has now done what neither Maxwell nor Finch managed across their full careers.
