Australia vs South Africa, 3rd Test at Sydney, AUS v SA, Jan 04 2023 - Match Result

Australia's team collects the nameless trophy for a 2-0 win over South Africa. They were the dominant team. But it does keep others alive in the WTC if Australia lose 4-0 in India and other results go a particular way. But there's a lot of cricket still to be played. Thanks for your company for this series. That concludes our coverage. On behalf of Chandan Duorah, Karthik Krishnaswamy, Andrew McGlashan, Tristan Lavalette, Firdose Moonda and myself it's goodbye from the SCG.

5.38pm Presentation

Pat Cummins: "The wicket was still pretty good. We knew we were up against it. Keep putting some balls in some good areas, hopefully the luck turned. But that wasn't the case, they batted beautifully. We were probably up against it. We had 150 overs to try and take 20 wickets on a pretty good batting surface. Really proud of all the efforts. I thought Nathan Lyon was outstanding. He bowled close to 60 overs for less rewards than he deserved. I think the most pleasing thing is similar to last year's Ashes, everyone contributing. I'm really happy with how everyone is travelling. I think everyone can hold their heads up high."

Dean Elgar: "It's good to end the tour like this. Touring Australia is never easy. But obviously the message to the group last night was we have got to go out and fight on day five and I think it's going to help us in the future. It's going to lead us down the right road. If you think about it, there's only three or four guys that have toured here in the past. The rest was all brand new experiences. I think the learnings from that is these guys might be playing here again in a couple of years time and obviously there are a lot of learnings out of that. But Australia is a tough place to tour if not the toughest in the world. There's a few negatives but also a lot of positives especially out of today. I know I'm the captain but I'm also a runscorer and I know that hasn't worked out of late but I know I'll be back. I don't go lying down. I know my character and I know I'll come out stronger."

The player of the match is Usman Khawaja.

Usman Khawaja: "I'm just enjoying the good times at the moment. [The SCG] can be a grinding wicket, a slow wicket, spin is always in the game so you need to have your options against spin. It's not rocket science, if you bat well and you do it for a long time you'll usually succeed out there. I would love to have a double ton next to my name but at the end of the day it's a great way to showcase cricket and what cricket stands for. You want to go out there and you want to make milestones and achieve certain goals but at the end of the day it's about winning and you've got to do what's best. I think any children watching out there, or anyone watching how Australia plays their sport, it's always team first and I think that's very important when you are playing a team game."

Player of the series is David Warner for his double in Melbourne.

David Warner: "It was a fantastic performance by the whole team. Each individual had their own performances. We would have all liked to bat a bit more. But credit to our bowlers. Our bowlers were fantastic. It didn't go our way. Hopefully this Sydney weather is better next year."

Ryan M: "Giving Warner player of the series is absurd. Surely you're looking for a player who has contributed at multiple times throughout the series, not just once in one match. Cummins, Smith, Labuschagne, and Head all have far better claims than Warner"

Abhishek: "I can think of at least 5 players who deserved the 'Player of the Series' award more than David Warner."

For those asking about the WTC standings, Rajesh gave us the permutations earlier: If Aus draw here and lose all 4 in Ind they slip to 59.65. SA, with a draw here and a 2-0 verdict vs WI, go to 55.56. SL can go to 61.11 with a 2-0 series win in NZ. Ind will be on 68.06 if they beat Aus 4-0, 62.5 if they win 3-1, and 56.94 with a 2-2 verdict. So for SA to still be in with a chance, they need SL to not win 2-0, and Ind to get fewer than 24 points that they would with 2 wins. Even if Aus draw just one Test in Ind (if they lose 3-0) they will go up to 61.4, which is marginally more than SL's max (assuming a draw in Sydney and no docking of points). If SL win only 1-0 in NZ they finish on 55.56, which will be below Aus even if they lose 4-0 to Ind.

Steven Smith on Fox: "We tried a lot out there. I think we had three or four umpire's calls that didn't quite go our way but that's the game. We probably missed a few half chances throughout this morning and into this second innings as well. If we take those things might have been different potentially. But we worked hard all day. [On the non-catches] I could understand the one the other day. The one that I scooped up with the one hand. I think that might have potentially touched the ground. But I thought today's one, I was pretty certain I caught today's one. But deemed the other way. That happens as well. Can't do much about it. It's the umpire's call and move on."

Josh Hazlewood on Fox: "14 wickets was a hard ask. If we didn't lose a day to rain who knows what might have been. It would have been nice to see the wicket after five days of traffic to see how that played, if it was back to the old school SCG but it was good fun today. It's not the easiest wicket to bowl on as a fast bowler. There's not that carry and not that pace. It's a different type of bowling and probably what we're going to come up with in India in a few weeks time."

5.22pm And that is that. The players shake hands, and South Africa end a miserable tour with a hard-fought draw. Australia needed 14 wickets at the start of the day, and thanks to the lower order in the first innings and the top order in the second, South Africa have ensured they only gave away five of them. Excellent all-round display from Australia to push so hard for a win, given all the time lost to the weather, but they'll wonder if they got their selection right, with Ashton Agar not quite giving them a proper four-man attack. I'm off now. It's over to Alex for the presentations. Final crowd is 20,470.

Round the wicket to Erwee.

Labuschagne to the right-hander now. Over the wicket.

Agar continues. Over the wicket now to Bavuma.

Mustafa Moudi : "With just 8 overs remaining, Neither SA is going to chase it down at 16 an over, Nor Australia is going to get 8 wickets, then whats the point of continuing this match. Ask the captains and declare this test as a draw !!" -- There's a chance for Erwee to score a half-century.

We've now seen both the yin and the yang of the part-time leggie.

Marnus to have another go and ripping them out of the footmarks. Round the wicket to Erwee.