It seemed that Matthew Breetzke was more elated and pumped up than any other South African upon the dismissal of Marnus Labuschagne in the SA vs AUS 3rd Test in Cape Town.
Labuschagne’s slack has been cut shorter following his duck in Australia’s 1st innings of the Cape Town Test, the series-deciding game, after the Aussie no. 3 was dismissed for a five-ball duck.
Not even two days completed, the South Africa vs Australia 3rd Test has ebbed and flowed both ways. South Africa were bundled for 329 on day 1 despite being 203/1, as Mitchell Starc cleaned up six Protea batters.
In reply, Australia began solidly with a 58-run stand, but off-spinner Simon Harmer made an instant impact with the wickets of Travis Head and Labuschagne in a single over.
Labuschagne had been under scrutiny for a long time; he was even dropped last year but made a comeback. However, his returns have been modest; the general feeling has been that the selectors value his past achievements and experience and have been resisting in moving on from him given the already struggling state of Australia’s batting department.
He averaged 20 in 15 innings in 2025 and currently averages 24 in 10 innings in 2026. His duck in Cape Town has further raised questions of both him and the selectors. It’s very much possible that another low score in the second innings would most likely result in his axing from the squad for the summer’s home Test series against New Zealand.
SA vs AUS [Watch]: Matthew Breetzke Jumps Over The Pitch In Front Of Marnus Labuschagne While Celebrating
Coming into bat after Head’s wicket, Labuschagne failed to get off the mark on the first four deliveries he faced from Harmer and then fell on the last ball of the over, edging to Aiden Markram at first slip.
27-year-old Breetzke gave the commentators and the fans a hilarious moment as he jumped over the pitch in front of Labuschagne and screamed the top of his voice, letting the dismissed batsman know of his pure, unadulterated elation.
Soon after, Marnus edged to Markram, Harmer wheeled away in celebration with his teammates. Breetzke sprinted from the leg side and was near the pitch. Generally, players would reroute and go past either of the stumps to join their teammates. But Breetzke wouldn’t want to waste a second or an ounce of his energy and made a leap over the pitch.
It made for a comical scene, as Breetzke was in direct vision of Labuschagne, who was standing shellshocked, staring perhaps at the pitch, but what he saw was a flying Breetzke!
Check out the video here:
Meanwhile, after Head and Labuschagne’s wickets, Cameron Green and Matt Renshaw formed a 126-run stand for the third wicket. Both batters fell in a space of three overs, and South Africa sniffed a comeback.
However, the Protea momentum was smothered by a terrific stand between Josh Inglis and Alex Carey. At the time of writing, the duo have added 111 runs together for the fifth wicket, and Australia are 296/4, trailing by only 33 runs.
Given that Australia have to bat in the fourth innings on a pitch that is already deteriorating, the visitors would want to attain a healthy lead in their current batting innings.
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