Cape Town: Josh Inglis wrote his name into Australian cricket history at Newlands on Thursday, becoming the first Australian to score more than one century in each of Test cricket, one-day internationals and Twenty20 internationals.
Inglis brought up the landmark with a reverse sweep off Simon Harmer during his 102 in the third Test against South Africa, his second Test century. He now holds two Test tons, two ODI hundreds and two T20I centuries — a combination no Australian batter had previously completed.
Walking in with Australia 184/3 after Cameron Green departed for 65, Inglis built a 185-run partnership with Alex Carey (80) that carried the visitors past South Africa’s first-innings total of 329 and into a 100-run lead. His innings, which featured 11 fours and two sixes, was his first Test appearance since the 2025 Ashes — a gap of nearly a year — after a fractured finger picked up during the ODI series against South Africa kept him out of the first two Tests of the current series. He was only called up for the decider after Steve Smith’s injury.
The record puts Inglis clear of the two Australians who had come closest. Aaron Finch accumulated 17 ODI centuries and two T20I hundreds across a long international career but never reached three figures in Tests, while Glenn Maxwell — owner of five T20I centuries and four in ODIs — managed only one Test ton.
Inglis’s first Test century had come on debut against Sri Lanka in January 2025, when he recorded the second-fastest debut hundred by an Australian. His Newlands hundred, scored under the pressure of a series decider on a wearing pitch, was a very different kind of innings — watchful early, then increasingly fluent as he took on Harmer and the South African spinners.
The 30-year-old wicketkeeper-batter has now made a habit of marking milestones in style: his ODI hundreds include the match-winning 120 not out against England in the 2025 Champions Trophy, when Australia chased down 352, and his T20I centuries include the fastest by an Australian, against Scotland in 2024.
Whether Inglis keeps his place once Smith returns is now one of the most interesting selection questions of the Australian summer. On the evidence of Newlands, he has made himself very hard to leave out.
Read the Day 3 report: https://t20star.com/lyon-and-starc-strike-late-as-australia-seize-control-on-day-3-of-newlands-decider/
Read the Day 2 report: https://t20star.com/inglis-and-carey-put-australia-ahead-as-south-africa-toil-on-day-2-at-newlands/
