Australia will hope it always comes as easy as this for Pat Cummins. The teenage debutant struck a boundary in fading light on the fifth day of a Test in which all four results were in play until the death to hand his country an unlikely victory and a share of the two-match series against South Africa.

Cummins, his country's second-youngest Test cricketer, collected the man of the match award, principally for his second-innings haul of six-wickets, but also for his nerveless cameo.

History will probably give scant regard to the magnificence of this Test. Australia usually beats South Africa. It is usually better than South Africa, but when it hasn't been, its opponents conspire to make it look as if it has. On face value, this result could easily be added to that list of celebrated chokes but to do so would do a disservice to both sides.

South Africa bowled superbly on the fifth day. Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and especially Vernon Philander looked to have wrapped up the game in the first session of play with an impeccable line, length and movement forcing Australia's batsmen to play and miss often.

Philander bowled Michael Clarke through the tiniest of gates with as good a delivery as he will ever bowl. Ricky Ponting succumbed to the sucker punch - caught in the slip cordon chasing one of the few loose deliveries of the session from Morkel.

During Australia's recent dismal run of just two Test wins in its previous 12 before Johannesburg, critics have chastised individual mistakes, questioned strategies and lamented the health of the grassroots. But what has most perturbed onlookers has been the apparent lack of fight. Three batting collapses under a hundred in recent months, sloppy fielding and apparently gutless bowling - all the most unrecognisably un-Australian in character. At 5-165 and the two most recent captains already in the shed it called for more traditional Aussie fortitude. Unexpectedly, it was found.

It should not be a surprise that the redoubtable Mike Hussey led the resistance. His 39 might not look like much but he changed the tone of the game. He addressed the situation and manipulated it into a one-day scenario, tipping ones and twos, rotating the right-hand / left-hand strike and unsettling the Proteas' rhythm.

It is more surprising that his ally was Brad Haddin, the poster boy of the Cape Town catastrophe. At the Wanderers he was patient to a fault, accumulating a sturdy 55, first with Hussey and then with another of those thought lacking backbone, Mitchell Johnson.

In the end it was Johnson who steered the ship home, ably supported by Cummins, who accepted the tailender's honour of entering as a batsman at the death or glory stage of the match. Some lusty blows some wild misses and a nervous review later and Australia finally had something to celebrate.

In performances that will please and frustrate John Inverarity in equal measure, most of the key protagonists in this Test had already had their Test futures curtailed by the press before displaying their match-winning hands. It remains to be seen whether Ricky Ponting's 62, Brad Haddin's 55 and Mitchell Johnson's unbeaten 40 earns that trio a chance against New Zealand.

Injuries and a Hobart Test in early December suggest Ponting's race may not yet have run. Haddin's future looks to be in Tim Paine's injured hands but if Matthew Wade scores heavily for Australia ‘A' later this week, he could force the issue sooner than Paine heals. Johnson, despite his valiant knock, has no further contingencies and his figures in his last 13 matches expose the flaw in his continued selection. During this time, in which his side has won just three times, he has taken a modest 34 wickets at a costly 47 and has collected more than two wickets in just four matches. Even if Australia's young fast bowling stocks were not as rich as they are, Johnson's form would not merit inclusion.

It has been a turbulent tour; a short tour, but a tour that ends on a high. Australian cricket can continue its regeneration at home against New Zealand, shortly, and later India. At the end of which it will be interesting to note how many veterans of the Johannesburg classic remain in the set-up. Undoubtedly Pat Cummins will be, and with him comes hope that the dark corner has been turned and Australian fans have something, someone, to cheer again.