CAPE TOWN, Oct 23 - Quick bowler Kagiso Rabada's battles with Steve Smith sparked a combustible series the last time Australia played tests in South Africa eight years ago and the pair have resumed their rivalry as the teams head for a decisive contest in Cape Town next week.

Rabada returned after a long hamstring injury layoff to help South Africa win by an innings and 31 runs in the second test in Gqeberha on Thursday to square the three-match series and set up a potential thriller at Newlands, starting next Tuesday.

Rabada's four second-innings wickets included that of the 37-year-old Smith, who, surprisingly early in his innings, out of character and with Australia in dire straits, attempted an ill-fated hook to a bouncer and top-edged a catch to midwicket.

It was an injudicious decision from the former captain, who passed the milestone of 11,000 test runs at St George’s Park but made only three runs in the second innings as he looked out of sorts with a neck complaint.

GETTING BEST PLAYER OUT

“He wasn’t 100% fit in the game but we knew he had the ability to knuckle down and be the anchor for them; he’s done it for so long for Australia,” Rabada said in a TV interview.

“He’s a top-class player and you can put a lot more pressure on a team when you get their best player out, so he’ll always be a prized wicket playing against Australia.”

Rabada had also dismissed Smith at St George’s Park in 2018, the first of 11 wickets he took in that test, but he collided with the Australian while celebrating taking his wicket and was handed a two-match ban, later downgraded to a fine.

The shoulder bump was among several incidents in an ill-spirited series that ended with the infamous ‘Sandpapergate’ ball-tampering scandal after which Smith was stripped of the captaincy and banned for 12 months by Cricket Australia.

NO GRUDGES, ONLY TESTOSTERONE

Rabada, however, said there were no grudges and that it was part of intense competition.

“As an athlete you want to go out and express yourself. There’s no hate off the field or anything like that. It’s a bunch of top-performing athletes who’ve got testosterone to burn. It’s the heat of the moment,” the South African paceman said.

Smith has been back to Newlands since the scandal, playing in a T20 international two years after the incident, but this will be his first test at the venue since 2018.

Last month he said he had learned from the experience after being sent home in disgrace.

"It was certainly a difficult period, particularly the initial period a few days after," Smith told Sydney's Daily Telegraph .

"The mental state I was in was not great. That's somewhere I'd like not to get to again, but I certainly learned from that and have been able to move forward with my life. I've tried to kind of erase a lot of 2018 and what happened," he added.

"I can't remember a lot about the series. I've tried to block most of it out of my memory bank." REUTERS