As it happened: Australia beat South Africa to win the second Test by an innings and 182 runs on day four

Australia have claimed their first home series victory over South Africa in 16 years after winning the second Test by an innings and 182 at the MCG on Thursday.

Resuming at 1/15, South Africa were bowled out for 204 on the fourth day, the first time they had made it past 200 in eight innings.

It was Australia’s biggest victory against South Africa since triumphing by an innings and 360 in Johannesburg during 2002, and comes after a first Test victory at Brisbane’s Gabba inside two days.

A clean sweep of the series in Sydney next week will reinforce Australia’s standing as the highest-ranked Test team and ensure a place in the World Test Champion, probably against India, to be played at The Oval in June.

Little more than four months after South Africa beat England by an innings to become the top-ranked team in the world, they have slipped to fourth.

Despite Australia’s domination of this series there will be forced changes for the Sydney Test.

All-rounder Cameron Green, who claimed a career-best 5-27 in the first innings, has been ruled out with a broken finger and Mitchell Starc is unlikely to play because of tendon damage to the middle finger of his left hand.

Despite the injury, Starc bowled with great pace on Wednesday and Thursday.

Read our full match report.

That’s all we have for you today, but we’ll be back with our cricket blog for the third and final Test against South Africa at the SCG from January 4.

Injured star Mitchell Starc’s courage in bowling today helped take Australia to victory when they were already missing Cameron Green due to a broken finger.

Thanks for all your comments and reactions today as Australia won by an innings and 182 runs.

Please join us for the next match. Bye for now

South Africa have been warned they risk a “Mankad” run out if they back up too far after Mitchell Starc was left fuming by a Proteas batsman on the final day of the Test.

Starc stayed true to his word of not running out a batter in his delivery stride, despite Theunis de Bruyn wandering well out of his crease. Even so, Australian skipper Pat Cummins has given his men the green light to execute the controversial dismissal if the visitors back up too far, too early in future.

The “Mankad”, named after India’s Vinoo Mankad, who ran out Australia’s Bill Brown in 1947-48, has been widely frowned upon, even though it is within the laws of the game.

Read our full report here.

Shedding some blood in the sporting arena is not exactly a unique concept, but it is one that tends to stay in the collective memory.

Mitchell Starc’s willingness to do so for his teammates to help Australia seal a first home series victory over South Africa in 17 years was certainly one of the most visually arresting moments of a yawning innings win at the MCG inside four days.

And it was just one of a host of examples that demonstrated how the XI led by Pat Cummins is assembling a set of achievements in the very front rank of teams in Australian cricket history.

Like Cameron Green batting with a badly broken finger, Starc could easily have put his hand up to say his tendon injury was too severe to countenance bowling. Even more so when he spiked the same finger with his bowling boot – an injury that caused Starc to miss numerous white-ball games in Sri Lanka earlier this year.

Instead, perhaps also driven by the knowledge that recovery may take some time with the finger in a splint, Starc took the new ball on the third afternoon and again on the fourth morning of the match.

Here is our full analysis.

Mitchell Starc is in danger of missing a sizeable chunk of Australia’s blockbuster Test series in India as graphic details emerge of his nasty finger injury.

The left-arm pace ace will learn next week how many games he can reasonably aim to play in the heavyweight battle when he visits a specialist and undergoes another scan on his battered left middle finger.

The injury, known as a mallet finger, requires the wearing of a splint for six weeks, leaving Starc in a race against the clock to be fit for the first Test starting on February 9 in Nagpur.

We have more here.