The former South Africa captain, AB de Villers cracked a brilliant unbeaten 126 runs in the first innings during a match-turning knock to lead the Proteas to a series-leveling victory. It was Australia's first Test defeat when armed with the pace attack of Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins after five consecutive victories.

Australia's blue-chip attack had no answer for the brilliance of Mr. 360 aka AB de Villiers, who launched an brave counterattack with his trademark inventiveness. At one point, Starc was directed by captain Steven Smith to bowl down the leg-side at de Villiers in a strategy aimed to keep him off-strike for the next over.

Australia's attack was initially blunted by the rugged defense from opener Dean Algar and No. 3 Hashim Amla before seemingly tiring against de Villiers and the tail late in the innings. Starc believed Australia's attack have let the 34-year-old off the hook with wayward bowling during the series.

Starc destroyed South Africa's tail in both innings of the first Test with a lethal mixture of reverse swing but was thwarted by de Villiers's propping of the tail in Port Elizabeth. "We feel we're pretty comfortable against the rest of their batting line-up. I think we showed in the first Test how quickly we can go through them," Starc said.