Eight years on, Newlands has provided more drama for Steven Smith. Not on the same scale, of course, but being ruled out of a deciding Test, where the No.1 ranking is also at stake, moments before the toss was a significant and destabilising moment for Australia.
How much it ultimately impacts them will be judged over the coming days, but an already shaky batting line-up has lost over 11,000 Test runs and 37 hundreds, and the four changes overall was the most they had made mid-series since Johannesburg 2018 amid the fallout to the ball tampering.
Whether Pat Cummins' decision to bowl first was a direct reaction to events was uncertain - he cited early moisture in the surface - but wasn't looking a good call as South Africa raced past 100 without loss before lunch in 22 overs.
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While Smith had never been officially ticked off for this game as he worked through the neck problem which cropped up during the second Test, there was an expectation from both Cummins and coach Andrew McDonald yesterday that he would be able to play.
"He is huge, one of the greatest batters we have ever had," Cummins said on Monday. "You don't play 100-odd Test matches without playing Test matches where you're not 100 per cent fit. Even though he is probably not going to be 100 per cent hopefully he can compartmentalise that, like he has done a hundred times before with other things, and come out and contribute like he does every week."
On Tuesday morning, Smith had a brief net, wearing a heat patch on his neck, before walking back across the outfield and disappeared for half an hour. In the meantime, having been informed he was being hastily drafted in, Josh Inglis picked up his bat and shadow-batted at the end of the Test pitch. That, and when Smith didn't warm-up in the slips, confirmed he was out.
It is the second time Inglis has filled Smith's position. He played the first Test against West Indies in Barbados last year after Smith broke a finger in the World Test Championship final at Lord's. For Smith, it's the third Test in last 16 months he has missed through injury or illness having sat out Adelaide against England last season due to vertigo.
At the toss, Cummins indicated it was Smith who had decided he wasn't right. "He wasn't happy with how his neck was feeling, so we had to look elsewhere," he said.
David Warner, working on TV coverage of the Test back in Australia, said that "half of Steve Smith is a very, very good player."
"For a big game as it is, he would have tried to get up as best he could," Warner told Kayo Sports. "Obviously, he's in some discomfort and if you can't come out and perform at your 100%, and which he will want to give, especially given it's a it's a one all series, it's a big Test match. It's obviously a big thing for him."
Smith has not spoken to the traveling press pack during this tour, and there's very little chance he will now do so, with his only media interaction being a broadcast interview at St George's Park.
Prior to the tour he had done one big sit down with News Corp where he said he does not like camera flashes after his experience of walking through Johannesburg airport as he flew home amid the ball-tampering scandal but had no qualms about returning to South Africa. This wasn't his first trip back since then, having been on a white-ball tour in 2020 and played a T20I at Newlands.
Even before not making the XI for the decider, it had not been the happiest of tours for Smith. He had took a painful blow from Marco Jansen before edging him to gully in the first innings at Kingsmead then had a concussion scare in the second innings. Hampered by the neck problem, he was powerless to stop Australia's collapse to 99 at St George's Park. Then batting at No. 7 in the second innings he spliced a wild pull to midwicket off Kagiso Rabada.
"I'd say, first of all, he's been awesome this tour," Cummins said the day before the final Test. "In the last couple of years, probably particularly the last 12 months, it feels like he's in a really good place and he's enjoying his cricket.
"That knock [on the helmet] in the first Test, I think it knocked him around for a couple of hours, but then straight away the next morning he was back to his normal self and out there. I don't really want to speak for him because probably only he can answer, but from all my conversations, he's been great. He's been super invested in what's going on and very helpful for me out here in the middle."
Smith's absence from this Test means he finishes with his third-lowest average for any series in his career and only the fourth time has not made a half-century. He's unlikely to have the chance to play in Cape Town again, and may not be disappointed about that.