Proteas batters to take leaf from Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja

With the third day's play having been called off due to persistent rain at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Australia remain in a commanding position at 475/4 in their first innings.

Smith was dismissed on Thursday, shortly after reaching his 30th Test century, while Khawaja continued towards his maiden Test double-ton – only to be thwarted by the weather on Friday.

Maharaj admits it will be a massive task when the Proteas eventually do swap the ball for the bat, but the discussion has been to take notes from Khawaja and Smith's impressive displays.

"Ja, it has been a really tough tour, to say the least. But I think the batters within their time on the field, they're just chatting about plans and how they're going to come about it," said Maharaj.

"I think they can take a leaf – well, we spoke about taking a leaf from how Usman and Steve Smith played [on Thursday]."

The weather has proven a constant threat to the clash, suspending play early on the first two days while ending day three without a ball bowled, but Maharaj believes this plays in the South Africans' favour.

"It's obviously a difficult one because weather is uncontrollable, but I think the disruption of play is something that's very weird – you're constantly on and off the field because of the weather or bad light, so it's a hard one to gauge," the 32-year-old added.

"And look, I think with the position we're in, the more time that's taken out the game is probably better in our favour, to be fair, but it also puts Australia in a position where they have to make a play from there on in."

Pressed on his breakthrough of finally bagging a wicket in the series – that of Smith, shortly after his century on Thursday, Maharaj described the moment as a huge relief.

"I think it was a sigh of relief more than anything else. I mean, everyone wants wickets when you're a bowler, it's like a batter who always wants runs. So, to get the wicket was a nice sort of relief for me," he said.