South Africa beat Australia in 4th ODI, clinch series
South Africa capped a dream tour of Australia by winning the ODI series on Monday in addition to the Test series earlier but the hosts still retained their top spot in both forms of the game despite unmistakable signs that they are on the downslide.
The South Africans crushed the Aussies by eight wickets in what turned out to be a lopsided floodlit contest to take an invincible 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
Opting to bat first, Australia put up yet another sordid batting display and folded up for 222 in 48 overs with only Ricky Ponting (63), James Hopes (42) and Cameron White (30) salvaging some individual reputation with the bat.
South Africa’s pace colleagues Makhaya Ntini (3/52) and Dale Steyn (3/49) did an excellent job with the new ball wrecking Australia’s top and middle order.
Chasing 223, South Africa needed 38.1 overs to overwhelm the target with Hashim Amla (80 not out), AB de Villiers (82 not out) and Herschelle Gibbs (38) starring in the chase.
Australia remained the number one team in both forms of the game followed closely by South Africa and India, both of whom have beaten the Kangaroos in Test series in recent months.
In One-dayers, Australia led the table with 126 points, followed by South Africa and India.
Milestones for South Africa
South Africa, with a victory each at Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide in the present ODI series, have recorded a rare first in Australia. With three wins out of four ODIs in the current series, South Africa (3-1) have posted their first bilateral series win against Australia in Australia. In their only previous bilateral series in Australia in August 2000, both the teams had recorded one win each while the second ODI had produced a “tie”.
SA, with a 2-1 Test series win, also became the first nation to have registered a Test series as well as a bilateral ODI series triumph in the same season in Australia.
South Africa have won two bilateral series in succession for the first time against Australia. They had also won the 2005-06 ODI series in South Africa 3-2.
Pakistan (2-1 in 2002) was the first and only team before the 2008-09 season to have won a bilateral series featuring a minimum of three matches in Australia.
Of their last four ODI series, Australia have lost two – to India in the 2007-08 Commonwealth Bank series and now to South Africa. Their two wins came against West Indies in West Indies (5-0) and against Bangladesh in Australia (3-0) last year.
