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Australia’s nightmare summer continued on Friday night as South Africa wrapped up the one-day series 4-1 with a comfortable 39-run triumph in front of 18,002 fans at the WACA.
South Africa, minus Makhaya Ntini, Dale Steyn and Jacques Kallis, were still too good for Australia, whose top-order crumbled in reply to the Proteas’ 6-288.
Left-arm paceman Lonwabo Tsotsobe (4-50) made a dream debut, snaring the key wickets of Shaun Marsh (five) and Ricky Ponting (12) in his opening spell as Australia crashed to 4-53 in the 13th over.
It was a position the hosts never recovered from, with the late hitting of Mike Hussey (78 off 96) and Brad Haddin (63 off 50) giving Australia, who were dismissed for 249 in 49 overs, only false hope after the required run-rate ballooned to more than 10 an over.
The only negative to come out of the match for the Proteas was a leg injury to Albie Morkel.
The all-rounder was forced off late in the game when he collided heavily with teammate Vaughn van Jaarsveld while attempting to catch Haddin’s skied shot.
If losing both the Test and one-day series to South Africa wasn’t bad enough, Australia also surrendered their No.1 one-day ranking to the Proteas following their third one-day loss on the trot.
But Ponting’s charges can regain the No.1 mantle — and some much-needed pride — during their five-game series against New Zealand, which kicks off in Perth on Sunday.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, South Africa lost Herschelle Gibbs (seven) and Neil McKenzie (10) cheaply before Hashim Amla (97) and AB de Villiers (60) combined to torment Australia for the second consecutive match.
Just four days after sharing an unbeaten 144-run stand in South Africa’s eight-wicket victory in Adelaide, the pair again tore the home side’s attack to shreds with a 118-run stand off 130 balls.
Only James Hopes could halt the pair’s dominance, the all-rounder snaring both dangermen to finish with figures of 3-44.
But Australia’s other pest — JP Duminy — picked up where Amla and de Villiers left off, smashing an unbeaten 60 off 42 balls as South Africa bludgeoned 84 runs off the final eight overs.
Tsotsobe’s early strikes left Australia in all sorts of trouble at 3-35 and it seemed all luck had abandoned the home side when 19-year-old all-rounder Wayne Parnell, in his first over of ODI cricket, got his little finger to a Mike Hussey drive to run-out David Warner (22) at the non-striker’s end.
Australia required 167 runs off 117 balls when David Hussey (32) departed but all hope was lost when Tsotsobe re-entered the attack and unleashed a brilliant slower ball to end Mike Hussey’s brave knock, with Haddin’s swashbuckling effort merely adding respectability to the scorecard.
“I guess it’s a disappointing way for us to end this series,” Ponting said at the post-match presentation.
“The South Africans have totally outplayed us right the way through.
“I thought we were competitive in the first three games but our last two performances have been well below par and we haven’t played well enough to win.
“We made a lot of mistakes whether it be with the ball in the field or our batting.”
South African skipper Johan Botha praised his team for their performance throughout the series.
“I thought the guys played really nicely during the series, everyone contributed,” Botha said.
“I think the tight moments in the game went our way, which we are really happy about.
“The young players came in and put in some good performances and that’s what you want to see.”
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