(This entry was originally published on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009)
Australia ensured their series win against host South Africa in the ongoing test series as the Aussies defeated the hosts by 175 runs on Tuesday (10 March). South Africa got dismissed only for 370 in the second innings while chasing down a record-breaking target of 546 runs. It was a big target and there is no doubt about it, but what was shocking for home fans is that South Africa even failed to put on any resistance against the visiting side.
South Africa started the day at 244 for 2 with Kallis and AB de Villiers batting on 84 and 68 respectively. However, Kallis fell for 93 as he failed to capitalize on a dropped catch, while de Villiers got out for 84. Losing two important wickets in the space of 3 overs, Australia put South Africa on the back-foot in the match. JP Duminy, Boucher and Morkel tried to build up some resistance scoring 17, 25 and 24 respectively, but all went in vain as they gave away their wickets when they were all set in the wicket. Peter Siddle and Simon Katich picked up three wickets each for Australia. Phillip Hughes was easily picked up as the man of the match for scoring centuries on both innings.
With this victory, Australia is leading the series 2-0 with another match left at hand. So, Australia’s victory has already been confirmed in the series and thus, South Africa’s hopes of retaining no. 1 spot from Australia came to an end at least for the time being.
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