Warner and Hodge take Australia to finishing line

The first T20 in Port Elizabeth was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Durban was very close in suffering the same fate. Sahara Kingsmead Stadium was covered in a few islands of sawdust, with the wet outfield making the two teams worry about their safety. Fortunately, the umpires assessed the ground and agreed that the conditions would not harm any of the players, especially with the ICC World Twenty20 a few days away. South Africa and Australia were given 7 overs each.

Australia won toss and elected to bowl. Beuran Hendricks being the only man on debut, after a very successful Ram Slam tournament for him.

Quinton de Kock & Amla opened the batting. The line-up was not changed to accommodate the shortened match. Cricket's Imperfect Angel thought the big hitters would open, or maybe de Kock would have been paired with another big hitter.

South Africa had somewhat of a slow start. In 2 overs they had 6 runs and in 3 overs they had 11 runs.

Eventually the run rate picked up as de Kock and du Plessis were smashing 6's and 4's just like it should be in T20 cricket.

The Proteas posted 80-1. De Kock on 41* and du Plessis 27*.

Australia needed 81 runs to win from 42 balls at 11.57 runs per over.

Compared to South Africa, Australia had the better start. They scored 21 runs in their first over, and were well above the required run rate which kept getting higher and higher and at one point it was 13.80.

Picking up where he left off during the Test series, David Warner was the culprit once again as he hit 40 runs off 15 balls.

However, the introduction of JP Duminy into the attack changed the match as he claimed the wickets of Warner and Glenn Maxwell in the same over, with du Plessis taking an incredible catch.

The last over produced 15 runs that Australia needed to win, in which Hodge smashed two consecutive 6's to take Australia home.

Australia won by 5 wickets, finishing with figures of 81-5 in 6.4 overs.

The Man of the Match was Hodge for his 21* runs off 8 deliveries.

Hopefully the 3rd and final T20 in Centurion will not be affected by rain like the first two T20's. Both these teams need practice before heading to Bangladesh for the ICC World Twenty20.

ICC Test Rankings After South African and Australian Battle

I'm not sure how the ratings are calculated, so I've omitted the figures. I'm yet to figure them out. All I know is who's number 1, 2 and so on. Generally, that's all we want to know.

ICC TEST BATSMEN RANKINGS

1. A.B. de Villiers

2. K.C. Sangakkara

3. S. Chanderpaul

4. H.M. Amla

5. D.A. Warner

6. R.L. Taylor

7. Misbah-ul-Haq

8. C.A. Pujara

9. M.J. Clarke

10. V. Kohli

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16. Graeme Smith

AB de Villiers still sits in first place while Hashim Amla is fourth. Graeme Smith ended his career in sixteenth place, dropping six places from tenth when the Test series began. (With a career high of second place). Top scorer David Warner moved up to a career high position of fifth after a good series performance.

ICC TEST BOWLER RANKINGS

1. D.W. Steyn

2. R.J. Harris

3. V.D. Philander

4. M.G. Johnson

5. Saeed Ajmal

6. H.M.R.K.B. Herath

7. T.A. Boult

8. T.G. Southee

9. R. Ashwin

10. P.M. Siddle

Dale Steyn remains the number 1 Test bowler, despite a hamstring injury during the 3rd and final Test. Ryan Harris moved up two places to second position. Vernon Philander moved down to third place while Mitchell Johnson moved down to fourth.

ICC TEST TEAM RANKINGS

1. South Africa

2. Australia

3. India

4. England

5. Pakistan

6. Sri Lanka

7. New Zealand

8. West Indies

9. Zimbabwe

10. Bangladesh

Australia moved up to second position, pushing India down to third. On a good note, South Africa managed to retain the Test Mace even after losing the series to Australia and dropping to 127 points.

ICC TEST ALL ROUNDER RANKINGS

1. V.D. Philander

2. R. Ashwin

3. Shakib Al Hasan

4. S.C.J. Broad

5. M.G. Johnson

6. S.R. Watson

7. R.J. Harris

8. T.G. Southee

9. D.W. Steyn

10. D.J.G. Sammy

Philander climbed two places to become the no. 1 ranked Test All-Rounder.

Australia Punish South Africa and Clinch Series 2-1

Since South Africa's re-admission into international cricket, Australia has not lost a Test series in South Africa. With that said, South Africa's last series loss at home was against Australia in 2008/09.

Team News: Petersen and Abbott came in for de Kock and Parnell. While Watson and Pattinson came in for Marsh and Siddle.

Australia won the toss and elected to bat.

Michael Clarke received a round of applause when he reached 25 for first time in 12 innings.

S Smith reached his 6th Test 50.

With Steyn off with an injury, the cracks were beginning to show in the South African camp.

Castle Lager Proteas seamer, Kyle Abbott, has described his thrilling opening spell with the ball towards Michael Clarke as a "great period of Test cricket". Clarke was stuck on 99 for 24 balls, and was tied down by consistent lines and lengths from Abbott, who bowled six maidens in a row.

   

Eventually Clarke reached his 27th Test century, his 5th against South Africa. He then went on to reach his 10th Test score of 150+.

It was a good toss for Australia to win as they finished their first innings with an overnight declaration on 494-7 on day 2 after play was halted by rain.

The Proteas were off to a bad start in their innings, with Petersen and du Plessis reaching Test 50s.

After the Proteas passed 200 for the fall of 6 wickets, it became clear that they needed to get to 295 in order to avoid the follow on.

Eventually Australia bowled South Africa out for 279, just a few runs short of the follow on score. However, Australia did not enforce the follow on.

At the start of their 2nd innings, Australia had a lead of 207.

Late in the evening, the man dubbed as the world's most successful captain, Graeme Smith announced he will retire from international cricket after the 3rd Test. Boucher & Kallis at Newlands to support the retiring skipper.

Australian team gave Smith a guard of honour when he came to bat. While the South Africans gave him a guard of honour when he was dismissed after his last innings.

The next day, Australia continued their domination. Warner managed to score 1 000* in Test cricket during the 2013/14 season, as the leading run-scorer. He also went on to record an 8th Test century, his 4th against South Africa.

Rogers reached 1 000 Test runs.

After reaching 303-5, Australia then declared, leaving South Africa with a mammoth score of 511 to chase down on the 4th day.

At the start of South Africa's attempt to chase down 511 runs for victory, South Africa lost 3 very early wickets.

Ryan Harris took his 100th wicket from 24 matches. While Pattinson taking his 50th Test wicket.

A few times, Warner and the Australians were warned by the umpires for throwing the ball onto the square to rough it up. Later, the umpires then had a word with Clarke about continuing with the action.

As time went by, South Africa was not going for the win. Instead, they were going for a draw, with AB de Villiers spending over 5 hours at the crease.

After holding on the whole day, with only 5 more overs to be bowled, South Africa lost their last two wickets from 2 balls. Australia bowled South Africa out for 265, winning by 245 runs and clinching the 3-match series 2-1.

Winning the series moved Australia up to number 2 in the Test Championship rankings.

Warner was named Man of the Match and Man of the Series after scoring 543 runs, with two centuries in the 3rd Test and one in the 1st Test.

This was the first Test series between South Africa and Australia which I was fully aware of. I didn't miss a Test or an innings. So I must say, the Australians are so rude. I wonder what life would be like if they didn't have mouths. Every little thing, they ran their mouths about it.