Australia Wins 3rd Test Despite Smith's Courageous Show

For the second consecutive year Australia have pulled off a last-minute victory in the Sydney Test, this time despite a courageous and painful batting effort from the injured Graeme Smith. Last season it was Michael Clarke who bowled Australia home nine minutes from stumps and on this occasion Mitchell Johnson picked up the final wicket with five minutes remaining to give Australia a consolation win that left the series ledger a little less lopsided at 2-1.

The last breakthrough came when Johnson nipped a ball back off a crack in the wearing pitch to bowl Smith, who had been incredibly gutsy in coming to the crease at No. 11 with a broken left hand and a right elbow so sore he said he could barely brush his teeth in the morning. Smith survived for 29 minutes with Makhaya Ntini as he aimed to salvage a draw but every fast ball he faced drew winces around the ground as he quickly released his left hand and gritted his teeth.

It was difficult to watch but an appropriate end to a series that has for three weeks been impossible to look away from. When Smith strode to the crease to a standing ovation it was after a 75-minute partnership between Ntini and Dale Steyn that looked like creating a fitting coda for a series in which tails have wagged and Australia seemed to have forgotten how to win. The feeling only increased when Matthew Hayden put down a sitter at slip to reprieve Ntini with half an hour left.

But when it mattered Australia's new-look attack, which had come together as the team's reputation diminishes, did manage to hold onto a No. 1 ranking that was a legacy of past champion sides. Led by the Man of the Match Peter Siddle, they were toiling on the sort of cracking surface that might have brought carnage in the Warne-McGrath years, when Australia would more likely have been chasing a clean-sweep rather than trying to prevent one.

This year the home team entered the day with the series already lost and needing nine wickets from Siddle, Johnson, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Hauritz and Andrew McDonald. All played a part, and McDonald's lbw to remove Steyn was a particularly key moment.

As the bowlers have discovered all summer, it's not easy being green. In the words of Kermit the Frog, green blends in with so many ordinary things and Australia's once extraordinary attack was starting to look run-of-the-mill. Under serious pressure to deliver, especially in the final session, they eventually achieved their goal.

Siddle, who had picked up five wickets in the first innings, was again a handful with his speed and lift. Bollinger found a hint of swing and set up the victory with the first two strikes of the innings. Hauritz turned the ball more than he has in years and McDonald was naggingly accurate. The most pleasing thing for Ricky Ponting was that the even contributions meant he did not have to break the back of Johnson, the veteran of the group in his 18th Test.

The young attack will take plenty of confidence from the result ahead of the tour of South Africa. The South African batsmen have lifted their team out of enough holes on this tour but on this occasion the craters in the pitch were inescapable. AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla scored half-centuries and each looked for a while like he might be the rescuer but the task was slightly too great.

Siddle's three strikes turned Australia's position from good to powerful. He was lucky to have Mark Boucher lbw to a ball that would have missed leg stump but earned the wickets of de Villiers, who was bowled for 56, and Paul Harris, with fast and straight bowling. It was the same method Johnson used to remove Smith and, earlier in the day, JP Duminy, who was lbw for 16.

Duminy and de Villiers, the heroes in Perth, had steadied with a 56-run stand after Australia struck three times before lunch. The loss of the well set Amla in the fifties for the third time in the series was a big blow. Amla had played well for 59, his best score of the three Tests, only to squeeze a Hauritz offbreak onto his pad and to short leg.

It compounded South Africa's problems after the early departures of Neil McKenzie, who chased a wide one from Bollinger, and Jacques Kallis, who came to the crease needing 16 to reach 10,000 Test runs and will fly home still 12 runs short. Kallis tried to work McDonald to leg and his leading edge popped up towards the middle of the pitch, where McDonald hurled himself to his right to grab a brilliant one-hander that after inconclusive replays was adjudged to have not included a touch of the ball on the ground.

It turned out to be one of those days when things just didn't go South Africa's way. They lost the match and failed to claim the No. 1 ranking but as they sprayed champagne with the series trophy in hand after the loss, it was a timely reminder that their job was done before this match even began. Besides, any sort of win in the return series in South Africa will give them the No. 1 spot. Unlike in the dying stages at the SCG, time is on their side.

RSA need 314 Runs to beat Australia in Sydney Test

Ricky Ponting is not known for his generosity to opposition teams but his sporting declaration has set up a fascinating final day at the SCG, where South Africa need 314 more runs with nine wickets in hand. The match is a dead rubber but that's a deceptive term; a South African victory will bounce them up to the No. 1 Test ranking and Ponting would go down in history as the first captain to lead Australia to a 0-3 loss at home.

However, for that to happen South Africa would need their third miracle of the series, almost enough to push for sainthood, and with Graeme Smith unlikely to bat their task is even tougher. Still, by Ponting's conservative standards his decision to set the visitors 376 in nearly four full sessions was a brave one. This was a team that had chased 414 in Perth. Ponting had found the cracking surface easier than it looked in posting a half-century and Hashim Amla and Neil McKenzie also seemed relatively comfortable after coming together at 1 for 2.

Morne Morkel was an odd choice to open in the absence of the injured Smith and it was a plan that took only two balls to fail. Morkel spooned his second delivery to mid-on to give Doug Bollinger his first Test wicket but it was the only reason for Australia to cheer in the final two hours. Amla and McKenzie were tested by balls that jagged off the cracks but they showed impressive concentration to survive and post a 60-run partnership.

Brad Haddin put down a tough chance diving to his right when Amla was on 5 and it could yet prove a costly miss on a day when Australia had until then tightened their hold on the match. It was also a day when Matthew Hayden's grip on his position at the top of the order weakened further. Hayden came into the game dead-batting speculation that it could be his final appearance but his inability to post a half-century in the home Tests has left him vulnerable. He did manage 39 in this innings and it was the first time this summer that he has scored more than his age, but openers are not there to post handy 30s.

A few cracking drives and clips over leg hinted at a change of form but the teasing moments have been there all series and reality kicked back in when he tried to launch Morkel over mid-on and inside-edged onto his stumps. As he walked off the ground to a standing ovation, with onlookers eagle-eyed for any tip-off that he might retire, a small bat-raise was the only clue that it could have been his farewell. There was no cause for celebration but he had at least helped Australia move closer to a win or a draw.

Ponting, Simon Katich, Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey all made contributions after Hayden departed but Australia's effort was not breathtaking, it was more an innings than meandered like the snaking crack around which the batsmen played. The out-of-form Hussey was pleased not to lose his wicket and he finished unbeaten on 45, having struck a couple of boundaries that would bring him confidence.

The declaration came when Clarke holed out to Paul Harris for 41, ending a 76-run stand with Hussey that had begun when Katich was lbw for 61. It was a strange dismissal: Dale Steyn came around the wicket and struck Katich in line but made no appeal whatsoever. However, Mark Boucher asked the question and Asoka de Silva made the fair call that the ball would have hit leg stump, surprising not only the batsman but the bowler as well.

Katich's innings was a tough grind, for him and the spectators. Early in the day he faced five consecutive maidens from Jacques Kallis and it took him 40 balls and nearly an hour to tick his score over from 17 to 18. Ponting was the only batsman who looked truly comfortable with the breaking surface and he launched nine boundaries, including some classic pulls and back-foot drives.

He had come to the crease on a king pair and nearly completed it when he tried to leave his first delivery from Morkel but didn't get the bat out of the way and the edge flew past the stumps and off to the boundary. Eventually it was an inside edge off Morkel that did for Ponting on 53 and he headed inside to ponder declaration times. Overnight he may wish he'd pondered for a bit longer.