By Stuart Hess
Australia 271/8
South Africa 272/7
South Africa win by three wickets
Three loud cheers of "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" bounced around the concrete walls in the bowels of this magnificent arena as South Africa celebrated a win that again confounded the nay-sayers.
This is turning into some tour for South Africa. This is some venue for them, too. Take the Test win earlier in the trip that won the series, and now they take a 1-0 lead in the one-day series and, they are six out of six at the MCG against Australia. Oh happy day.
And yet, there was Johan Botha, South Africa's captain, who despite calling it his greatest moment as captain, still finding fault. And he was right too; this was a win that like the other wins on this tour again spoke volumes for South Africa's tenacity.
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"As a team we played okay tonight," said Botha, who was finding it hard to keep the grin off his face as he faced the media. "We had a lot of chances in the field that we didn't take. We could have restricted Australia to about 240."
And they should have, too.
South Africa bowled a great deal better than the Australians' final total suggests. Dale Steyn was in supreme form at the ground where he took 10 wickets in the second Test, bowling at high pace. He was unlucky not to get Ricky Ponting early and he should have had David Hussey later, except that his good mate Vaughn van Jaarsveld grassed a simple catch at deep cover.
Van Jaarsveld had a horrid debut. Hussey's was the second of two catches he dropped, his hands, according to Botha, were just not in the right place. Earlier he'd dropped Ponting, too, at square leg, but unlike Hussey who added 50 after being dropped, the Australian captain mustered up just an extra 13 runs. Van Jaarsveld then made just four, and seemed overwhelmed by the occasion - his run out was the result of some schoolboy running.
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