Date-stamped : 25 Feb94 - 06:29 Match Report: South Africa vs Australia 4th ODI played at Kingsmead, Durban, 24 February 1994. South Africa made three changes to their team. Out went Donald, Symcox and Gary Kirsten and in came Snell, Simons and Hudson. Australia included Slater in place of Taylor. The weather at Kingsmead was fine and warm with a light north-easterly breeze. The wicket gave some help to the bowlers and the outfield was fast. A capacity crowd of 25000 watched the match. Border won the toss and elected to bat but Australia soon found themselves in deep trouble at 23/4 with Slater, Jones and the Waugh twins back in the pavilion for single figure scores. Pick of the South African bowlers at this stage was Craig Matthews who picked up two of the first four wickets to fall. Michael Slater was the first to go, caught behind off the bowling of de Villiers after facing only two balls. Dean Jones came in, hit one four and was then trapped lbw by Craig Matthews for 8 runs. From where I was sitting at fine-leg it looked as if the ball may have been going down the leg side and after seeing the tv replay last night I thought Jones was unlucky to be given out. Nevertheless, Matthews was bowling superbly and then had Mark Waugh spooning a catch to Hudson at square leg. Eric Simons trapped Steve Waugh lbw to have Australia reeling at 23/4. David Boon, who had been watching the procession from the other end, was then joined by Allan Border and together they set about salvaging the Australian innings. Border continued his recent good form and, apart from one streaky boundary over the slips, never looked in any trouble. By this stage Richard Snell had come on to bowl and was a lot easier to score off than Matthews, de Villers and Simons. Border and Boon shared a fifth wicket stand of over 50 runs but the wicket was still giving the bowlers assistance and it was only a matter of time before South Africa broke through. The loss of Boon's wicket triggered another mini collapse as both Healy and Reiffel followed soon after for ducks. Reiffel was caught off a no-ball (ball was above shoulder height) and was then caught at first slip off the very next ball. Australia were now 100/7 and still had about 14 overs left to bat. Shane Warne was next man in and he batted aggressively to record his highest one day score of 23. He was bowled by Matthews in the first over of Matthews' second spell and McDermott was out in a similar fashion in the same over. This left Border and Glen McGrath as the last pair and Border started hitting out in an attempt to put as many runs on the board before McGrath lost his wicket. Border managed to score another 15 runs before McGrath was out, caught behind for a duck. Border was left on 69 not out and Australia had been bowled out for 154 runs. Craig Matthews had the out- standing bowling figures of 4 for 10 in 8 overs, Simons and Kuiper picked up two wickets apiece and de Villiers and Cronje got one each. Chasing just 155 to win, South Africa were never under any real pressure and got off to just the start they needed. Peter Kirsten and Andrew Hudson put on 51 for the first wicket before Kirsten was caught by Healy after skying a ball from Reiffel. Hudson was out two balls later, lbw to Reiffel for 37. His 37 included some very good strokes and must have been good news for the selectors. Rhodes didn't last long. Shane Warne had him caught in the covers for just 3 runs. At 69 for 3 and Australia must have been wonder- ing if they might just get a look in. Cronje and Wessels had oth- er ideas, however, and guided South Africa to victory without losing any more wickets. Cronje finished on 50 and Wessels on 40. McDermott, McGrath and Reiffel all bowled well with McDermott having having one very good lbw shout against Wessels. McDermott was also unlucky when Reiffel dropped a fairly easy head-high catch off Hudson at mid-wicket. The Waughs were a bit expensive while Warne suffered a bit at the hands of Cronje and Wessels. So, South Africa won by 7 wickets with 5 overs to spare and lead the limited overs series 3-1 with 4 games to go. Craig Matthews won the man of the match award with his 4 wickets for 10 runs. I was very impressed with Border's batting and it was almost a pity when he ran out of batting partners. After hearing about him for so many years during South Africa's period of isolation it was a real treat to watch him bat so well. For me, the pick of the Aus- tralian bowlers was McGrath. The batsman always had to be cau- tious against him and he didn't give anything away. McGrath also got involved with the crowd down at Castle Corner and tried to get a 'Mexican wave' going when it became obvious that SA were going to win. The Australians now head off to Bloemfontein for a four day match against the Castle Cup champions Orange Free State starting on Saturday. Contributed by Frank (sokolic@*.und.ac.za)