By Geoffrey Dean in Melbourne

THE South Africans must have feared that Steve Waugh was due a big score for Australia yesterday after seven successive singlefigure dismissals in one-day and first-class cricket before this first Test at Melbourne.

Right on cue, in front of Australia's biggest Test crowd for 22 years, 73,812, Waugh played yet another crucial Test innings, ushering his side from the perils of 77 for four with an unbeaten 87 in just over four hours.

Waugh's poor form had persuaded his captain Mark Taylor to make the interesting comment that: ``If Steve is struggling a bit, the rest of us have to make sure we carry him for a while.''

If that seems laughable to English supporters, most of whom would select Waugh or Mike Atherton to bat for their lives, Waugh very nearly went first ball and he was in such scratchy form that his first two hours at the crease brought him only 28 runs.

Only Atherton can match Waugh for grind and graft, which were the twin themes of the first two sessions when Australia eked out 92 for four from 59 absorbing overs.

South Africa's bowling was superbly disciplined in this time, testing batsmen's technique and concentration. There was hardly a ball to drive, cut or clip off the legs, so consistent was the tourists' line and length on a slowish pitch.

But in the final session, Waugh and Ricky Ponting, skilfully assessing the pace and negotiating the variable bounce of the pitch, fed off bowling that became unexpectedly profligate.

Having conceded just two fours in each of the first two sessions, the South Africans had 13 boundaries taken off them after tea, six off Shaun Pollock in a poor spell with the second new ball.

Luck was also with the Australians. Ponting looked to have been run out when 21, but the third umpire had to give him the benefit as a fielder obstructed the key camera. And Waugh, when 83, was reprieved by an Allan Donald no-ball after edging to the wicketkeeper. Off the penultimate ball of the day, he was also dropped at point off Pollock.

South Africa will know that an opportunity to dismiss Australia cheaply was missed. Matt Elliott was put down at third slip off Donald in the first over and, in staying until the 14th, he protected Greg Blewett from difficult conditions in the first hour, and neither Donald nor Pollock made the two openers play enough. Ultimately, all of the top four were frustrated out after being shackled.

Elliott, his mind perhaps elsewhere after becoming a father on Christmas Eve, top-edged an ill-advised pull; Taylor crashed a long-hop to cover; and Mark Waugh, unable to score off his first 17 balls, slashed foolishly and fatally at the last ball before lunch.

Blewett hung around gamely for 38 overs for his 25 before telegraphing a charge at Pat Symcox's off-spin. Symcox bowled it wide and was rewarded with a smart stumping by Dave Richardson, who yesterday passed Johnny Waite's South African wicketkeeping record of 143 Test dismissals.

That Symcox was obtaining at times generous turn so early in the match must have alarmed South Africa's captain Hansie Cronje, who confirmed he would have batted first if he had won the toss.

Symcox dropped short too frequently in the final session, being repeatedly cut, particularly by Waugh, who used the shot to collect five of his eight fours. His stroke selection was impressive throughout and by the close his timing and footwork were restored to virtual full health.

Day 2 report

Ponting cuts loose to ease the tension

By Peter Roebuck in Melbourne

RICKY PONTING is emerging as a cricketer of the highest calibre. Walking to the crease with his team in trouble, in front of a huge Boxing Day crowd and in a first Test of unrelenting tension, he had the nerve to attack from the outset and the skill to sustain his innings until recovery was complete. It was a brilliant effort, notable for its pulls, cuts and drives, all played by a batsman as alert and fleet of foot as a cat.

Throughout, Ponting scampered between wickets, upsetting the rhythm of bowlers committed to restraining the natural belligerence of Australian batsmen. Until Ponting arrived all was toil and trouble. Before he came in the crowd had been cheering singles. He changed the tempo of the match and precious few cricketers do that.

Nor was his contribution over. Midway through a tight second afternoon he struck again, pouncing from cover as Daryll Cullinan attempted a single. Ponting collected, turned and threw down the stumps in a blur. By the time the batsmen had scented danger it was too late. A minute later Hansie Cronje was held at short leg as the game turned and turned again. South Africa had applied a stranglehold in the early hours. And the Australians had broken free.

Apart from Ponting and Steve Waugh, whose unflagging stoicism was to the fore again, batting was a struggle. Wickets fell at a rate and with an economy testifying to the importance of a game in which a determined challenger is seeking to remove an unsettled but capable champion. Although the pitch is slow and protected by vast boundaries, the demons exist mostly in the batsman's mind. Everyone has been trying to avoid mistakes because they cost so much.

By the time play resumed on this second day Ponting and Steve Waugh had already been long in occupation. Much to his dismay Waugh did not reach his hundred, a back-foot stroke being held by a juggling and relieved first slip to give Allan Donald a deserved wicket. It was a mark of South Africa's desperation that Donald bowled a spell of 12 overs. He has been the most fluent of the pacemen. Waugh has now fallen in the nineties eight times in Test cricket, a tally only Alvin Kallicharran can match.

Waugh was replaced by Ian Healy, warmly welcomed by a crowd of 31,367. Over 100,000 spectators have watched this match so far, and not a murmur has been heard about slow play. People do not go to Test cricket to be trifled with. They want to see a struggle between the top men of competing nations. It is the conflict that appeals.

Healy batted with his usual robust common sense until he chopped on to his stumps. Undeterred, Ponting sped to his hundred and it took a surprising ball to remove him, an off-break from Pat Symcox that turned beyond prediction as the dumbfounded batsmen did not offer a stroke. It was a frustrating end to an innings lasting 269 minutes. Australia now lost their last four wickets for seven runs as Paul Reiffel, still batting with panache, ignored a delivery that ricocheted on to his stumps whereupon Shane Warne lobbed a return catch and Michael Kasprowicz was taken at short leg.

Still, 309 was a satisfactory score. Only with Ponting's onslaught had South Africa wilted. They had made their intentions clear from the start. All their talk about bumpers was a bluff.

South Africa's reply began unconvincingly. Their top order lacks authority and Andrew Hudson may have been prematurely discarded. Adam Bacher has been especially unproductive and he soon became the third man to fall without attempting a stroke, a delivery from Kasprowicz flicking his glove on its way to Healy. Kasprowicz bowled a surging spell and might have been further rewarded. Instead it fell to Glenn McGrath to strike next as Jacques Kallis plunged at an off-cutter. Kallis's batting position owes more to promise than accomplishment. McGrath had not bowled in first-class cricket for a month and a half but he was still a handful.

Now came Cullinan, determined to silence the demons in his own mind and the demon at the bowler's end. Warne had been pitching a length while Cullinan batted capably without ever looking stable at the crease. It is as if he does not quite believe in himself and, accordingly, must try to put on a show. He tends to lose his wicket in unusual ways and his run-out fitted the bill. South Africa could ill afford such waste. To make matters worse, Cronje could not stifle a leg-break that dropped across his pads.

Brian McMillan was mightily pleased to survive until stumps. Meanwhile Gary Kirsten had been moving along sturdily, the very picture of an unflappable opening batsman. He is South Africa's best player, a staunch and straightforward cricketer who knows his game and stays within its bounds.

But he needs help from his team-mates. Resistance alone will not give South Africa a victory. Sooner or later someone must cut loose. It has not been a game for the faint-hearted. And when did they ever win anything?

Day 3: South Africa in trouble as Warne turns the screw

By Geoffrey Dean in Melbourne

WHEN the public address man at the MCG announced before the start of the third day that Australia were poised to go 1-0 up in the series, it was part national arrogance, part psychological warfare, but also part realism.

If Pat Symcox could turn one of his off-breaks two feet to bowl Ricky Ponting on the second morning, how on earth were the South African batsmen going to keep out Shane Warne?

Warne played the key part in South Africa's dismissal for 186, taking three for 64 from 42 consistently good overs in which he could easily have had five or more victims. That seems a more than likely scenario when South Africa bat again to try to save this first Test.

Already, it looks as if Australia, 190 to the good with six wickets in hand, may be too far ahead. For not only is this very dry pitch turning square, but also it has quickened up from its sluggish first-day pace.

More worryingly for South Africa, the ball that dismissed Steve Waugh yesterday went through the top, sending up a puff of dirt as it took off from a good length and flicked his glove en route to the wicketkeeper.

This was the culmination of a rousing South African fightback, led by Allan Donald in a magnificent opening spell that earned him three wickets in 10 overs either side of tea. But South Africa's failure to get closer to Australia's first-innings total could make their bowlers' second-innings efforts inconsequential.

The importance of Ponting's first Test hundred in Australia cannot, therefore, be over-emphasised. The pattern of the match changed when he joined Steve Waugh at the start of their stand of 145 that should prove a match-winning one.

No South African batsman had the confidence, or perhaps the ability, to play as positively as he did. Decisively fast footwork, fine timing and delicate placement brought him 14 fours, a high number in this game of graft where no other batsman has scored a similar rate.

Waugh equalled Alvin Kallicharran's Test record of eight scores in the nineties.

Although South Africa, resuming on 94 for four, did not lose a wicket until 20 minutes before lunch, run scoring proved monumentally difficult against tight bowling with the ball not really coming on. Mark Waugh, with his off-spin, proved no less economical that Warne, and it was Waugh who took the all-important wicket of Gary Kirsten.

Misjudgments had been impressively rare in Kirsten's 82-over vigil, but in trying to cut the ball too close to off stump, he was caught behind. His left-handedness had been a major asset against Warne, who in vain switched his angle of attack. Equally, Kirsten was seldom able to score off him.

Warne bowled consistently well, regularly beating the bat and being unlucky to win only two lbw appeals. Shaun Pollock played no shot to a leg-break that turned less than expected, and Lance Klusener went fatally back to a ball of full length. So too did Dave Richardson as the last five wickets fell in 16 overs.

Brian McMillan at no stage looked convincing against Warne, but by matching Kirsten for application, somehow survived for nearly four hours. A gloved pull off Mike Kasprowicz eventually proved his undoing.

South Africa's 186 runs took 416 minutes off 106.5 overs. That was in contrast to Australia's 309 off 121.2 overs in 500 minutes.

Australia, when they batted again, met Donald at his best. Matt Elliott was confounded by an off-cutter to which he offered no stroke, and Greg Blewett was well held at second slip off a loose drive. Mark Waugh looked nervy and was bowled neck and crop in almost identical fashion to his dismissal by Darren Gough in the Edgbaston Test.

Ponting and the serene Mark Taylor steadied the ship.

Day 4: Reiffel rips into South Africa to set up victory

By Geoffrey Dean in Melbourne

AGAINST all expectations, the much-maligned MCG pitch played better on the fourth day than at any other stage in this first Test. That is not to say certain balls did not misbehave, but the few that kept low have all been wide of the stumps, giving South Africa hope that they can still save the match.

Had they not been held up by Paul Reiffel and the rest of the tail, they might even have entertained thoughts of an unlikely victory. Closing yesterday on 79 for one, they need another 302 to win but that can be discounted.

This was Reiffel's day. Thanks to his Test-best 79 not out, made off only 115 balls (comfortably the quickest rate of scoring in the match), Australia, 128 for seven, doubled their score with their last three wickets. Then, in his third over, Reiffel removed the linchpin of the South African batting, Gary Kirsten, bowled from around the wicket by a break-back. It was the Victorian's 100th Test victim.

South Africa, with the exception of Allan Donald, who became the highest wicket-taker in his country's Test history, did not bowl well. They needed Pat Symcox to pull his weight on a turning pitch, but one for 90 from 35 overs represented a poor performance. Too often he dropped short or bowled too full, and even his solitary wicket should have been given not out. Mark Taylor was shown on television replays to have missed the ball by several inches when he drove at a delivery that spun out of the rough into slip's hands.

Taylor played a particularly important innings, and his rehabilitation at Test level is looking more and more complete. His 59 in 60 overs was exactly the anchor role required by his side after the loss of four wickets for 44. It took him 125 balls to hit his first boundary, an edge through the slips, but this was a rare blemish.

When Donald forced Ian Healy to play on and then had Shane Warne caught in the gully, Australia were 269 ahead with two wickets in hand. But Reiffel, who took a hundred off Warne in a Melbourne grade match in October, was given too much width to play his favourite off-side shots. Later he also pulled with panache. He needs only 68 more runs to become the ninth Australian to do the double in Tests of 100 wickets and 1,000 runs.

The relative ease with which Reiffel and Glenn McGrath, of all people, survived, made Taylor bat longer than he would have wanted, leaving only a minimum 120 overs to bowl South Africa out. One or two balls took off from a length early in their second innings, but this rock hard pitch does not have cracks and, quickened by two days of hot sun, allowed Adam Bacher and Jacques Kallis to play their strokes with increasing confidence. Yesterday as many as 269 runs were scored, compared with 207, 206 and 197 on the first three days.

Bacher, badly short of runs, was missed when one at silly point by Ricky Ponting, who called him back after an unsighted umpire Randell had given him out. Kallis was much the more fluent, hitting three fours off Warne, who bowled more bad balls in his nine overs that in 42 in the first innings.

For Donald an ambition was realised when Mike Kasprowicz became his sixth victim, brilliantly caught at cover, to take him to 171 Test wickets, one ahead of Hugh Tayfield.

Donald said: ``It's a major milestone for me to reach 171 Test wickets and to know I'm the leading wicket-taker for my country is a great honour. Now the 200 wickets is in sight and I'd love to reach that, hopefully before the World Cup in 1999.''

Day 5: Australians are frustrated by Kallis hundred against odds

By Geoffrey Dean in Melbourne

ONE of South Africa's finest batting performances since their readmission to the ICC some six years ago saved them from defeat in this enthralling first Test at the MCG yesterday.

Resisting Shane Warne on a pitch that was made to order for him was no mean achievement for a side carrying several batsmen with no current form.

All the top order bar Darryll Cullinan made major contributions at some stage in the match, with Jacques Kallis's maiden Test hundred yesterday a highly accomplished one. ``Particularly good,'' was Mark Taylor's verdict.

It was still a very close run thing for the South Africans, for whom a succession of borderline lbw decisions went almost entirely their way.

When the final hour began they were six wickets down with the second new ball only 13 overs old and Warne as dangerous as ever, despite a marathon bowl. His 35 overs yesterday took him to 86 for the match.

Dave Richardson, the new batsman, looked terrible against Warne, constantly playing and missing, but he somehow survived for 13 overs with the impressively calm Shaun Pollock.

Eventually Richardson was lbw to Glenn McGrath with 22 balls remaining and the draw all but assured. Taylor, whose captaincy had been so astute, made an error in not bringing McGrath back at the start of the final hour, giving him only the last three overs. Hansie Cronje admitted that this had been a surprise and relief - for his team.

It was gripping Test cricket on a pitch with truer bounce on the last two days than on the first three, though the odd ball continued to go through the top. When South Africa resumed on 79 for one, needing a theoretical 381 to win, Warne made two immediate breakthroughs.

First, Taylor took a superlative one-handed catch behind him at slip to account for Adam Bacher. Cullinan, long regarded as Warne's rabbit, was then transfixed in the headlights of another big leg-break to which he failed to move his feet.

It was a fiendish delivery, pitching outside leg and clipping off, and judging by his reaction, Warne enjoyed it as much as the Gatting ball at Old Trafford in 1993.

But the half-expected capitulation to Warne did not materialise, even though he bowled beautifully, his line and length never wavering and his drift consistent.

Warne beat the bat on an extraordinary number of occasions - 25 to 30 in the view of Taylor, who felt he could have had six or seven wickets. All of his variations were unveiled, though very seldom the googly, which still hurts his shoulder to bowl. Both batsmen played positively, Kallis driving with real class and Cronje employing powerful sweeps.

Cronje surprisingly fell into an obvious trap, when the ever-scheming Steve Waugh fired in a succession of balls at his legs and finally persuaded him to hit one straight to one of several cunningly placed close catchers on the on-side.

By now the partnership with Kallis had realised 123, of which Cronje made 70, but more importantly had used up 45 overs.

Brian McMillan, dispensing entirely with backlift, played his part by keeping out 69 balls before another sharp leg-break from Warne took his edge to slip. Then followed what Kallis described as the longest half hour of his life as Warne crowded the bat with six close fieldsmen.

Kallis, who had not given a chance in a stay of more than six hours, was eventually beaten by a trademark Paul Reiffel off-cutter with the second new ball. He did not bat like someone playing his ninth Test innings, and averaging only 14, so impressive was his composure and shot selection.

Michael Bevan was recalled yesterday for the second Test, starting at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday. He replaces Andrew Bichel, who was 12th man at Melbourne.

With the Sydney pitch expected to help spinners, the Australian selectors preferred Bevan as second spinner to his New South Wales team-mates and specialists, David Freedman and Stuart MacGill.

South Africa will also look at playing a second spinner in Sydney with captain Hansie Cronje indicating that they are considering bringing in Paul Adams, a chinaman bowler like Bevan, to partner off-spinner Pat Symcox.