Adams bowled Australian captain Steve Waugh and then trapped Damien Martyn lbw as Australia wobbled at 268 for five. With 331 the winning target, the tourists were still on track to take the series, but Adams had revived South African hopes, no matter how faint, that an upset might still be possible. At the afternoon drinks break Australia were 293 for five, needing a further 38 to win.

Waugh came out after lunch to replace his brother Mark who had been caught behind off Makhaya Ntini in the lunch over. The elder brother scored 14 out of a 17-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Ricky Ponting before Adams produced a Chinaman that spun back into the right-hander to bowl him.

Ponting played out a maiden to Ntini before Adams struck again, rapping Martyn on the front pad as he went on the sweep. It was, perhaps, a debatable decision, but umpire Steve Bucknor gave Martyn out after a long pause.

Adam Gilchrist has scored 342 runs in this series without getting out, but he had a nervous moment on 4 when the South Africans went up for a concerted lbw appeal. Umpire Rudi Koertzen was not convinced and television replays showed that the ball had pitched fractionally outside leg stump.

Gilchrist celebrated his reprieve by hoisting Adams over midwicket for four and recorded another boundary when he edged Ntini at a catchable height between the solitary slip and gully in the following over. He hammered a more convincing four later in the over when Ntini dropped one short and Gilchrist thrashed it through the cover.

Ponting hit Adams through the covers for four, but then had to survive an appeal for a catch at the wicket down the leg side as he swept at Adams.

At drinks Ponting, who had been 71 at lunch, was 80 with Gilchrist on 19.

South Africa bagged the wicket of Mark Waugh for 16 in the lunch over, but with Ricky Ponting on 71, victory appeared to have become a formality and the game should be over well before tea.

There was one success for South Africa on the final morning when Matthew Hayden was denied his fifth century against the home team in as many matches. Hayden had cut Jacques Kallis for four to go to 96 and raise the 200 in the 48th over when he tried to repeat the shot and was caught at the wicket off a thin top edge.

The second wicket fell at 201, but there was little respite for the South Africans. Ponting took three successive boundaries off Dewald Pretorius to reach his 50 after 127 minutes at the wicket before he twice went close to giving Paul Adams a catch at cover, driving uppishly at Makhaya Ntini.

On 64 Ponting almost gave Kallis a return catch with the ball just clipping the diving Kallis’s outstretched fingers and off the next delivery Mark Waugh, then 5, would have been run out by several metres had Ashwell Prince’s throw hit the stumps at the bowler’s end.

Ponting raised the 250 with a powerful pull for four off Ntini in the 57th over with the 50 partnership for the third wicket coming up in the 58th over after just 44 minutes as Paul Adams was brought back into the attack.

Waugh was out off the first ball of the lunch over, caught by Mark Boucher as he pushed forward to Ntini. The batsman did not seem particularly happy with umpire Rudi Koertzen’s decision, but it is unlikely that it will make a great deal of difference to the eventual outcome.

Both batsmen helped themselves to boundaries off Paul Adams as the left-arm spinner opened the day from the Kelvin Grove end. In all 11 came off the morning’s first over and Hayden followed this with a straight six in Adams’ next over as the spinner was hit out of the attack after conceding 18 off his first two overs.

The six brought up the Australia 150 with the pair raising their 50 partnership in the fourth over of the day from Makhaya Ntini. They had been together for 57 minutes at that stage.

Jacques Kallis replaced Adams and Hayden edged his first ball wide of second slip for four as South Africa sought a way to check the flow of runs.

There were precious few opportunities for South Africa to break through and at the rate Australia were scoring, victory seemed likely to come some time between lunch and tea.

In the over before the drinks break Hayden edged Kallis just short of Graeme Smith at slip, with the ball scuttling away for two to take Hayden to 92 at the break. Ponting was on 39.