Leeds (England) - Steve Waugh's capacity for the dramatic earned Australia a World Cup semi-final place when they beat favourites South Africa by five wickets with two balls to spare at Headingley yesterday, setting up a second meeting at Edgbaston in four days time.

The older Waugh twin and captain of Australia was forced to dig deep though to score only his second limited-overs century in more than 270 LOIs as the Aussies, always behind in this tournament, were able to manoeuvre their way into second place in the points table scoring the 272 runs needed to lift them into second place on run rate.

Waugh also squeezed Herschelle Gibbs out of the man of the match award stakes with an undefeated 120 off 110 balls, picking off 10 fours and two sixes after Gibbs scored 101 of South Africa's total of 271 for seven.

And with a South African attack minus Jacques Kallis the favourites were also a bowler short. Waugh is a man of rare batting talents and he admitted the side had to dig deep if they wanted to win the game: he forgot to mention that he was the one who had to find the reserves to do the job needed to steer the good ship Australia home.

Having watched his side reduced to 48 for three in the 12th over, Waugh (snr), knew when he joined Ricky Ponting that if he hoped to win the game and lift his side into the last four it needed an innings of character. He has done it against South Africa before and, with Ponting, laid the foundations for vicotry yet again as the pair put together a match-winning partnership of 126 off in 135 balls with the Aussie supporters roaring them on.

Yet things might have been different had Gibbs not mesed up the chance he gave was given when Waugh was on 56 and the Australian score was 152 for three in the 31st. Gibbs attempted to throw up the ball when taking a straightforward catch off Shaun Pollock's bowling and allowed the ball to spill forward. Hansie Cronje later blamed the injured finger Gibbs had suffered when hit by Jason Gillespie earlier in the day for the fielding lapse. Cronje was possibly being gentle on the Western Province batsman as, had he really been worried about the injury, he could have moved another player into the close fielding places.

At one stage the Australians were struggling with their run-rate until between the 28th and 32nd overs it rattled along as Waugh and Ponting adding 50 off 28 balls, which prompted their supporters to charge up and down the Western Terrace with unfurled flags.

Some South Africans might blame Nicky Boje, the replacement for Kallis and Lance Klusener, who suffered severe punishment during the onslaught. He went for 13 in one over and the South Africans, although fielding brilliantly at times, could little to terminate this particular slog show. There was an outside chance of South Africa shutting out Australia in the closing overs but with a bowler short it was always a gamble to bring Boje on, which meant Cronje had to take the brunt of the slog overs as the countdown began in earnest which, despite a tight over from Pollock, saw the Aussies edge home as their delirious fans invaded the field.