Damien Martyn demonstrated his class and range of strokes in yet another superbly controlled innings. There were three distinct moods to his knock: yesterday, and for the first half-hour this morning, he was content to defend and get his eye in; in the period up to lunch, he played second fiddle as Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne flayed the attack; in the afternoon, he took over as the chief aggressor and toyed with the hapless bowling. South Africa employed a conventional off-stump line in the morning - almost 94% of the balls were in the corridor. Martyn got 56 runs at an acceptable strike rate of 69 per 100 balls.

In the afternoon session, the South African spinners employed the over-the-wicket, into-the-rough tactic, in an attempt to staunch the flow of runs – a ploy which had come under some flak when England used it against India at Bangalore. Martyn not only negotiated these deliveries skilfully, he made plenty of runs too, with powerful sweeps and reverse-sweeps. From 41 balls pitched outside leg stump he fetched 37 runs. In all, he scored 60 off 68 balls in that session – a strike rate of 88.

As has happened throughout this series, Australia again had the answers to whatever South Africa threw at them.

S Rajesh is sub editor of Wisden.com, India.

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