At their last meeting, legend has it, the condemned Ned Kelly is reputed to have told his mother, "Tell them I died game." Today, it was South Africa's turn, brazen in the face of an Australian conqueror, although their fate wasas inevitable as benighted Ned's.

Gary Kirsten's austere vigil demonstrated just why he is such a barometer of South African fortune, and just how well the Australians had done to keep him to 92 in his five previous innings in this series. They might have had him cheaply again here, of course, but then so might Damien Martyn have been caught at the wicket half-a-dozen times in his first half-hour at the crease.

Kirsten, however, was really the only significant difference in the proceedings today to that which had gone before; at the other end, the series was being quietly reprised, in the inability of his partners to make the most of a sequence of promising beginnings. Kallis, McKenzie, Ontong and Boucher were all guilty of poor shot-selection, and Donald played perhaps the worst stroke of all, senselessly slogging at Warne when Pollock had acutest need of him.

The story can be related statistically. Australian batsmen reached double figures 30 times in this rubber, on a dozen occasions passing fifty, and on seven transiting to a hundred. South African batsmen reached double figures 36 times, but only nine times did this prelude a half-century, and only today a score in three figures. Among the visiting batsmen, application rather than ability was lacking. That will have to change in the South African leg of this encounter if there is to be any dispute about custody of the ICC mace.

Considering the cause célèbre his selection became, Justin Ontong might be excused. He batted an hour and 20 minutes with composure and a wristy flourish. The situation was in a sense ideal for him - everything to gain, nothing to lose - but he showed no fear or fluster. He uses the full extent of the crease in playing back - he might, indeed, incur the odd hit-wicket dismissal in his future career - and executed one truly original pull-shot from Lee, swivelling on one leg and working the ball to the boundary with a controlled horizontal bat. Ontong might also consider himself a tad unlucky to have been adjudged lbw sweeping at Warne. But, as Ned Kelly also legendarily said, "Such is life."

Gideon Haigh is one of Australia's leading cricket writers and the author of several books including The Summer Game, the acclaimed history of Australian cricket from 1948 to 1971, and a new biography of Warwick Armstrong.

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