Close South Africa 48 for 1 (Gibbs 24*, Adams 0*) trail Australia 311 (Gilchrist 91, Ponting 89) by 263 runs
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So much for a dead rubber. Honours ended just about even after a compelling, see-saw first day at Durban that acted as a microcosm of the whole series: Ricky Ponting eased to a high-class 89, Mark Waugh wasted a good start, Steve Waugh didn't even get a start before Paul Adams nailed him, and Adam Gilchrist did his usual effortless run-a-ball repair job, although it came as a shock to everyone when he got a touch of the nervous nineties. All this was pitched to the familiar one-day beat of this Test series, with 359 runs coming from 86 overs at a rate of 4.17 per over.

South Africa can certainly be pleased with their work, although the dismissal of Gary Kirsten off the penultimate ball of the day tarnished the flying start he and Herschelle Gibbs had made. But on a pitch that has plenty of runs in it, they have a real chance to take a first-innings lead for the first time in these back-to-back series.

The day swung this way and that from the start. Justin Langer whacked 11 runs off the first over, from Makhaya Ntini, and then shaped to pull David Terbrugge's first ball in Test cricket for three years over midwicket. Perhaps Langer should have had a sighter, because he top-edged the shot and was taken by Kirsten, running round behind square (11 for 1).

Matthew Hayden was his usual belligerent self, and when he was dropped by Neil McKenzie on 16, South Africa might have feared the worst. But McKenzie had his man in Jacques Kallis's next over, grasping a more difficult chance low and to his left (61 for 2). Hayden departed for 28, the lowest score he had been dismissed for against South Africa in six Tests this winter.

Then came the Ricky Ponting show. He was in majestic touch from the off, pulling and driving 16 luscious boundaries. Nothing looked more certain than back-to-back hundreds, but on 89 Ponting was run out by a superb one-handed pick-up-and-throw from Herschelle Gibbs, running round from point.

That was 169 for 3, and Australia's middle-order again crumbled. Mark Waugh had played with increasing fluency for his 45 when he gave it away, fencing limply outside off at Kallis and edging straight to Graeme Smith at first slip (178 for 4).

Three overs and four runs later Steve Waugh failed again, caught behind for 7 as he chopped at a quicker ball from Paul Adams that was too close and too full for the shot. That made it 21 runs in three innings for Waugh, and rarely has he looked so vulnerable since his early days in Test cricket. This was the fifth time in eight innings this winter that he had been dismissed by a South African left-arm spinner: Claude Henderson twice, and now Adams three times, the sort of bowlers he used to slog-sweep for breakfast. Since hobbling to that glorious century against England at The Oval last August, Waugh has made 265 runs at an average of 22. And, by one barometer at least, he is teetering on the tightrope of greatness: his career average is down to 50.04.

After Waugh's dismissal came Adam Gilchrist, who was breezily changing the tempo of the game with a flurry of boundaries when, on the stroke of tea, Damien Martyn (11) essayed an ambitious drive at an offcutter from David Terbrugge - probably the pick of the bowlers on his return - and was bowled through the gate for 11 (230 for 6).

Gilchrist's salvage job really began after tea, when he added 57 in 13 overs with Shane Warne before Makhaya Ntini snared Warne with a good delivery that held its line to take a regulation edge on the way through to Mark Boucher. That ended another useful innings from Warne - 26 off 25 balls - and he was soon followed by Brett Lee, cleaned up eighth-ball for 0 by Ntini.

Jason Gillespie settled into limpet mode in an attempt to see Gilchrist through to his third hundred of the series, but on 91 Gilchrist slog-swept Adams to deep midwicket, where Smith took a good tumbling catch. Adams looked a little sheepish - as Gilchrist plonked his knee down he probably expected it go for six - and South Africa's policy of having four men out on the leg side had paid dividends. Six balls later Andrew Hall wrapped the innings up with the wicket of Jason Gillespie, caught behind by Boucher.

Kirsten and Gibbs came flying out of the blocks, with Gibbs especially fluent. But Kirsten was given a relentless working-over by Lee, who was given the new ball ahead of Gillespie, and he cracked eventually, gloving a nasty lifter down the leg side to Gilchrist.

Four years ago Australia went 2-0 up in South Africa and lost the final Test, a dead rubber like this one. But as Lee's celebration - teeth gritted, punching the air violently - showed, Australia don't do dead rubbers anymore.

Teams
South Africa 1 Herschelle Gibbs, 2 Gary Kirsten, 3 Graeme Smith, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 Neil McKenzie, 6 Ashwell Prince, 7 Mark Boucher (capt & wk), 8 Andrew Hall, 9 Paul Adams, 10 Makhaya Ntini, 11 David Terbrugge.

Australia 1 Justin Langer, 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Mark Waugh, 5 Steve Waugh (capt), 6 Damien Martyn, 7 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 8 Shane Warne, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Jason Gillespie, 11 Glenn McGrath.

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