South Africa trounce Australia

Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla both hit centuries to take South Africa to a comfortable nine-wicket victory over Australia on Friday to end one of cricket’s most topsy-turvy Test matches.

Amla raced to a 126-ball century before being caught for 112 with his team 14 short of their target of 236.

South African captain Smith became the first player in history to score four centuries in winning fourth innings run chases, reaching the mark with a single to level the scores and then hitting the winning run to finish on 101 not out.

Smith and Amla put on 195 for the second wicket in only 184 minutes off 248 balls. The ease of their strokeplay on a sunny morning made a mockery of the previous day’s batting collapses by both teams.

South Africa completed their win before lunch on the third day to take a 1-0 lead in the two-Test series.

Both the speed and decisiveness of the win seemed improbable less than 24 hours earlier when South Africa were bowled out for 96 in their first innings, giving Australia a lead of 188 runs. But Australia were shot out for 47 to swing the odds back in the home team’s favour. AFP