Last nail in the coffin

If you are a sports marketer, promoting Steve Waugh's Australians must be a bit of a chore. Great cricket team and all that, but they specialise in anti-climaxes. The clean sweep at Sydney contained more twists than the Adelaide and Melbourne wins did, but was just as methodical, the outcome in little doubt from tea on the first day.

The curliest twist occurred at the South African selection table the day before the game. With Lance Klusener sent home and Nicky Boje arriving, 20-year-old Jacques Rudolph had been pencilled in for his Test debut at No. 3, allowing Boeta Dippenaar the refuge of No. 6. But the United Cricket Board (UCB) president Percy Sonn rejected the configuration, demanding a spot for 21 year-old coloured batsman Justin Ontong, though he made a pair against New South Wales in his only tour match. The quota of one "player of colour" had been satisfied by the presence of Herschelle Gibbs, but Sonn invoked a UCB commitment to promoting non-whites wherever possible, claiming that the proposed reshuffle had amounted to the "exclusion of a person of colour who has the right to be given the opportunity". So Rudolph, already deprived of a Test cap against India by Malcolm Speed, missed out again.

The Australians were less fussed about amending their slow-bowling quota, including Stuart MacGill in the side. They then made good use of an important toss - Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden towered over the first two sessions with their fourth double-century opening stand. After an uncertain first half-hour, both revealed a rich array of strokes, which a fast outfield rewarded.

They are a curious sight when consorting in mid-pitch, like the cartoon Gauls, Asterix and Obelix, plotting mischief against Caesar. Their responses to success are likewise a study in contrasts: Langer celebrated his 12th hundred with much jumping and air-pumping; Hayden marked his sixth with the sign of the cross. But the difference in their height and reach pose problems for all bowlers, and Shaun Pollock's captaincy was hard to follow: Jacques Kallis, who conceded 21 boundaries on the first day alone, was grossly overused; Boje, the only bowler to exercise any restraining influence, was not introduced until the score was 0 for 190.

Although the South Africans were able to winkle out five wickets for 93 in the last session, the home team's position was already impregnable. Damien Martyn, water-tight in defence and innovative in attack, made most of this foundation on the second day. A series of deft reverse-sweeps confounded Claude Henderson, whose 16 wicketless overs on the second day cost 84, and Australia's last four wickets added 198 in 232 deliveries. South Africa's ragged reply then lasted as long as Australia's opening partnership.

After Glenn McGrath's initial thrust, the bulk of the work fell on the Australian spinners: MacGill secured the crucial wickets of Gibbs and Kallis on the second evening; Shane Warne struck in consecutive overs at the start of the third day to renew Australia's impetus. The match looked like concluding that afternoon when Brett Lee whisked Gibbs's off stump away half an hour into the follow on - and still might have if Mark Waugh had held a regulation chance at second slip when Gary Kirsten was on 12.

But the Australians were a little impatient, conceding 20 boundaries in the afternoon session as they sought to hasten the end, and Dippenaar and Kirsten put on 149 in 250 balls: South Africa's biggest and most fluent partnership of the series.

Though it was too much to hope for a real fight, or indeed the "title fight" promised in the souvenir programmes, this was a handy subsidiary bout. The Australians becalmed Kirsten at various stages but it was over seven hours before they could uproot him. A succession of partners, including Ontong, settled only to squander useful starts.

The end came swiftly. Pollock hit three defiant sixes to ensure Australia batted again, but Langer and Hayden disposed swiftly of the arrears before sharing the Man-of-the-Match award. The final Australian coup was to donate their $51,000 prize money to a public appeal following fires that burned out half a million hectares of forest round New South Wales during the Test. This was greeted with the acclaim it deserved. The marketers were probably gratified as well: it will give them something to work on for next season.