South Africa v Australia, 2008-09

Kallis and de Villiers added a composed and chanceless 114 for the third wicket in 22 overs, to provide the bedrock for some highly effective late thrashing from Boucher and Morkel, which propelled South Africa close to 300 on a pitch where the par score looked about 250. Given the difficulties of batting under lights at Newlands, particularly at the extreme ends of the season, Australia were always up against it. They would have been completely out of the contest had Johnson not kept South Africa in check with a couple of fine spells, as clever as they were hostile. Van der Merwe's slow left-armers are a great deal more subtle than his slogging, and he was responsible for two of the first four wickets to fall by actually spinning the ball as well as varying his pace. At 114 for five the contest died, and was never resuscitated. Attractive half-centuries from Ferguson (his second in a row) and Hopes hauled Australia to within 25 runs - but it might as well have been 125.