Five for MacGill after Proteas' great start

South Africa felt the sting of leg spin once again today as Stuart MacGill produced season-best figures to halt a brilliant top order batting exhibition on the opening day of the tour match against New South Wales here in Sydney.

The tourists finished the day at 6/375, leaving Boeta Dippenaar (78*) and captain Shaun Pollock (14*) to continue the batting tomorrow.

But MacGill troubled them consistently with a mixture of guileful flight and ripping leg breaks, countering the Proteas' march to a score of 1/231 at one stage of the afternoon.

The South Africans started well on a warm and sunny day, winning the toss and receiving the chance to bat first on a generally true pitch. The trend was then confirmed as Herschelle Gibbs (145) and Gary Kirsten (31) took advantage of the presence of a weakened New South Wales attack to add 67 runs for the first wicket before Jacques Rudolph (52) joined a super-aggressive Gibbs to garner another 164 for the second.

The saviour for the home side, after a stint as twelfth man for last week's First Test, was clearly MacGill (5/125). The 30-year-old took 3/0 in a stretch of seven deliveries on either side of the tea interval to spark a mid-innings collapse and confirm that he remains very much in the reckoning for further berths in the impending Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.

The locals were deeply indebted to him on a day when the unavailability of eight top-line players might otherwise have made things grim. Four were missing due to their recovery from Test duties (namely, Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee); opener Michael Slater had rolled his ankle at yesterday's final training session; left arm fast bowler Nathan Bracken was a late withdrawal with a back complaint; all-rounder Shane Lee is still battling a knee problem; and right arm paceman Stuart Clark was being rested.

After snaring Kirsten with a leg side stumping in his opening over, MacGill was forced to endure punishment at the hands of both Gibbs and Rudolph.

But he remains a strong believer in the principle that the best time to hunt for a wickets is close to the break and he maintained suitably firm resolve to scupper the Proteas' plans in stunning style at the end of the second session.

"Whether you're a quick bowler or spin bowler, when you get a little bit of a sniff - a hint of an opening - you tend to dive straight in there.

"I thought either side of the break that there were a few opportunities, a few nerves perhaps and then with new bats in you try to push them in just a bit harder.

"It was quite good to get a couple of quick wickets."

Gibbs and Rudolph had earlier been in superb form on the path to a century and half-century respectively.

The right and left hander combined brilliantly, forcing the home side on to the back foot and compelling captain Michael Bevan to turn to as many as six bowlers in the quest for a breakthrough.

Rudolph eventually fell to medium pacer Shawn Bradstreeet (1/79) as he played over a delivery that kept low and crashed into off stump.

But it was only when the belligerent Gibbs fell, after an innings littered with scintillating strokes through the off side, that the key wicket was claimed.

The 27-year-old had taken a liking to all of the bowlers and even had the better of MacGill in their exchange, pounding one delivery contemptuously into the sightscreen for six just to confirm the position. So dominant was he for a period that MacGill's concession of runs even came to include a stunning 21 boundaries in total, as well as that six.

"MacGill got the ball to turn quite a lot, quite sharply. I've played against him before and I know what he is capable of but you can't let that bother you; you just have to get on there and score runs," said Gibbs.

"He still gets the ball in the spots and spins it more than `Warnie' (Shane Warne) does. He is a good bowler.

"It was a matter of applying yourself."

It was indeed a ball that turned sharply, spinning well away outside off stump, that ultimately cost Gibbs his wicket. Albeit that his demise was as much to do with the fieldsman as the bowler - Mark Higgs at cover effecting a spectacular one handed interception, high in the air to his left, of a ball travelling at high pace.

Gibbs' loss immediately proved significant. Justin Ontong (0) fell to a feint outside edge just before tea, and Lance Klusener (0) drove around another delivery from MacGill just after, to ensure that the South Africans had suddenly lost 4/8 in a stunning mini-collapse.

Dippenaar, engaged in a contest within a contest to hold on to his own Test berth, then joined with Mark Boucher (44) in another century stand to revive the flagging cause brilliantly. Ten boundaries arrived in a rapidfire and attractive half-century as the hundred partnership was raised from only 132 balls.

And again, it needed MacGill's touch for New South Wales to strike back - as he trapped a deceived Boucher on the line of the crease.

His bowling is likely to re-assume crucial importance when play resumes tomorrow.